#royal women's quarters in Macedonia

[jeannereames]

Do we know/ think that any of Philip's wives were friends with eachother? I understand that they would have been competing with eachother to secure their sons' positions, but it seems odd to live with four or five other women and not have some sort of rapport with any of them

It’s unclear—in large part because the ancient sources simply aren’t concerned with them. In fact, we only know the names of all seven because of a chance list made by Athenaeus [13.557b–e], quoting Satyrus, as two were childless, or at least, their children didn’t survive to adulthood so they’re never mentioned in the main sources.

Probably the best way to guess who might have been friendly, and who at odds, is to consider where each came from originally.

Because Philip married for political reasons, all his wives but the last were not from lower Macedonia, and not all would have spoken Greek, at least not at first. Audata, daughter or more likely granddaughter or grandniece of King Bardylis, was Illyrian. As she was royal, she may have been able to speak some Greek, but likely wasn’t fluent. If she was wife #1 (and I think she was), Philip likely married her when he originally submitted to Bardylis as a client king, after his brother’s death. She was sent to Pella to keep an eye on him. When Philip returned a year later with his army and kicked Illyrian butt, well… she would have ceased to be important, all the more so when she had a daughter, not a son.

Wife #2 was likely Phila, of the royal house of Elimeia, so she was related to Harpalos and that crowd. That’s why Philip married her: to bring in the southern Macedonian highlands and the famous Elimeian cavalry. Elimeia, like Lynkestis, had been independent, their capital of Aiani wealthy, trading with Corinth on the Western side of the Greek mainland. It wasn’t really until Philip’s day that they fell under Macedonian control. It’s possible she had a child, but that child died in infancy or childhood. In Dancing with the Lion, I did give her one (Menelaus who died as a toddler), but that’s fictional based on the likelihood that Philip had more children, but we know only about those who lived. It’s also possible we hear nothing else from Phila because she died in childbirth.

If Phila came to the women’s quarters right after Audata, perhaps when Audata was still her grandfather’s agent, there may have been little love lost between those two. Audata probably lorded it over her, especially if she was also pregnant (and Phila wasn’t). After the Illyrian star fell, it wouldn’t surprise me if Phila returned the favor, especially after Audata’s baby turned out to be a girl. Audata died before Alexander did, probably before he even left for Asia. Her daughter Kynanne later appeared to operate entirely apart from Olympias and Kleopatra (and Thessalonike), and even in opposition to them, to marry her own daughter by Amyntas (Philip’s nephew), Adea Eurydike, to Arrhidaios, and put her on the throne. Given Arrhidaios’s infirmary, no doubt Kynanne knew or assumed her daughter would be the real power.

So those are the first two, although the order isn’t certain. I follow Carney in putting Audata first.

The order of wives 3-5 is also disputed. Olympias is usually called wife #4, bookended by the two Thessalians—Philina and Nikeseipolis—based on Philip’s two campaigns there, and the probable birthdate of Thessalonike, versus Arrhidaios. She’s notably younger. Yet Satyrus’s list puts both women married together as part of Philip’s settlement of Thessaly in 358 after the death of Alexander of Pherae. The story that Philip named Thessalonike for his victory at the Crocus Fields in 353/2 hardly requires him to have married her mother that late. Nor does the fact Arrhidaios was so much older. Nikeseipolis would later die from childbirth complications, so it’s possible she may have had miscarriages before, or a difficult time getting pregnant. We don’t know precisely what killed her, but as her death followed the birth by a couple weeks, it may have been sepsis from an imperfectly delivered placenta.

Ancient sources can’t always be trusted for details, of course, but as each woman was a daughter of powerful families two cities at each other’s throats just then, it makes sense to me if he did marry them at roughly the same time. Because their families were at war, it’s highly unlikely they would have been friendly in the women’s quarters.

That would make Olympias wife #5, so she was probably the youngest. Of the four already present, Phila of Elimeia would have been her most natural ally, if Phila was still alive. Both were highlanders, and Aiani had trade contacts with the Molossai tribe in Dodona/Epiros, as both traded with Corinth. Athens dominated the Aegean sea, but Corinth dominated trade in the Adriatic. When Elimeia was independent, they had diplomatic relations with Epiros.

So of the first five, Audata probably stood alone, although she might have had some protection from Eurydike, who was likely half Illyrian herself. Then Olympias and Phila may have been friendly. Philina and Olympias probably weren’t, given the story about Arrhidaios. Even if Olympias had nothing to do with his condition, Philina may still have believed she did.

There may also have been another reason for bad blood between Olympias and Philina. A late (Roman era) story says that when Philip took Nikeseipolis as a new concubine, supposedly he did so as a result of love magic. Yes, love spells were a thing, and Thessaly was famous for her “witches.” Olympias had the young woman brought to her, and upon seeing and talking to her, she declared there was no witchcraft except the normal sort in her face and figure and comely manner. Interestingly, she doesn’t seem to have been jealous in the story.

There are a boatload of problems with the story, starting with the “concubine” part. (Macedonian royal polygamy confused Greeks, and later Romans.) Also, it would put Nikeseipolis as wife #5, not Olympias. Yet it might contain a hint that Olympias and Nikeseipolis got along. So that might be another reason Philina was no friend of Olympias.

In any case, Nikeseipolis was out of the picture by 353/2, and if she was married in 358, wasn’t there that long. We aren’t told, but it’s certainly possible that Olympias raised Thessalonike. Again, I don’t think Philina would have done so, due to the enmity between her family (Aleuadai) and Nikeseipolis’s, who was likely related to the notorious Jason of Pherae. (And yes, if your eye is sharp, that makes Alexander’s mistress Kampaspe related to Philina!) I find it even less likely that Audata would have raised her. So Phila or Olympias are the best candidates.

I also want to point out that these first 5 women were all married by Philip in his first few years. Again, assuming the earlier date for Nikeseipolis’s wedding. He came to the throne in 360, and Alexander was born in 356. Even if we assume he married Nikeseipolis after Olympias, it would have had to have been by 354. Ergo, there’s not a lot of daylight between weddings.

More than a decade (c. 341) would pass before Philip married again: Princess Meda, daughter of Kothelas, of the Getai, a Thracian tribe. Meda barely gets a mention, is clearly a peace price, and never had any (surviving) children. As the Getai were on the northern and inland side of Thrace, she may not have spoken much Greek. Many royal Thracians were fluent in Greek, but mostly tribes with trading ties to Athens or the Greek cities on the Black Sea coast. We have no idea what happened to her. Some, including Hammond, have argued that’s her buried in the antechamber of Royal Tomb II, based on (some) Scythian customs of wives following their husbands in death. It’s a shaky argument, imo. I don’t want to get into the argument over who is buried in “Philip’s Tomb,” so I’ll just say that, being childless, she likely became a ghost in the women’s quarters. In Dancing with the Lion, I have Myrtale take her under her wing as part of my “Olympias was not a bitch” campaign. 😉

Last, we have Kleopatra Eurydike, and we all know who her enemies were. As for friends? I doubt she had any. The real question is how many of the other six wives were left when she arrived?

Olympias had just fled with Alexander, and Nikeseipolis was dead. We also know Audata died at some point, probably (but not certainly) before Alexander took the throne. If Phila were still alive, as noted, I think she’d have been in Olympias’s camp. Meda is a crap-shoot, but she had little/no power. Philina may well have been ranged against Olympias, so if Kleopatra-E. had any “friend” among the other wives, Philina was most likely. Even so, as she was mother to a son, even if not the heir apparent, which might have made Kleopatra-E. see her as an enemy. Given the importance of her uncle, I doubt Kleopatra-E. believed she needed to make allies in the women’s quarters, which I tried to play on in Rise.

If/when I get around to book 3 in the series, King, you’ll see a lot more dynamics from Kleopatra’s perspective. It wasn’t just Alexander and Hephaistion who had a coming-of-age arc in the first two books. 😊