Ancient Greece: King Phillip and the Battle of Chaeronea

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Reflective Reading Journal Entry
I have learned a lot about Greece, in particular about the leadership of King Philip II, Alexander, and the entire Ancient Greece leadership. Before the leadership of King Philip II, Macedonia was an open land of mountains and lowland valleys lying into the north of Greece. Unlike other Greek city-states, Macedonia was formerly a minor kingdom made up of small villages and towns without protective walls hence highly vulnerable to raids (Pomeroy 254). But towards the end of the 10th chapter, Macedonia is the greatest power in Greece, with even high international influence than the Persian Empire. I believe the Ancient Asian people were equally suppressed as I am, by how one event after the other revived and lifted the Kingdom of Macedonia. All these are attributed to Phillip II, a dangerous and ambitious king who fought against heavy odds to make Macedonia an international power.
It is interesting how Philip persuaded the aristocrats to recognize him as king in instead of his nephew. And just like that, Philip is the King of Macedonia. Philip was crowned as the king of Macedonia in 359 B.C. following the death of King Perdiccas and a large portion of the Macedonian troops in war (Pomeroy 256). The situation was Macedonia was grave and chaotic. But Philip organized the remaining troops and taught them new unstoppable field tactic, the phalanx formation (Pomeroy 259). The authors describe the phalanx formation in details. As I read through this part, images of marching troops are created in my mind, each with new weapons and determined to serve their new role in the battle. This followed several deadly raids by Phillip’s reorganized army who fought back Macedonia’s attackers and prompting several local rivals to surrender to the new king.
To my amusement, King Philip used all tactics at his disposal to have Macedonia rise to be the strong throne he desired. Besides having a strong army, he embarked on other mechanisms of having other Greece states acknowledge his superiority. He used diplomacy, bribery, and military to facilitate the unstoppable expansion of his kingdom (Pomeroy 261). His insatiable and extravagant mission had Philip force most of northern Greece to follow his lead by the late 340s. His s...