1. Throughout I prefer “Argead” to Hammond's “Temenid,” as I hold that the tradition of a Temenid (Argive Greek) origin for the Macedonian royal family is a story probably derived from the propaganda of Alexander I; see my “Athenians, Macedonians and the Origins of the Macedonian Royal House,” Hesperia, suppl. 19 (1982): 7–13.

2. For detailed discussion of the numbers in Alexander's army see N. G. L. Hammond and F. W. Walbank, A History of Macedonia, vol. 3, 336–167 B.C. (Oxford, 1988), 86–87.

3. On Alexander's manpower reserves see A. B. Bosworth, “Macedonian Manpower under Alexander the Great,” Ancient Macedonia 4 (1986): 115–22, and “Alexander the Great and the Decline of Macedon,” JHS 106 (1986): 1–12.

4. In N. G. L. Hammond and G. T. Griffith, A History of Macedonia, vol. 2, 550–336 B.C. (Oxford, 1979), 365–79.

5. S. I. Oost, “The Alexander Historians and Asia,” in Harry J. Dell, ed., Macedonian Studies in Honor of Charles F. Edson (Thessaloniki, 1981), 265–82.

6. Porphyr. frag. 1 (= Syncell. 261D) in FHG III, p. 691, part of a garbled and largely untrustworthy account of Macedonian rulers of the early fourth century.

7. Archelaus was killed by a lover, Amyntas II by Derdas, Pausanias (probably) by Amyntas III, Alexander II by Ptolemy, Ptolemy by Perdiccas III, Philip II by Pausanias, Philip III by Olympias, and Alexander IV by Cassander. Moreover, there were additional conspiracies against at least Amyntas III and Alexander III, and a number of potential rivals were dispatched in the struggles for succession of Archelaus, Philip II, and Alexander the Great. Death from natural causes: Alexander I, Perdiccas II, Amyntas III, and Alexander the Great.

8. The matter of Philip's regency is not settled. The strongest argument favoring a regency is offered by Adrian Tronson, “Satyrus the Peripatetic and the Marriages of Philip II,” JHS 104 (1984): 120–21. I am, however, inclined to accept the view of Griffith, History of Macedonia 2:208–9, 702–4, who is persuasive in arguing that Amyntas never ruled.

9. DS 17.2.2. Justin (11.1.8) mentions a contio, the same word used by Curtius (10.7.13) to describe the crowd assembled at the time of Arrhidaeus' selection, but this is not to be taken as meaning a formal electoral assembly (pace Griffith, History of Macedonia 2:391) any more than is Hammond's plethos (see below, note 13).

10. Contra Hammond, History of Macedonia 3:30, who cites Arr. 1.25.2 as evidence for Alexander's “election” to the throne of Macedon. Arrian says nothing of the kind in this passage, and in the brief mention of Alexander's accession in the appropriate place (1.1.1), Arrian wrote παραλαμβάνω, the same verb used by Plutarch (Alex. 11.1), which, among its various meanings in this context (e.g., “receive,” “succeed to,” etc.), does not mean “elect.”

11. DS 17.117.3–118.2, 18.1.3–2.4; Arr. 7.26.3; Curt. 10.5.4–10.20; Just. 12.15.8.

12. When Polybius (15.25.11) refers to troops at the Ptolemaic court swearing loyalty as they were accustomed to doing at the proclamation of kings, it is not as clear to me as to Hammond that our source is referring to some old Macedonian custom rather than to a feature of the court of the Ptolemies. The passage is evidence only of the swearing of loyalty; loyalty may be crucial to the success of a would-be monarch, but Polybius does not equate the acclamation of loyalty with the formal procedure of choosing a monarch.

13. Hammond cites several situations from the Hellenistic period suggesting that there was a functioning army assembly that made important decisions, especially regarding the appointment and deposition of rulers. But the evidence does not always support Hammond's view. For example, Hammond argues that the plethos mentioned by Plutarch (Demetr. 18.1) in his descriptions of the crowning of Antigonus and Demetrius is an assembly. But this misinterprets Plutarch. Τὸ πλῆθος is a throng of soldiers saluting Demetrius and Antigonus; but Antigonus is crowned by his friends (οἱ φίλοι), and Demetrius receives the diadem from his father. Moreover, Plutarch's account of the crowning of Antigonus and Demetrius is part of a longer passage which goes on to describe the assumption of royal status by all the first-generation Successors, and there is a complete silence on the procedures of accession used by Ptolemy, Lysimachus, Seleucus, and Cassander. There is little more here and in other evidence cited by Hammond (e.g., note 9 above) than small contingents of soldiers, normally household troops, proclaiming a new king. These are ad hoc incidents, more akin to the proclamation of Claudius as emperor by the Praetorians rather than manifestations of an institutional procedure.

14. Dietmar Kienast, Philipp II. von Makedonien und das Reich der Achaimeniden, Abhandlungen der Marburger Gelehrten Gesellschaft, 1971, no. 6 (Munich, 1973), and E. A. Fredricksmeyer, “Divine Honors for Philip II,” TAPA 109 (1979): 39–61, “On the Background of the Ruler Cult,” in Macedonian Studies, 145–56, and “On the Final Aims of Philip II,” in W. L. Adams and E. N. Borza, eds., Philip II, Alexander the Great and the Macedonian Heritage (Washington, 1982), 85–98.

15. Griffith, History of Macedonia 2:230–42.

16. Pella is only now emerging from the ground. It is Hippodamian in plan, and appears similar to the grand cities of Asia Minor and the Levant in the Hellenistic period. But the dating of much of Pella is still imprecise; we have virtually no archaeological chronology for the city from its refounding by Archelaus about the year 400 B.C. down to the later fourth century. As for Aegeae, we have only scattered buildings; but perhaps further excavation based on the new magnetometer readings will reveal something of its fourth-century plan. Dion, which holds so much promise in theory, is still being dug mainly at Roman levels. The very site of Therme is in dispute, and the early history of Thessaloniki lies beneath its Roman, medieval, and modern overlay.

We know, in fact, very little about these towns. To judge by what slight evidence has been recovered through excavation, their physical appearance would seem to differ somewhat from that of their Hellenistic counterparts. To the best of my knowledge no major religious monument (and here I include the small Eucleia monument at Aegeae), such as a temple, has yet been recovered inside a Macedonian town. Pella has an agora, but it may be middle or late Hellenistic. Whether Aegeae had one or not will be known only from further excavation. The agora, so typical for Greek poleis, as the center of the kind of self-management that Hammond attributes to Macedonian towns, thus far is missing. There are other differences, having to do with the distribution of burial sites and small shrines, but I have no time to explore them beyond this brief reference. A trickle of inscriptions describing city procedures and officials continues to appear, but, as yet, of insufficient quantity and quality to judge the extent to which the institutions that governed these towns are indicative of self-government or royal rule.

17. Some of what follows reflects an argument presented in detail in my recent work, In the Shadow of Olympus: The Emergence of Macedon (Princeton, 1990).

18. Die makedonische Heeresversammlung: Ein Beitrag zum antiken Staatsrecht (Munich, 1931).

19. Aymard, “Sur l'assemblée macédonienne,” REA 52 (1950): 115–37, and “Basileus Makedonon,” RIDA 4 (1950): 61–97, both reprinted in Aymard's Études d'histoire ancienne (Paris, 1967); Briant, Antigone le Borgne (Paris, 1973); and Hammond, History of Macedonia 2:150–65, 383–404.

20. Errington, “Macedonian ‘Royal Style’ and its Historical Significance,” JHS 94 (1974): 20–37, “The Historiographical Origins of Macedonian “Staatsrecht,’ ” Ancient Macedonia 3 (1983): 89–101, and “The Nature of the Macedonian State under the Monarchy,” Chiron 8 (1978): 77–133; Lock, “The Macedonian Army Assembly in the Time of Alexander the Great,” CP 72 (1977): 91–107; Anson, “Macedonia's Alleged Constitutionalism,” CJ 80 (1985): 303–16, and “The Evolution of the Macedonian Army Assembly,” Historia 40 (1991): 230–47.

21. Shortly after the conclusion of the present symposium an article appeared by Alan E. Samuel, “Philip and Alexander as Kings: Macedonian Monarchy and Merovingian Parallels,” AHR 93 (1988): 1270–86, in which a “warlord” model was offered. Samuel attempted to show that the tie that bound king and people was the winning of land; and surely there is considerable evidence—as Hammond has pointed out in his paper—of the importance to Macedonians of “spear-won land” (γῆ δορίκτητος). This may be an idea deserving greater emphasis in Hammond's arguments.