Argead dynasty

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The Argead dynasty (Ancient Greek: Ἀργεάδαι, Argeádai) was an ancient Macedonian royal house.[1] They were the founders and the ruling dynasty of the kingdom of Macedon from about 700 to 310 BCE.[2] [3] From about 700 BCE the founder of the dynasty, Perdiccas I, led the people who called themselves Macedonians eastward from their home on the Haliacmon River. Aegae (today Vergina) became the capital, and by the reign of Amyntas I (6th century BCE) Macedonian power extended eastward beyond the Axius (Axiós) River to dominate the neighbouring Thracian tribes.[3]

People of the Argead royal house supposedly believed they were descended of Heracles' family. Famous kings included Philip II of Macedon (reigned 359-336 BC) who subdued Greece and famously united the defeated Greek city states as the League of Corinth with the Macedonians as Hegemon, and his son Alexander the Great (reigned 336–323 BC) who led his army along with allied armies to conquer much of the known world at the time, creating a vast Empire stretching from Macedonia and Greece, to Egypt, and the Indus River, also defeating the Persian Achaemenid Empire.[3]

The Argead family dynasty ended during the wars of the Diadochi when Alexander IV of Macedon and his mother Roxana were murdered.

Vergina Sun (also known as the Argead sun) - Symbol of the Argead Dynasty

List of Kings[change | change source]

References[change | change source]

  1. Howatson, M.C. and Harvey, Sir Paul. 1989. The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 339.
  2. Cosmopoulos, Michael B. 1992. Macedonia: An Introduction to its Political History. Winnipeg: Manitoba Studies in Classical Civilization, p. 30 (TABLE 2: The Argeiad Kings).
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Argead Dynasty". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 20 February 2016.

Other websites[change | change source]