Description

Before Alexander, there was the kingdom that made him. Before the empire, there was the struggle for survival.

In The Rise of Macedon, the first volume of a sweeping three-book history of the Macedonian Empire, readers are transported to a world of mountain strongholds, silver mines, and warrior kings. This is not the story of Alexander the Great—not yet. It is the story of the land and the dynasty that produced him.

The book traces the astonishing transformation of Macedon from a fragmented, overlooked backwater into the most formidable military power in the Greek world. At the heart of this narrative is the Argead Dynasty—a blood-soaked line of kings who claimed descent from Heracles and ruled through a volatile mix of assassination, ambition, and genius.

Readers will witness the survivalist cunning of Perdiccas II during the Peloponnesian War, the cultural revolution of Archelaus I who invited Euripides to his court, and the near-collapse of the kingdom during the Decades of Instability when Illyrian invaders and civil war brought Macedon to its knees. Then comes Philip II—the young hostage of Thebes who returned to a shattered kingdom and, through military innovation, economic reform, and ruthless diplomacy, forged the army that would conquer Greece at the Battle of Chaeronea.