Olympias (375-316 BC) was Queen of Macedonia from 357 to 336 BC as the wife of Philip II of Macedon; she was the mother of Alexander the Great and a powerful player in the Wars of the Diadochi following his death in 323 BC. She was ultimately murdered on the orders of Cassander in 316 BC.
Biography[]
Olympias was born in Passaron, Epirus in 375 BC, the daughter of Neoptolemus I of Epirus and the sister of Alexander I of Epirus. She was born Polyxena, but she later changed her name to "Myrtale" to marry King Philip II of Macedon and adopted her third name, "Olympias", after Philip's victory in the Olympic Games of 356 BC. That same year, she gave birth to Alexander the Great, who would go on to succeed his father as King on his assassination in 336 BC. The King and Queen had a rocky relationship due to Philip's volatility and Olympias' ambition and jealousy, and she was accused of attempting to murder her stepson Philip to secure her own son's succession to the throne; in 336 BC, she was suspected of having a role in her husband's murder. She went on to wield great power in Macedonia during her son's campaigns in Persia, rivalling the regent Antipater for power. After the death of her son in 323 BC and the start of the Wars of the Diadochi, Olympias served as regent for Alexander's son Alexander IV, opposing her stepson Philip, who was made Cassander's claimant to the throne. She had Philip captured and executed in 317 BC, but, a year later, Cassander captured Pydna and ordered that Olympias be executed. His soldiers refused to kill Alexander's mother, so he had the families of her victims stone her to death.
