著者

森谷 公俊

出版者

公益財団法人史学会

雑誌

史學雜誌 (ISSN:00182478)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.104, no.6, pp.1094-1114, 1209-1208, 1995-06-20

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The Thessalian Confederacy played an important role in the course of the conquest of Greece by Philip II. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relation between the Third Sacred War and Philip's invasion in the context of Thessalian history. At the time of the outbreak of the Sacred War in 356 B.C., we find no conflict within the Thessalians, but the next year, tyranny was revived in Pherai and set to recover the rule of Thessaly, in alliance with Phocis, who had occupied Delphi and provoked the Sacred War. In oppositon to them, the Thessalians urged Philip to support them, which forced him to concern himself directly with the Sacred War. In 354 B.C., the allied forces of Phocis and Pherai defeated the Thessalians and the Macedonians, and gained superiority in Thessaly. Then, at least three polis stood for Pherai. In 353 B.C., Philip marched south again. In the Crocus Plain, the Macedonian and the Thessalian army enjoyed a great victory over the Phocians and the Pheraians. Philip banished the tyrants from Pherai and recovered the unification of the Thessalian Confederacy. During the same year, the Thessalians appointed Philip as archon of the Confederacy for life. It was the Aleuadai, the great aristocrats of Larissa, who proposed this appointment. They had had friendly relations with the Macedonian royal house since the fifth century, but it was unprecedented for a Greek state to entrust their supreme power to a foreign king. Why did this occur ? In the first place, the Aleuadai aimed at exterminating the Pheraian tyranny and unifying Thessaly under their hegemony. Because they have not been able to control the Pheraian tyranny by themselves since c.400 B.C., they decided to rely on Philip, even if it meant that they had to be content with the position of an ally subordinate to Philip. Secondly, the offensive of Pherai and Phocis in 354 B.C. was so critical to the unification of Thessaly that the Thessalians welcomed Philip as a liberator of the confederacy. Thirdly, there was a profound suspicion among the Thessalian cities. The Aleuadai chose to give the office of archon to Philip, who was a reliable ally rather than to share it with the other cities. Finally, Philip was not a mere foreigner to the Aleuadai, because they and the Macedonian royal house alleged that the Heracleidai were their common ancestors. On the other hand, Thessaly was extremely valuable to Philip both in securing the south frontier of his kingdom and in its abundant resources. Now Philip 'legitimately' gained it. In the end, the complicated situation of Thessalian politics, connected with the course of the Third Sacred War, opened the way to Philip' invasion of the south.