Olympias and Alexander - My Little Achilles

Olympias, the Mighty Mother of Alexander the Great:
his mother’s primary objective in life was to make him king. Olympias doted on the young Alexander, telling him constantly of his noble lineage and his ties to Achilles. This story had a powerful effect on Alexander (he even carried a copy of the Iliad with him). When he crossed the Hellespont into Asia Minor, one of the first places he visited was the remains of Troy, paying homage to his ancestor Achilles. To see to his early education, Olympias brought in a relative, the stern Leonidas of Epirus, to act as both a tutor and mentor to the future king. Afterwards, Aristotle would be summoned from Athens to complete his education.

After Alexander’s death in 323 BCE and the onset of the Succession Wars over the inheritor of his kingdom, Olympias called for Roxanne, Alexander’s wife, to come to Pella where she and her son the future Alexander IV would be safe. After Antipater’s death in 319 BCE, one of Alexander’s commanders Polyperchon was named the new regent; however, he was forced out by Cassander, fleeing to Epirus with Roxanne and the young Alexander. While she had originally tried to remain neutral, Olympias realized her grandson could never be king as long as Cassander was regent, so she joined forces with her cousin Aeacides (King of Epirus) and the remainder of Polyperchon’s army and invaded Macedonia. At the orders of Olympias, Alexander’s half-brother Phillip (who actually had been king but in name only), his wife Eurydice and hundreds of selected Macedonians loyal to Cassander were executed in 317 BCE. However, Olympias’ invasion failed; Cassander captured her at Pydna and while he initially promised to save her life, he changed his mind and put her to death in 316 BCE. Sadly, Olympias’ dream of her grandson inheriting the throne of Alexander would never be realized and Roxanne and the young Alexander IV would meet the same fate as Olympias in 310 BCE.