Impact On Politics
Olympias later ordered Eurydice and her child by Philip III to be murdered, in order to secure Alexander's position as king of Macedonia. During Alexander's campaigns, she regularly corresponded with him and may have confirmed her son's claim in Egypt that his father was not Philip but Zeus. The relationship between Olympias and Alexander was cordial, but her son kept her away from politics. However, she wielded great influence in Macedonia and caused troubles to Antipater, the regent of the kingdom. In 330 BC, she returned to Epirus and served as a regent to her cousin Aeacides in the Epirote state, as her brother Alexander I had died during a campaign in southern Italy.
After Alexander the Great's death in Babylon in 323 BC, his wife Roxana bore him a posthumous son who was called Alexander IV. The latter, along with his uncle Philip III, half brother of Alexander the Great and mentally disabled, were subject to the regency of Perdiccas, who tried to strengthen his position by a marriage with Antipater's daughter Nicaea. At the same time, Olympias offered Perdiccas the hand of her daughter Cleopatra. Perdiccas chose Cleopatra, which angered Antipater; he invaded Macedon, deposed Perdiccas, and declared himself regent, only to die within the year.
Polyperchon succeeded Antipater in 319 BC as regent, but the latter's son Cassander, who had captured Philip III, forced him out of Macedonia. Polyperchon fled to Epirus, taking Roxana and her son Alexander IV with him. At the beginning, Olympias had not been involved in this conflict, but soon she realized that in case of Cassander's rule, her grandson would definitely lose the crown. As a result, she allied with Polyperchon and united his army with the army of her cousin Aeacides to invade Macedonia and drive Cassander out from power in 317 BC.
She captured and executed Philip III in October of that year, while many supporters of Cassander were massacred. Cassander besieged Olympias in Pydna and forced her to surrender, although Polyperchon and Aeacides tried to relieve her. One of the terms of the capitulation had been that Olympias's life would be saved but Cassander executed her, while Roxana and Alexander IV were killed in secret. She was brought to trial for the numerous and cruel executions of which she had been accused of; condemned without a hearing, she was put to death in 316 BC by the friends of those whom she had slain. Cassander is said to have denied her remains the rites of burial.
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