MARRIABLE ROYAL STEPMOTHERS: A SYSTEM OF SUCCESSION IN ARGEAD MACEDON

Resumen

Despite the small corpus of Ancient sources we have about Argead Macedonia’s royal successory customs, some details of our informations allow us to consider the use of marriages by the Macedonian King with a young wife as a potential way to determine his successor, as far as when the King died, he who could marry his last wife would be, in fact, a clear candidate for succession. We know indeed some examples about this practice, but maybe this examples can help us to understand Philip II’s last marriage with Cleopatra, Attalus’ niece, as a way to arrange succession for Alexander the Great, by the chance of marrying himself with Cleopatra-Eurydice. Alexander’s refuse to do so can be considered just an answer to Macedonian intrigues at court.