Philip and Alexander had special reasons for associating themselves with the Panhellenic festivals. Like the tyrants of an earlier age, they realized that if they were to unite Greece under their rule it must be by utilizing those forces which made for unity. Two places in particular represented the spirit of national unity,—Delphi, in Northern Greece, and Olympia in the Peloponnese,—and of both festivals the Macedonians made full use.
Already in 370 B.C. the ambitious tyrant of Thessaly, Jason of Pherae, who dreamt of invading Persia as commander of united Greece, had schemed to consolidate his power by setting himself up as president of the Pythian games. He had made preparation to celebrate the festival with barbarian pomp, sending messengers to all the cities of Thessaly, to bid them provide oxen, sheep, and goats for the sacrifices, and offering a crown of gold as a prize for the finest ox.[221] But his scheme was frustrated by his assassination, which was doubtless partly due to his attempted usurpation of the sacred functions. Fortune was kinder to Philip. The Sacred war gave him an opportunity of posing as the protector and saviour of Delphi. His defeat of the Phocians and restoration of Delphi to the Delphians were rewarded by his election to the place on the Amphictionic Board, of which the Phocians were deprived, and in 346 he received the further honour of being nominated as the president of the approaching games. Thus he stood out the acknowledged head of the most ancient and influential league in Greece. Only Athens protested, but her protest was unavailing, and Philip’s newly-acquired dignity was the death-blow to her opposition.
At Olympia Philip had already ingratiated himself with the authorities by a victory in the horse-race in 356 B.C., and two victories in the four-horse chariot-race in the two following Olympiads. The news of his victory in the horse-race reached him, says Plutarch, shortly after his capture of Potidaea, and on the same day he received the news of a victory gained by Parmenio over the Illyrians, and of the birth of Alexander. Following the example of the tyrants of Sicily, he commemorated his victories in the chariot-race by representing a chariot on his coins. After the battle of Chaeronea Philip marched into the Peloponnese, and having ravaged Laconia and reduced Sparta to impotence, summoned a congress of all the Greek states at Corinth. Then he came forward as the champion of united Hellas, declaring his resolve of leading a new crusade against Persia, and was appointed by the congress sole commander of the forces of Greece. It will be remembered how time after time this policy of union against Persia had been preached at Olympia, and nowhere can Philip’s proclamation have been more welcome. Did he visit Olympia in person? It is tempting to suppose so. At least we may connect with this time the founding of the Philippeum, a small circular building consisting of a cella surrounded by eighteen Ionic columns, and containing statues in gold and ivory of Philip himself and his ancestors, and even of female members of his family, Eurydice and Olympias. The Philippeum seems to have been an offering similar in character to the treasuries of an earlier age, the founders of which by their erection sought to establish for themselves a right and _locus standi_ in the management of the festival. There was no room for further buildings on the treasury terrace itself, and a yet more honourable and unique position was found for Philip’s monument to the south-west of the Heraeum within the limits of the Altis itself, the boundary of which had to be moved westward to enclose it. It was the first such building to be placed within the Altis, the first to bear the name of its founder, who was thereby placed on a level with the mythical presidents of Olympia, Pelops and Oenomaus, and acknowledged as the freely-appointed leader of united Greece at the very centre of Panhellenism.