Over the 4th century Macedon became more politically involved with the south-central city-states of Ancient Greece, but it also retained more archaic features like the palace-culture, first at Aegae ( modern Vergina ) then at Pella, resembling Mycenaean culture more than classic Hellenic city-states, and other archaic customs, like Philip's multiple wives in addition to his Epirote queen Olympias, mother of Alexander.

One year before Philip had married the Epirote princess Olympias, who was the daughter of the king of the Molossians.

The Aeacids allied themselves with the increasingly powerful kingdom of Macedon, in part against the common threat of Illyrian raids, and in 359 BC the Molossian princess Olympias, niece of Arybbas of Epirus, married King Philip II of Macedon.

Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great and a princess of the primitive land of Epirus, had the reputation of a snake-handler, and it was in serpent form that Zeus was said to have fathered Alexander upon her.

* Philip II of Macedon marries Olympias, the Molossian princess of Epirus thus helping to stabilize Macedonia's western frontier.

Olympias, Alexander the Great's mother, was a princess of the Molossians, an Epirot tribe.

The court had gathered there for the celebration of the marriage between Alexander I of Epirus and Philip's daughter, by his fourth wife Olympias, Cleopatra.

Olympias, Alexander's mother, has Philip's last wife Eurydice, her infant daughter and her influential uncle, Attalus, killed.

* Olympias, wife of king Philip II of Macedon and mother of Alexander the Great ( d. 316 BC )

Cassander murdered king Philip III, his wife Eurydice and Alexander the Great's mother Olympias.

In Plutarch's report, he became disabled by means of pharmaka ( drugs / spells ) attempt by Philip II's wife, Queen Olympias, who wanted to eliminate a possible rival to her son Alexander.

It soon became clear that Philip was too dangerous to be left alive, as many enemies of Olympias saw him as a useful tool against her, and so on December 25 317 BC she had him executed, while his wife was forced to commit suicide.

Pyrrhus was married five times: his first wife Antigone borne him a daughter called Olympias and in 295 BC she died possibly in childbirth while giving birth to their son, Ptolemy who died in the same year as his mother.

Alexander seems to have died about 242 BC, leaving his country under the regency of his wife Olympias who proved anxious to have good relations with Epirus ' powerful neighbour, as was sanctioned by the marriage between the regent's daughter Phthia and Antigonus ' son and heir Demetrius.

He assassinated Philip in 336 BC, possibly at the instigation of Philip's wife Olympias, or even his son Alexander the Great.

# Philip dreams he sealed up the womb of his wife Olympias, and that the seal bore a lion device.

In 317 BC, Alexander III's mother, Olympias took refuge there to escape from Cassander's wrath, incurred by Olympias ' scheming against Phillip III and his wife.

Eurydice ’ s portrait-statue, together with those of her most celebrated son Philip II, Philip II's wife, Olympias, her grandson, Alexander the Great, and her husband, Amyntas III, were realized by the Athenian statuary and sculptor Leochares in ivory and gold.

* At a grand celebration of his daughter Cleopatra's marriage to Alexander I of Epirus ( brother of Olympias ), Philip II is assassinated at Aegae by Pausanias of Orestis, a young Macedonian noble with a bitter grievance against the young queen's uncle Attalus and against Philip for denying him justice.

The Macedonian troops refused to fight Olympias, the mother of Alexander.

Around 324 BC, Cleopatra went back to Macedon, while her mother, Olympias assumed control in Epirus, as relations between the Macedonian mother-queen and Antipater were quite strained.

The match was arranged by her mother Olympias, who was desirous of thus securing the powerful assistance of the Macedonian king to support herself on the throne of Epirus after the death of Alexander.

But all this was to prove exceedingly volatile: that same year ( 317 ) Polyperchon and Olympias, allied with the king of Epirus Aeacides, invaded Macedonia.

Soon after, though, the tide turned, and Cassander was victorious, capturing and killing Olympias, and attaining control of Macedon, the boy king, and his mother.

Soon after, though, the tide turned, and Cassander was victorious, capturing and killing Olympias, and attaining control of Macedon, the boy king, and his mother.

Alexander is son of Philip II, king of Macedonia and Olympias, a snake witch.

Philip banishes Olympias and marries Attalus's daughter Eurydice, who gives birth to a son that Philip desires to become king instead of Alexander.

" Philip is angry because he suspects that Olympias has committed adultery and that she was not impregnated by a god ; however, General Parmenio advises the king to let Alexander grow up and succeed him.

Ptolemy (); 237 BC-died 234 ВС ), king of Epirus, was the second son of Alexander II, king of Epirus, and Olympias, grandson of the great Pyrrhus and brother of Phthia of Macedon.

When Olympias was repudiated by her husband, 337 BC, she went to her brother, and endeavoured to induce him to make war on Philip.

* Cleopatra of Macedon ( c. 356 – 308 BC ), sister of Alexander the Great, daughter of Philip II of Macedon and Olympias of Epirus

On the other hand, the implication of Alexander and Olympias seems specious: to act as they did would have required brazen effrontery in the face of a military personally loyal to Philip.

Further convoluting the case is the possible role of propaganda in the surviving accounts: Attalus was executed in Alexander's consolidation of power after the murder ; one might wonder if his enrollment among the conspirators was not for the effect of introducing political expediency in an otherwise messy purge ( Attalus had publicly declared his hope that Alexander would not succeed Philip, but rather that a son of his own niece Eurydice, recently married to Philip and brutally murdered by Olympias after Philip's death, would gain the throne of Macedon ).

* Following Philip II of Macedon's marriage to Eurydice, Alexander and his mother, Olympias, flee to Epirus, with Alexander later moving to Illyria.

* Olympias is put aside by her husband Philip II, following Philip's marriage to a girl named Cleopatra ( who is renamed Eurydice ).

* Cleopatra of Macedon, sister of Alexander the Great and daughter of King Philip II of Macedon and Olympias ( b. c. 356 BC )

Attalus tricks Philip into thinking that Olympias and Alexander are trying to betray him.

During the ceremony however the statue crumbles and a guard hypnotized by Olympias assassinates Philip.

He married his paternal half-sister Olympias II of Epirus, by whom he had two sons, Pyrrhus II of Epirus, Ptolemy of Epirus and a daughter, Phthia of Macedon.

Of his portrait-statues, the most celebrated were those of Philip, Alexander, Amyntas III, Olympias, and Eurydice I, which were made of ivory and gold, and were placed in the Philippeion a circular building in the Altis at Olympia, erected by Philip II of Macedon in celebration of his victory at Battle of Chaeronea ( 338 BC ).

Son of King Philip II and Olympias, he succeeded his father to the throne of Macedonia in 336 BC at the age of 20.

While Philip II is leading a campaign to take over Olynthus, he is informed that his spouse Olympias has born him a son whom she claims is " a god born of a god.

Philip II divorces Olympias accusing her of " unfaithfulness " and marries Attalus's niece Eurydice thereby making her the new queen.