ANTIPATER VS. PARMENION – A CURIOUS LYRIC BATTLE OVER THE IDEAS AND IDENTITIES IN ROMAN MACEDONIA

Abstract

The proud Macedonian generals Parmenion and Antipater did not just earn the laurels of the ambitious Macedonian king Phillip II, but also shaped the dramatic events during the reign of his son Alexander. The historiographic portrayals of the two generals represent stereotypical, yet important, inside into the identities and ideas of the Macedonian elites, while their heritage makes an important impact on the identity transformations during the next centuries of Macedonian global dominance.   

This paper makes an unusual parallel with another Macedonian Antipater-Parmenion duo, arguing that these later less belligerent Macedonians could be equally useful in understanding the transformations of identities and ideas in classical antiquity. Through the legacy of the epigram, the paper explores specific less known, or rarely tackled, elements of the transformations of identities and ideology not just in Roman Macedonia, but in the wider Roman world.