In the immense kingdom created by Alexander's III the Great conquests in the East, Macedonia continued to be the cradle of tradition and the motherland, point of departure and re turn; the object of the innermost desire of the vet erans who returned to build, at the time of Philip III and Cassander, the houses lavishly decorated with mosaic floors at Pella, and undoubtedly at other cities in northern Greece, and the imposing funerary monuments at Lefkadia (Mieza). The Hellenistic period, an epoch of doubt and ques tioning and unalloyed individualism, a restless Period in which Greeks and barbarians together stood tall in the face of man's destiny, doomed yet optimistic, was conceived on Alexander's bier at Babylon (323 BC) and, like a phoenix born from its ashes, flew towards the future of the world. From this time to 277 BC, when Antigonos II Gonatas, the philosopher king, ascended the throne, Macedonia was the field of intense com petition for the succession, was ravaged by sav age invasions by Gauls, and saw the royal tombs at Aigai dug up, cities abandoned, and celebrat ed generals fall ingloriously in fratricidal battles. During these fifty years, in which all the cohesion that had been won was lost, Cassander's murder of Alexander IV, son of Alexander the Great and Roxane, in 310 BC, removed the last represen tative of the house of the Argead dynasty, Olym pias (mother of the conqueror of Asia) and Philip III Arrhidaios having already met with a Iamen table death.

Cassander (316-298/97 BC), whose cultural achievements included the foundation of Thes saloniki and Cassandreia, and after him Demetrios Poliorketes (293 BC), Pyrrhos (289/88 BC), Lysimachos and Ptolemy Keraunos (281 BC) plunged the country into a bloodbath and weak ened the kingdom with their clumsy and selfish policies - some of them in the maelstrom of their tempestuous fortune-seeking lives, others in de spairing attempts to dominate and acquire influ ence, setting as their aim the acquisition of the Macedonian crown, a title that undoubtedly con ferred enormous prestige upon its bearer.

Despite all this, as is often the case in periods of political instability and demographic contrac tion, Macedonia, which at the time of Philip II had entertained some of the most famous intellects in Greece (Aristotle, Theophrastus, Speusippos), gave birth to some famous historical figures who -mainly as a result of the stability achieved under the rule of Antigonos - together with others who found protection at the royal court (Onesikritos, Marsyas, Krateros, Hieronymos, Aratos, Per saios), made Pella an important cultural center in the early and middle Hellenistic period.

The country had to wait for the reign of Philip V, an ambitious Antigonid who ascended to the throne at the age of just 17 years (221 BC), to relive times of glory and greatness. Continuously on the alert against the threatening Thracians, Dardanians and Illyrians, the young leader sought to strengthen his kingdom by suitable dip lomatic maneuvers and even terrorism, by em ploying local leaders to protect the border re gions effectively, and by transplanting popula tions and annexing territory. At the same time he tried, albeit in an opportunistic manner, to assert control over the situation in southern Greece, though here his ambitions foundered on the suspicion and bitter experience that had been accu mulated there as a result of the policies of previ ous Macedonian kings, Demetrios II and Antigo nos III Doson. The "

This prosperity and a sound incomes policy, together with the rise of trade and the liberalization of local institutions in the major urban centers, filled the royal treasury with liquid funds and the granaries with stores of grain, and armed 18,000 mercenaries under the rule of his successor, Perseus, the last king of Macedonia. The 6,000 talents and the vast quantities of precious vessels that came into the hands of Aemilius Paulus on the morrow of the decisive battle of Pydna (168 BC) attest to the economic vigor of the state up to the very eve of its collapse.