Antigonid Macedonia between archaism and modernity: an outlier in the Hellenistic state system

Temenid Macedonia was viewed from the south through the lens of archaic monarchy, as a remnant of a heroic past which even Sparta, the traditionalist superpower par excellence, had long left behind. Antigonid Macedonia, on the other hand, was, in its dealings with the outside world, just one of several Hellenistic kingdoms, while also gradually becoming a unitary state in the making. This state was partly the outcome of the policies and military successes of Philip II, but it was also heavily influenced by the modernity of the federal koina that thrived in the third century BC. This paper explores political modalities and mentalities in Hellenistic Macedonia in order to highlight how the archaizing past and the modernist present coexisted and together weaved the peculiar fabric of the late Macedonian state.