Philip II Unifies Greece

Philip II transformed Macedon from a backwater kingdom into the dominant power in Greece. He revolutionized warfare with the Macedonian phalanx — longer spears, tighter formations, absolutely devastating on the battlefield. His victory at Chaeronea in 338 BCE effectively ended Greek city-state independence. He was assassinated in 336 BCE before he could invade Persia, leaving that flex to his son Alexander. The royal tombs at Vergina, discovered in 1977, confirmed his identity through skeletal evidence of his famous eye wound.