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The first sovereign of whom epigraphic traces remain
was the son of Philip II and half-brother of Alexander,
Philip III of Macedon, who would be the principal
benefactor of the Sanctuary during the 4th century BC:
he probably commissioned the Temenos by 340 BC, the Main
Altar in the next decade, the Hiéron by 325 BC, as well
as the Doric monument and the border of the eastern
circular area; these dedicated in his name as well as
that of his nephew Alexander IV of Macedon, who jointly
ruled from 323 BC to 317 BC.
The second surge of major construction commence
started in the 280's with the Arsinoe II Rotunda, which
may date from the period (288 BC–281 BC) when this
daughter of Ptolemy I was married to the Diadochi
Lysimachus, then king of Macedon. Widowed after his
death in battle in 281 BC, she married her half-brother,
Ptolemy Keraunos and later her brother Ptolemy II in 274
BC.
Of the monumental dedication which surmounted the
door, only a single block remains, and it is thus not
possible to determine the complete inscription. Ptolemy
II himself had the Propylaeum built across the entrance
to the sanctuary: the powerful Ptolemaic fleet which
allowed him to dominate the bulk of the Aegean up to the
Thracian coast, and the construction at Samothrace bear
witness to his influence.
The re-establishment of the Antigonid dynasty on the
Macedonian throne with Antigonus II Gonatas, soon lead
to a clash for maritime supremacy on the Aegean:
Antigonus Gonatas celebrated his victory at the naval
battle of Kos by dedicating one of his victorious ships
to the shrine by 255 – 245 BC; displayed in a building
constructed on an ad hoc basis on the West terrace; the
Néôrion (site plan number 6)
It may have been inspired by another Néôrion, at
Delos, probably built at the end of the 4th century BC,
which he re-used and dedicated to another of his ships
at the same time.
The naval war between the Ptolemaics and the
Antigonids continued intermittently through the second
half of the 3rd century BC, until Philip V of Macedon,
the last Antigonid king to attempt to establish a
Macedonian thalassocracy, was finally beaten by an
alliance between Rhodes and Pergamon.
Macedonians - Samothrace temple complex
Samothrace temple complex - Index |
