Theater of Aigai

 

Although it is covered beneath a green carpet of grass, the theatre of Aigai is one of the most historically charged monuments in Greece. Its claim to fame is that it was the scene of one of the pivotal murders of antiquity: in October 336 BC, King Philip II of Macedon was assassinated here by Pausanias of Orestis, one of his young bodyguards, as he entered the theater unprotected during the festivities celebrating the wedding of his daughter Cleopatra to Alexander I of Epirus. 

After the assassination, Pausanias tried to escape toward the city gates, where horses were reportedly waiting for him. He was pursued by Philip's bodyguards and companion. Sources name men such as Perdiccas, Leonnatus, and Attalus (not the famous general of that name) among the pursuers. According to the tradition, he tripped or was caught on vines and was killed on the spot by his pursuers, likely speared to death.

The exact motive remains debated: the ancient sources (especially Aristotle and Diodorus) suggest personal grievance. Pausanias had been violated by Attalus and denied justice from Philip, but a wider conspiracy involving Olympias or even Alexander himself has been suspected by some historians, though never proven.

Alexander the Great was proclaimed king shortly after. The event is narrated by ancient authors. Aristotle gives the earliest (surviving contemporary) account, and Diodorus Siculus describes the murder scene in detail.

The theater lies in Vergina or ancient Aigai, the first capital of Mecedon and now a UNESCO World Heritage site, about 50 meter north of the great palace of Aigai, with which it formed a single building programme. It was discovered and excavated in 1982-1983 by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, with follow-up work in 1989 and 2000. 

Removal of the cavea infill confirmed that apart from the first row there were never built stone seats. Architecturally, it was a modest structure, because only the paradoi (side entrance passages), a simple stage building of two rooms linked by an open stoa and the circular orchestra, were built in stone as well. Most of the cavea (seating area) was simply earthen, formed partly by the natural slope east and partly by artificial filling west. At the centre of the orchestra stands the base of the thymele, the altar of Dionysos. 

Strinkly, the theater was never completed, and it was abandoned around the mid-2nd century BC when Aigai was destroyed. 

Locatie: Veria 591 32, Griekenland

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