Timoleon, known as the “scourge of tyrants”,…

One Mithradates (a common name among Anatolian rulers of the age, often misspelled Mithridates and meaning “gift of [the god] Mithra”) establishes a dynasty in the hinterland of Pontus, a maritime region of northeastern Anatolia sometimes associated with Cappadocia, in about 337.

The region's Greek seaports, such as Amisus and …

…Sinope, had officially been under Persian rule in previous decades, but have remained effectively autonomous.

Greek philosopher Diogenes of Sinope, a student of Antisthenes, is credited with the development of the chreia (moral epigram), with a scandalous attack on convention entitled Republic, and with tragedies illustrative of the human predicament.

He lives the Cynic ideal of self-sufficiency, a natural life independent of nonessentials.

Holding that virtue is best revealed in action, he makes his life a protest against what he believes to be a corrupt society.

Philip acts with restraint; and, though the pro-Macedonian faction in Athens has naturally been greatly strengthened by his victory, he refrains from occupying Athens and allows the Athenians to retain their walls and their fleet.

For Philip, Athens is the one Greek state from which he needs not neutrality or unwilling alliance but active cooperation.

All past experience has shown that wars against Persia succeed only when the Persians are denied the use of the Aegean, and for this the great Athenian navy is the first need.

Philip's overall goal is general acquiescence and cooperation in the war against Persia, which is now a certainty.

In fact, he wants an alliance, and by the arrangements of 337 secures one.

To this end, he leaves intact most of the great federations of Greece; only Athens' naval confederacy is dissolved, ...

…(though its cleruchy on Samos is retained) and (less certainly) …

…the Aetolian League suppressed in a punitive measure.

Philip perhaps waits a bit for the inevitable pro-Macedonian reaction to set in inside the leading Greek cities.

Only in Sparta, arrogant but powerless, is there no willingness to adjust.

Philip invades Laconia but does not interfere further than that.

Thebes, of necessity, receives a Macedonian garrison, and a pro-Macedonian government replaces its democratic constitution; the Boeotian League is dissolved.

A “council of the Greeks,” to which each state is to elect delegates proportionate to its military and naval strength, will decide all matters of federal government, including foreign policy, under Philip's new arrangement.

This so-called League of Corinth, established early in 337 BCE, is an organization designed to preserve and perpetuate a general peace (koine eirene), inaugurated when the delegates of all the states of Greece (except Sparta) and the islands swear to abide by it and to recognize Philip as president (hegemon) for this purpose.

At its first meeting, held in Corinth, the league decides to conduct a war against Persia and elects Philip commander of its armed forces.

Like the King's Peace and the Second Athenian Confederacy, this new league guarantees freedom and autonomy.

Unlike the Athenian organization, however, this new league puts the emphasis on property rights.

There are specific bans on “confiscation of property, redistribution of land, cancellation of debts, or freeing of slaves with revolutionary intent.” The real novelty of the league is the fact that it has a king at its head and garrisons at crucial places, such as Corinth and …

…Chalcis, to maintain the peace.

The military requirements made of each state are set out in detail.

Neither Philip nor Macedon has representatives on the council, but the knowledge that the hegemon has the power of Macedon in his hand makes this organization effective.

In the constitutional details of his settlement of Greece, Philip may well have had the help of Aristotle, free from his recent duties as tutor of the young Alexander.

Philip's marriage to a young Macedonian noblewoman, Cleopatra, in 338, had led to a final break with Olympias, his queen, who left the country for her native Epirus accompanied by the crown prince Alexander, who will later goe to Illyria.

Ptolemy, the son of the nobleman Lagus, a native of the Macedonian district of Eordaea whose family is undistinguished, and of Arsinoe, who is related to the Macedonian Argead dynasty, was probably educated as a page at the royal court of Macedonia, where he has become closely associated with Alexander.

He is exiled in 337, along with other companions of the crown prince.

Although Olympias had been unpopular at court and though Cleopatra's connections are powerful and important, it had not been “politic” to put the succession in jeopardy.

Philip shows that he had never intended this result, by taking trouble to be reconciled with Alexander.

He does not, however, restore his son to favor, and Alexander, his position as heir in jeopardy, remains isolated and insecure.