Filippo II e le Storie Filippiche: un protagonista storico e storigorafico

Justin devotes three books (VII-IX) of his Epitome to the history of the kingdom of Macedonia until Philip II’s death. He not only goes over all the main events of the biography of the sovereign, but he also dwells on his murder, openly accusing Olympias, Alexander’s mother, of having been the organizer of the conspiracy. At the end of book IX, Justin gives us a moral portrait of Philip, built through a direct comparison with that of his son Alexander. This comparison ends underlining that they were the "creators" of the great empire of the Macedonians . Even from the Epitome of Justin it comes out how great importance Trogus Pompey had given to the figure of Philip II. To his name it is easy to associate the title of the original work , Historiae Philippicae, a title which the historian borrowed from Theopompus of Chios’ work. Thanks to the deeds of Philip II (and later of his son Alexander), Macedonia is fully inserted in the evolutionary scheme of the so-called translatio imperii, which, according to the communis opinio of modern scholars, is the load-bearing structure of Pompeius Trogus’ work. In this structure, however, the position of Rome is not clear: Rome is never explicitly celebrated as the ultimate heir of the universal empire. This circumstance raised a number of discussions among modern scholars, without arriving eventually to a commonly accepted opinion. But beyond any judgment on the position of Trogus towards the imperium populi Romani, it is undeniable that in his historiographical work the largest space is devoted to the empire of the Macedonians: of this empire Philip II had been the real founder