The Rise of Macedon. The Macedonian Empire, #1

Before Alexander, there was the kingdom that made him. Before the empire, there was the struggle for survival. In The Rise of Macedon, the first volume of a sweeping three-book history of the Macedonian Empire, readers are transported to a world of mountain strongholds, silver mines, and warrior kings. This is not the story of Alexander the Great-not yet. It is the story of the land and the dynasty that produced him.
The book traces the astonishing transformation of Macedon from a fragmented, overlooked backwater into the most formidable military power in the Greek world. At the heart of this narrative is the Argead Dynasty-a blood-soaked line of kings who claimed descent from Heracles and ruled through a volatile mix of assassination, ambition, and genius. Readers will witness the survivalist cunning of Perdiccas II during the Peloponnesian War, the cultural revolution of Archelaus I who invited Euripides to his court, and the near-collapse of the kingdom during the Decades of Instability when Illyrian invaders and civil war brought Macedon to its knees.
Then comes Philip II-the young hostage of Thebes who returned to a shattered kingdom and, through military innovation, economic reform, and ruthless diplomacy, forged the army that would conquer Greece at the Battle of Chaeronea.