Philip was a Greek

Greeks

The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....

 nobleman who was a Macedonian

Macedonia (Greece)

Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of Greece in Southern Europe. Macedonia is the largest and second most populous Greek region...

 Thessalian

Thessaly

Thessaly is a traditional geographical region and an administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thessaly was known as Aeolia, and appears thus in Homer's Odyssey....

.

Philip was the youngest of four sons born to Agathocles

Agathocles of Pella

Agathocles was a Greek nobleman who was a contemporary to King Philip II of Macedon who reigned 359 BC-336 BC.Agathocles was a Thessalian Serf from Crannon. His father’s name may have been Alcimachus. It was through his flattery, that Agathocles became an intimate friend of Philip II.Philip II...

 and his wife, perhaps named Arsinoe. His paternal grandfather may have been called Alcimachus and one of his brothers was Lysimachus

Lysimachus

Lysimachus was a Macedonian officer and diadochus of Alexander the Great, who became a basileus in 306 BC, ruling Thrace, Asia Minor and Macedon.-Early Life & Career:...

 one of the Diadochi

Diadochi

The Diadochi were the rival generals, family and friends of Alexander the Great who fought for the control of Alexander's empire after his death in 323 BC...

 of Alexander the Great.

His father was a nobleman of high rank who was an intimate friend of King Philip II of Macedon

Philip II of Macedon

Philip II of Macedon "friend" + ἵππος "horse" — transliterated ; 382 – 336 BC), was a king of Macedon from 359 BC until his assassination in 336 BC. He was the father of Alexander the Great and Philip III.-Biography:...

, who shared in Philip II’s councils and became a favorite in the Argead court

Argead dynasty

The Argead dynasty was an ancient Greek royal house. They were the ruling dynasty of Macedonia from about 700 to 310 BC. Their tradition, as described in ancient Greek historiography, traced their origins to Argos, in southern Greece...

. Philip with his brothers grew up with the status of Macedonians; he with his brothers enjoyed prominent positions in King Alexander the Great’s circle and Philip with his brothers were educated at the court at Pella

Pella

Pella , an ancient Greek city located in Pella Prefecture of Macedonia in Greece, was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia.-Etymology:...

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Philip served as a royal Hypaspist

Hypaspists

A hypaspist is a squire, man at arms, or "shield carrier". In Homer, Deiphobos advances "ὑπασπίδια" or under cover of his shield. By the time of Herodotus the word had come to mean a high status soldier as is strongly suggested by Herodotus in one of the earliest known uses:"Now the horse which...

 in the service of Alexander with his brothers. Not so long after the death of Cleitus the Black, Philip accompanied Alexander with 500 stades on foot, refusing the mount of Lysimachus’ horse who rode nearby. He remained near Alexander’s side, both in the pursuit of the supporters of Sisimithres; his Sogdiana

Sogdiana

Sogdiana or Sogdia was the ancient civilization of an Iranian people and a province of the Achaemenid Empire, eighteenth in the list on the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great . Sogdiana is "listed" as the second of the "good lands and countries" that Ahura Mazda created...

n rebels and their cavalry. In what followed after, Philip finally collapsed from exhaustion and died in Alexander’s arms. In his military actions, Philip was trying to emulate his second eldest brother, Lysimachus.

Philip had two nephews who were his namesakes: Philip

Philip (son of Alcimachus of Apollonia)

Philip was a Greek nobleman who was a Macedonian Thessalian and his father’s first youngest brother was Lysimachus one of the Diadochi of Alexander the Great....

 the second son of his first eldest brother Alcimachus of Apollonia

Alcimachus of Apollonia

Alcimachus of Apollonia was a Greek nobleman who was a Macedonian Thessalian who served as an official. He was an active diplomat and administrator in the latter reign of King Philip II of Macedon who reigned 359 BC–336 BC and the first years of his son, King Alexander the Great reigned 336 BC–323...

 and Philip one of the sons of Lysimachus.

Sources

• Lysimachus’ article at Livius.org
• H.S. Lund, Lysimachus: A Study in Early Hellenistic Kingship, Routledge, 2002
• W. Heckel, Who’s who in the age of Alexander the Great: prosopography of Alexander’s empire, Wiley-Blackwell, 2006