Synedrion of Macedonia

The Synedrion of Macedonia, i.e. the the Council , is the probouleutic authority of the kingdom and the government council of the king.

Name

The Council is a restricted group of important personalities of the kingdom, chosen and joined together by the king to assist it in the government. It is thus not a representative assembly, but it can be widened on certain occasions with representatives of the cities and civic units of the kingdom.

In the literary sources, one finds it generally indicated in the following forms: oï axiologôtatoi your Makedonôn (Οἱ ἀξιολογώτατοι τῶν Μακεδόνων at Diodore of Sicily), oï in Makedonia dokimôtatoi (Οἱ ἐν Μακεδονία δοκιμώτατοι at Aelius), oï in télei Makedonôn (Οἱ ἐν τέλει Μακεδόνων at Arrien), expressions which indicate “most honourable of the Macedonians” and seem to apply to the widest form of the Council. The term of council itself, synedrion (συνεδρίον) is present at Diodore of Sicily referring in particular at the Council of Philippe V. But one also finds in the same author and Plutarque for example the expression of prôtoi your Makedonôn (πρῶτοι τῶν Μακεδόνων) the Premiers of the Macedonians , and others of the same kind.

It would be nevertheless erroneous to conclude from the diversity of this nomenclature which the Council is a purely abstract institution, whose role and composition are badly fixed.

Composition

It is in description by Fifth-Curce (10.6.1) of the meeting of the Council with died of Alexandre in 323 that one finds detailed with less ambiguity the composition of the Council:

“In Babylon the bodyguards of Alexandre made call with the royal palace the first of the friends and the commanders of the troops”.

The members of the Council ( synedroi ) belong thus to three categories:

the Sômatophylaques (in Greek literally “bodyguards”) are noble Macedonians chosen by the king, seven pennies the reign of Alexandre, to serve to him of honorary bodyguards, but especially as closer advisers. It is a particularly prestigious honorary title.
the Friends ( Philoi ) or the Companions royal ( basilikoi Hétairoi ) are appointed for lives by the king in the nobility Macedonian. The term of friends does not prejudge of anything the personal relations between the king and his advisers: the examples of Philotas and Parménion under the reign of Alexandre show that there could be a real enmity between the king and his “Friends”. The relation is in fact a partnership, sealed by the ground donations that the king made to the Companions, to which must correspond of the counterpresent S awaited (ready, crown). The gifts do not bind necessarily the Companion to the king: they ensure him in fact its independence financial, and thus the means of its freedom with respect to the king give him.
principal generals of the army ( hégémones your taxéôn ) also named by the king. Much of them is already members of right of the Council as Companions. Their prestige near their soldiers, generally resulting from the same area as them, because of the territorial recruitment of the units, makes them practically irremovable. When they are promoted, they in general manage to make name a close relation like their successor: thus sômatophylaque Perdiccas promoted makes it name his/her Alcétas brother with the head of the taxis of Orestis-Lynkos, the area with the princely family of which they belong.

The king has less of latitude than appearances could not let it think on the composition of the Council, because much of members of the high aristocracy of the kingdom are members of right ex officio . He cannot return the members of the Council easily either, unless bringing a lawsuit for high treason to them in front of the Parliament, which is to take the risk of a negative popular vote. This last restriction however is more easily circumvented for the members not Macedonians of the Council - as the Greeks.

Competences

The consultation of the Council by the king obligatory, but is not belonged to the constitutional habit in many fields.

The Council thus exerts a probouleutic function with respect to the Popular Assembly for designation of the king, the regent, the administrators and the officers, for the instruction of the capital lawsuits, the declarations of war.

It is the first and the ultimate judicial body for the noncapital cases: many examples appear during the reign of Alexandre of legal sessions of the Council, for example the imprisonment of Alexandre wire of Aéropos (Arrien, Anabase 1.25.4).

The Council appears to have broad capacities, to frequently meet: he comes to a conclusion thus on the invasion of Asia, the proposals of Darius, the conditions of peaces granted to the overcome people, etc Ainsi, the famous exchange between Alexandre and Parménion before Gaugamèles, when Parménion decides for the acceptance of the advantageous conditions suggested by Darius (“If I were Alexandre, I would accept what is offered and would make a treaty”) and which Alexandre answers him “It is what I would make, if I were Parménion”, (Fifth Curce 4.11.10), mask and summarizes certainly a debate of the Council on the question.

The Council Decisions ( dogmata ) are collective: the king must convince the Companions if he wants that his opinion prévale. The vocabulary used in the literary sources is the same one as that used by the decrees of the assemblies regional or local Macedonians. It can to arrive that decree of the Council is announced by king in the form of ordinance ( diagramma ) what masks the origin of it, and reveals the king like the only person in charge of a decision which in fact is collective.

The proposal of Ptolémée in 323, at the time of the debate which follows the death of Alexandre, to entrust the government to the Council can thus rightly be presented by him like a measurement of continuity, to a certain extent, since the decisions were caught in the majority (Q. Curce 10.6.15). But it was acted in fact of transforming the kingdom of Macedonia into a “republic” and it is the attachment of the soldiers to the dynasty téménide which put an end to it. Eumene carried out partially this “republican” government in the fraction of the State Macedonian which it had in load as a strategist of Asia: it controlled with the Council of officers in which the decisions were caught in the majority. Plutarque ( Eumène 13.11) written that this government was “as in the democracies” ( ôsper conceal some dêmokratiais ).

The Council rested indeed on the democratic principles of Iségoria (equality of speaking time) and of Parrhèsia (freedom of speech) with respect to the king. The most famous illustration is the debate on the Hyphase in 326, when Alexandre does not manage to convince the Council and the army to continue more before their military adventure. The exceptional character of this occasion holds in the opposition between the king and his Council: usually, the king tries to reach a consensus, even does not decide before to have measured the attitude of his advisers.

Evolution

After the destruction of monarchy antigonide by the Romans in 167, it is possible that the synedrion remained, contrary to the Parliament, and is remained thus the only federal authority of Macedonia divided into four mérides : it is what one can deduce from description by Polybe (such as it is transmitted by Tite-Live) payment of the businesses Macedonians by Paul Emile with Amphipolis this year. The assembly before whom it exposes decided measurements consists of 10 representatives of each city of the kingdom, and the text refers - interpretation is extremely discussed by it - to the creation of an assembly of this type, bringing together representatives of the cities of each district: it would be there new the synedrion federal - in opposition to the assemblies representative of each district.

The existence of this institution is all the more badly known that the reduction in province of Macedonia in 146 put an end to the so particular constitutional mode created into 167.

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