the mother of Alexander the Great, was the daughter of Neoptolemus I., King of Epirus, and became the wife of Philip II., King of Macedonia, about 359 B.C. The numerous amours of her husband soon began to keep her in the torment of jealousy; but it was not until 337 B.C., when he married Cleopatra, the niece of Attalus, that her revengeful and imperious disposition burst forth with remorseless fierceness. Hastening to her native country, she endeavoured to persuade her brother, the King of Epirus, to exact vengeance for her wrongs. Unsuccessful in this attempt, she returned to Macedonia to try more insidious measures. She encouraged her son Alexander to intrigue against his father, and at length, it is said, hired Pausanias to murder her husband. There is even reason for believing that she took up the body of the crucified assassin, placed a crown of gold upon his head, burnt his remains over the tomb of the murdered king, and instituted annual rites in honour of his memory. The accession of Alexander enabled Olympias to give freer vent to her lawless passions. One of her first acts was to put to death her rival Cleopatra, and her rival's infant. Then, by attempting to usurp the chief power in the absence of her Olympia son, she involved herself in an inveterate quarrel with the regent Antipater. During the life of Alexander she directed a continued series of recriminations against her adversary, and after the death of Alexander she plotted his overthrow in her retirement in Epirus. At length the demise of Antipater in 319 B.C. left Olympias free to engage in some new enterprise of ambition. Accordingly, in 317 B.C., she took the field in person to support the cause of the new Macedonian regent Polysperchon against Cassander and his allies, and advanced to encounter an army under the princess Eurydice. At the sight of the mother of Alexander, the opposing forces threw down their arms without striking a blow; and the queen celebrated the triumph by butchering in cold blood Eurydice, her husband Arrhidæus, Nicanor the brother of Cassander, and a hundred Macedonian nobles. This was the crowning act of Olympias' long course of vindictive cruelty, and retribution was close at hand. Towards the close of that same year she found herself besieged in Pydna by Cassander; in the spring of 216 B.C. her garrison was driven by famine to a surrender; and, contrary to the stipulations, she was condemned to death. A body of soldiers was sent to execute the sentence in the prison; but the fearless and commanding mien of Philip's wife and Alexander's mother overawed them, and sent them huddling towards the door. The Macedonians whose friends had been murdered by her then rushed upon her; but she received their strokes without uttering a single cry of weakness, and fell with all the dignity of a queen.