A troubling mystery

The earliest excavations of the Aigai palace were conducted by French archaeologist Léon Heuzey in 1861. More scientific investigations were launched by Aristotle University of Thessaloniki professor Konstantinos Romaios in 1937. After WWII, studies of the site continued under his colleagues and students, including Andronikos, until 1975, by which time the palace’s entire layout had been revealed. Regrettably, in one of the many mysteries still enshrouding Aigai, Kottaridi reports that few detailed records from these important excavations appear to exist, meaning the 2007 reinvestigation of the palace had to proceed essentially from scratch.

Witnessing a new era

To experience Aigai’s restored palace, visitors should be prepared for a walk. Ascending from Vergina, one passes the Sanctuary of Eukleia (goddess of glory and good repute), where votive statues with inscribed bases were once erected by Queen Eurydice, wife of Amyntas III and mother of Philip II. The small theater in which Philip was ultimately assassinated by a disgruntled male lover in 336 BC lies just below the crown of the hill. Continuing upward to the palace’s east-side entrance, rows of standing Doric columns (more than 20) gradually fill the skyline. Equally impressive is the sheer amount of gleaming new stone evident in the restored foundations and walls, as well as the excellent craftsmanship of the stone-carving, and the seamless joining of new architectural additions to fragmentary original members. Everything in the palace appears meticulously prepared, presented and welcoming, with well-constructed walkways and steps; “windows” left through new pavements to allow the underlying ancient structure to be viewed; large, painstakingly reconstructed pebble-mosaic floors; and 35 original or newly crafted monumental marble thresholds.

Following the palace’s latest excavations, the building can be seen in a new light. Diagnostic red-figure and black-glazed pottery, according to Kottaridi, dates its foundations after about 350 BC, while its function was strictly as a ceremonial banqueting center and reception hall – not as a royal residence. Moreover, Kottaridi reports, it had a “brilliant architect,” whose daring, innovative design “opened new paths” in the Greco-Roman world for future palatial, public and domestic architecture.

Artistry and innovation

The former splendor of Philip II’s palace is reflected in the ornate, colorful facades of Macedonian tombs that seem to have copied its style, particularly the Tomb of Judgement (late 4th century BC) near Lefkadia. While its column drums were of ordinary poros (limestone), more decorative features (including capitals, bases, friezes and moldings) were carved from high-quality travertine stone – all finished off with brightly painted marble stucco, as shown by preserved traces of red, brownish-yellow and grey-blue pigments.

The main east side of the two-story palace was adorned with Doric columns on its lower level. The reconstructed Ionic facade of the upper level can be seen in the new Aigai museum. Kottaridi characterises the distinctive Ionic “double-side pillar-columns” that mark the palace’s entrance and its upper-floor’s lateral porticos an “ingenious” design, “fully developed here for the first time.” Benches (able to seat up to 170 of the king’s visitors!) were provided in two of the stoas (roofed colonnades) beside the central gateway and within its inner vestibules.

Visitors entering the palace today will find an enormous central courtyard surrounded by Doric columns and elegant, mosaic-paved banqueting halls (androns) for the king and his male guests. Turning left in this peristyle, one first encounters a circular chamber (tholos) sacred to Herakles Patroos, the semi-divine patron of Philip and Alexander’s family. Its interior walls were once adorned with Corinthian half-columns, like those in the tholos monuments of Delphi, Olympia and Epidaurus. Most striking among the dining spaces are three tripartite halls on the courtyard’s south, west and north sides, which also feature Ionic double-side pillar-columns at their entrances. The large western halls each held 30 dining couches, while the entire dining complex reportedly accommodated 230 couches, or up to 460 banqueters. A corridor on the north allowed access to an external terrace with a panoramic view.

Balancing a new understanding

The takeaway from a visit to Aigai? The newly restored palace represents a grand, mystery-solving vision of ancient Macedonia and Philip II. We’ve certainly seen grand archaeological visions before, at the Athenian Acropolis, Knossos, Mycenae and elsewhere. Such inspired perspectives are a great tradition in Greece and a beloved source of interest for visitors. Perhaps as Aigai’s recent “dust” begins to settle, there will be a clearer understanding of the scope of the work and contributions accomplished. Much hinges on the palace’s new foundation date, with significant ramifications for the history of ancient Greek architecture and how we perceive the ancient Macedonian monarchy.

Yet many questions remain: If the royal family didn’t live at the palace, where did they reside? Was Philip II truly an enlightened, Plato-inspired monarch, an architectural innovator, who welcomed his subjects en masse into his presence, and who cared enough about democratic ideals to make his palace, as Kottaridi puts it, “an architectural manifesto of the ideal state,” and to post his new laws in a publically accessible portico beside its entrance? Such a benevolent, intellectual image clashes with that we’ve previously held of Philip as an ambitious military commander and empire builder who conquered peoples, burned cities and, at the end, elevated himself among the Olympian gods. The truth may lie somewhere in the middle.