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Olympias d.316BC
Macedonian queen

The wife of Philip II of Macedonia, and mother of Alexander the Great, she was the daughter of King Neoptolemus of Epirus. When Philip divorced her and married Cleopatra, niece of Attalus, she left Macedonia and ruled Epirus by herself, supposedly instigating the murder of Cleopatra. After Alexander's death (323BC) she returned to Macedonia, where she had his half-brother and successor killed, and made Alexander's posthumous son, Alexander IV, king. Eventually Cassander besieged her in Pydna, and on its surrender put her to death.