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[2] After Amyntas had been defeated by the Illyrians1 and forced to pay tribute to his conquerors, the Illyrians, who had taken Philip, the youngest son of Amyntas, as a hostage, placed him in the care of the Thebans.2 They in turn entrusted the lad to the father of Epameinondas and directed him both to keep careful watch over his ward and to superintend his upbringing and education.

1 This defeat occurs on two occasions according to Diodorus, at the beginning of his reign (Book 14.92.3-4) and again about 383 (Book 15.19.2). Beloch (Griechische Geschichte （2）, 3.2.58) thinks the first mention erroneous.

2 Since Philip was born about 383 he was an infant when given to the Illyrians. Justin 7.5.1 states that he was ransomed by Alexander II and later sent by him as hostage to Thebes. Diodorus likewise has Alexander send him to Thebes (Book 15.67.4) as does Plut. Pelopidas 26.4). Modern historians, e.g. Beloch (op. cit. 3.1.182, note), Glotz (Hist. gr. 3.227), and the author of the article on Philip in P.-W. (Realencyclopädie, 19.2266) agree that Ptolemy of Alorus, paramour and later husband of Eurydice, widow of Amyntas III, was the monarch who sent Philip to Thebes, basing their account on Aeschines (Aeschin. 2.26 ff.), who places Philip at the court of Ptolemy when he succeeded Alexander II (369). Philip was probably in Thebes 368-365. His adoption of the "oblique order of battle" from Epameinondas is probably the most striking result of his sojourn in Thebes (see Wilcken, Alexander the Great, translated by G. C. Richards, 30).

Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.

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