Perdiccas I.
（
*Perdi/kkas), was, according to Herodotus, the founder of the Macedonian monarchy, though Justin, Diodorus, and the later chronographers, Dexippus and Eusebius, represent Caranus as the first king of Macedonia, and make Perdiccas only the fourth. [CARANUS.] Thucydides, however, seems to follow the same version of the history with Herodotus, since he reckons only eight kings before Archelaus. (
Thuc. 2.100.
See also Clinton,
F. H. vol. ii. p. 221; Müller's
Dorians, App. 1.15.)
According to Herodotus, Perdiccas and his two brothers, Gauanes and Aeropus, were Argives of the race of Temenus, who fled from their native country to Illyria, and from thence into the upper part of Macedonia, where they at first served the king of the country as herdsmlen, but were afterwards dismissed from his service, and settled near Mount Bermius, from whence, he adds, they subdued the rest of Macedonia (
Hdt. 8.37,
138).
It is clear, however, that the dominions of Perdiccas and his immediate successors, comprised but a very small part of the country subsequently known under that name. (See
Thuc. 2.99.)
According to Eusebius (
ed. Arm. p. 152, 153), Perdiccas reigned forty-eight years, but this period is, doubtless, a purely fictitious one.
He was succeeded by his son Argaeus. (
Hdt. 8.139.) Front a fragment of Diodorus (
Exc. Vat. p. 4), it would appear that Perdiccas was regarded as the founder of Aegae or Edessa, the capital of the early Macedonian monarchs.
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E.H.B]
