Did King Caranus of Macedon Really Exist?

Ruins of past Edessa, supposedly founded by Caranus of Macedon. Credit: Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA 2.0

The legendary laminitis of Alexander the Great’s dynasty of ancient Greece was supposedly King Caranus. According to past records, helium was the lad of Temenus, the great-great-grandson of Heracles. However, did helium really exist? Many modern scholars reason helium was really invented by definite past Greeks for governmental purposes.

Who was King Caranus of Macedon?

King Caranus was the alleged laminitis of the dynasty that ruled implicit Macedon. He was the lad of Temenus, 1 of the descendants of Heracles who supposedly led the Dorian invasion.

Temenus established the dynasty that ruled implicit Argos, making Caranus an Argive prince. However, Caranus fought to found his ain dynasty elsewhere. According to immoderate past writers, specified arsenic the Greek Marsyas of Pella, Caranus moved to Macedonia connected the proposal of an oracle.

After arriving astatine the metropolis of Edessa, Caranus conquered it with a ample radical of Greek followers. He past established it arsenic his capital, forming the Greek dynasty of Macedon.

Earlier accounts formed uncertainty connected Caranus’ existence

Why bash many, if not most, scholars contiguous uncertainty the beingness of Caranus? The crushed is that helium does not look successful the earliest records of the founding of the kingdom of Macedon. The precise earliest relationship comes from Herodotus.

According to Herodotus, the laminitis of Macedon was really an Argive prince named Perdiccas. This Perdiccas does look successful aboriginal accounts that notation Caranus, but those versions contiguous him arsenic a lad oregon aboriginal descendant of Caranus.

In contrast, Herodotus does not notation Caranus astatine all. Rather, his relationship presents Perdiccas arsenic the nonstop lad of Temenus, king of Argos. Perdiccas and his brothers past moved from Argos to Macedonia, and there, Perdiccas became the laminitis of a caller dynasty.

Since Herodotus’ relationship dates to the 5th period BC, earlier immoderate root mentioning Caranus of Macedon, this intelligibly suggests that Caranus did not exist. Not lone does helium not notation him, but Herodotus’ relationship does not truly permission immoderate abstraction for his beingness either.

Further grounds that Caranus of Macedon was fictional

Herodotus is not the lone aboriginal root who conspicuously leaves Caranus unmentioned. Thucydides, different historiographer of the 5th period BCE, provides further grounds that helium was fictional. He states that Perdiccas II was the eighth king of Macedon.

We cognize that Perdiccas II was the eighth king from Perdiccas I. Hence, Thucydides’ remark would necessitate Perdiccas I to person been the archetypal king of Macedon. This contradicts the conception that Perdiccas I was the lad oregon aboriginal descendant of Caranus of Macedon, arsenic aboriginal records claim.

Since some Herodotus and Thucydides are the earliest writers to supply pertinent accusation astir the founding of the dynasty of Macedon, their grounds is evidently the astir valuable. Therefore, the grounds intelligibly indicates that Caranus was a aboriginal invention.

Why was Caranus added to the dynasty of Macedon?

While this does reply the question of whether oregon not Caranus truly existed, it is worthy asking why helium was artificially added to the database of kings of Macedon successful aboriginal records.

The elemental reply is that nary 1 knows precisely wherefore this happened. However, scholars contiguous mostly judge it happened for governmental reasons. What is wide is that this invention occurred successful the aboriginal 4th period BCE, erstwhile determination were dynastic rivalries successful Macedonia.

One suggestion is that Caranus (whose sanction simply means ‘lord’) was added by the enactment of kings who rivaled those who supported Perdiccas II. Since the sanction ‘Perdiccas’ was the founded of the full dynasty, these rival kings inserted the fictional ‘Caranus’ to lessen the evident value of Perdiccas I.

These rival kings did extremity up winning against the supporters of Perdiccas II, which would explicate wherefore Caranus alternatively than Perdiccas I came to beryllium wide accepted arsenic the laminitis of Macedon.

Whether this proposition is close oregon not, we cannot say. Still, it is an absorbing possibility, and the cardinal information remains that Caranus of Macedon intelligibly did not really exist.