Philip II of Macedon

Philip inherits a ravaged kingdom on the northern edge of the Greek world and in twenty years makes it the strongest. He introduces the long pike, the sarissa, and the dense phalanx, joins it to the cavalry of the nobility, pays his army the year round — and takes the gold mines of Pangaeus to do it. He then works with money and alliances as much as with arms: he meddles in his neighbours' affairs, buys supporters, and against Demosthenes — who in Athens, speech after speech, keeps warning of him — wins the battle of Chaeronea. The Persian campaign is already prepared when Philip is murdered at a wedding feast; the army and the design pass to his son Alexander.