Alexander, a man born some 2,300 years ago, lived a story that needed to be told, and told again. The men obliged, passing down the legend of Alexander orally for decades until the first surviving sources were written down. Echoes of Alexander's influence can be heard today and his legend will last for centuries to come. Many worshipers (literally and figuratively) of this great conqueror mention his legacy in passing without examining it in detail. King Philip II of Macedonia, a man best known as the father of Alexander the Great, left his son the legacy that most kids will never see: an empire. King Philip regarded Macedonia as a mass of citizen-soldiers and made it Europe's first territorial nation-state. Philip II was greater than Alexander the Great, particularly because Alexander's legacy, too often ignored, was central to his success. Alexander's opportunity for greatness was facilitated by Philip's formation of the first territorial nation-state in Europe. Before King Philip's arrival on the Macedonian scene, its people were more tribal and disparate. Philip II urbanized Macedonia, accumulated its wealth, and quickly transformed it into the richest and most powerful state in ancient Greece. It is ridiculous to even imagine that Macedonia in 360 BC launched a military campaign in Asia Minor; King Philip left Macedonia with food, money, troops, political unity, and civic institutions to facilitate the successful conquest. King Philip created a political environment necessary for Alexander's greatness. It formed the first European empire under a single constitution and united the hundreds of independent Greek city-states under Macedonian rule. Any scholar of ancient or classical Greece is greatly impressed by this unif... middle of paper... and it turns out that Philip was the greater man. Over the course of half a century, two kings conquered respective areas of land. Philip did so slowly, in the process forging Europe's first nation-state. He united hundreds of separate city-states into a federally administered proto-empire, using force where he felt compelled and diplomacy where he could. He established a complex system of power and logistics that made future conquests possible. Alexander, in turn, conquered all of the Levant, Bactria, Anatolia, Persia and Egypt in the space of a decade. He massacred thousands of people and defeated the strongest armies known. He personally felled his enemies in battle, entering the fray so often that he was seriously wounded seven times. Yet Alexander's empire fell apart within weeks of his death; Philip's empire made Alexander's success possible. Greatness begets greatness.