A historical anecdote explains why the Macedonians and Spartans never went to war when king Philip conquered all of Greece.

Philip — then known as Prince Philippos of Greece and Denmark — was forced to flee his homeland at the age of 18 months following a military uprising against his uncle, King Constantine I.

But Thebes' dominance of Greece would be short-lived. A new power had begun to assert its leadership over the country: Macedonia. Once a backwater, the Macedonian king Philip II had turned his ...