In 359 BC when Philip of Macedon ascended to the Macedonian throne the kingdom was in grave danger. It was under threat from all sides; the Illyrians having just defeated Philip's brother king Perdiccas in battle, killing him and 4000 Macedonian soldiers, were poised to invade the kingdom itself. The Paeonians were raiding Macedonian territories without fear of retribution and Philip's throne was challenged by a number of pretenders, the most prominent claimant being the Athenian backed Argaeus (Cawkwell 1978: 29). During such a perilous time Philip has no time celebrate his coronation, the survival of the Macedonian state was the his main priority, and in order to be successful he had to move quickly and avoid provoking the more powerful city states in Athens, Thebes and Sparta. In his kingdom's weakened state Philip could not afford to these powers to form a coalition against him. Philip was a wise political and military leader. Using these skills Philip was able to secure and expand his kingdom while also exerting influence on rival Greek city states. He accomplished this by wisely playing on the greed of Greek leaders, the suspicion and inter-city rivalries of the fiercely independent city-states, created allies by supporting the underdogs among Greek city states, and using his astute political skill to take advantage of opportunities every time they arose (Hammond 1994: 29). This report will examine the different ways of how he accomplished his goals including discussing Philip's manipulation of Athens, the city state whom he feared the most due to its naval power something the Macedonians lacked, and his support of Argos and other city states in the Peloponnese to weaken Sparta, for the expansion of his kingdom and unification of Greece. By 359 BC in Greece, the power of the city state had waned considerably, and of the remaining three who maintained a somewhat dominant position only Athens was trying to hold onto its empirical power by keeping a powerful navy while also trying to halt its decline. Thebes was the leader of the Boiotian league whose members were full of unrest (Sakellariou 1992: 112). Then there was Sparta whom Philip had regarded as the least important as by that point in history following their defeat at Leuctra in 371BC, focused mainly on issues relating to its provincial issues in the Peloponnese peninsula (Warry 1980: 60-61). At first Philip pursued an alliance with Athens as he required their navy to balance the naval power of the Chalcidic league. In order to secure this alliance he withdrew military aid from Amphipolis, which was and city state that Athens had a long-standing claim to. In return Phi