Perseus, the last king of Macedonia, was a remarkable leader, the only one in all Greek history who bore the name of the mythical hero of Argos, the conqueror of the fearsome Medusa. This privilege of his name and the fact that his mother was also an Argive, alluded associatively to the origin of the first Macedonian kings from the house of the Temenids of Argos.
He was born in 212 BC when his father, Philip V, had not yet officially married Polykratia. For this reason, his younger half-brother Demetrius' political friends considered him and referred to him in their private discussions as "illegitimate" and therefore should not succeed his father on the throne. This underground, initially, conflict between the two brothers resulted in a dramatic family tragedy. He died in 162 BC.