The

sanguinary struggle indecisive, and productive of no other consequence than a general languor and debility in all the Grecian states. glory of Thebes perished with the two great men who had raised her to fame a general peace was established by the mediation of Artaxer'xes (B. c. 362), on the single condition, that each republic should retain its respective possessions.

Spar'ta was anxious to recover Messénia; but this being opposed by the Persian king, Agesiláus, to punish Artaxer'xes, led an army into Egypt, where he supported one rebel after another, and acquired considerable wealth in this dishonorable war. On his return home, he died in an obscure port on the Cyreniac coast, at the advanced age of eighty-four years (B. c. 361). At the commencement of his reign, Sparta had attained the summit of her greatness; at its close, she had sunk into hopeless weakness: and, notwithstanding all the praise bestowed upon this monarch by the eloquent Xen'ophon, it is undeniable that most of Spar'ta's misfortunes were owing to the ambition, the obstinacy, and the perfidy of Agesilaus.

SECTION VI.-The Second Sacred War.-Destruction of Grecian Freedom.

FROM B. C. 361 TO B. c. 336.

SCARCELY had the third Peloponnesian war terminated, when the Athenians, by their tyranny and rapacity toward the maritime states, were deprived of all the advantages they had derived from the patriotism of Cónon. Cháres, a blustering, vulgar demagogue, raised to power by pandering to the passions of a licentious populace, exhorted his countrymen to supply their exhausted treasury by plundering the wealth of their allies and colonies. This counsel was too faithfully obeyed. The weaker states complained; but the islands of Chíos, Cos, and Rhodes, together with the city of Byzan'tium, prepared openly to revolt, and entered into a league for their mutual protection (B. c. 358). Cháres was sent to chastise the insurgents: he laid siege to the city of Chíos, but was driven from its walls with disgrace and loss; Chábrias, the best leader that the Athenians possessed, falling in the engagement. The insurgents, encouraged by this success, began to assume the offensive, and to ravage the islands that remained faithful to Athens. A new armament was prepared to check their progress, and it was intrusted to the joint command of Cháres, Timótheus, and Iphic'rates; but Cháres, having been hindered by his colleagues from hazarding a battle off Byzan'tium under very favorable circumstances, procured their recall, and had them brought to trial upon a charge of treachery and cowardice. Venal orators conducted the prosecution; and a degraded people sentenced the two illustrious commanders to pay an exorbitant fine. They both retired into voluntary exile, and never again entered the service of their ungrateful country. Cháres left uncontrolled, wholly neglected the commission with which he had been intrusted, and hired himself and his troops to the satrap Artabázus, then in rebellion against Artaxer'xes O'chus, king of Persia. This completed the ruin of the Athenians. O'chus threatened them with the whole weight of his resentment, unless they instantly recalled their

armament from the East, and with this mandate the degraded repub licans were forced to comply (B. c. 356). The confederate states re gained complete freedom and independence, which they preserved for twenty years, when they, with the rest of Greece, fell under the domin ion of the Macedonians.

Spar'ta, Thebes, and Athens, having successively lost their supremacy, the Amphictyonic council, which for more than a century had been a mere pageant, began to exercise an important influence in the affairs of Greece. They issued a decree subjecting the Phocians to a heavy fine for cultivating some lands that had been consecrated to Apollo, and imposing a similar penalty on the Spartans for their treacherous occupation of the Cadmeía (B. c. 357). The Phocians, animated by their leader Philomélus, and secretly encouraged by the Spartans, not only refused obedience, but had recourse to arms. In defiance of the prejudices of the age, Philomélus stormed the city of Delphi, plundered the sacred treasury, and employed its wealth in raising an army of mercenary adventurers. The Thebans and Locrians were foremost in avenging this insult to the national religion; but the war was rather a series of petty skirmishes than regular battles. It was chiefly remarkable for the sanguinary spirit displayed on both sides; the Thebans murdering their captives as sacrilegious wretches; the Phocians retaliating these cruelties on all the captives that fell into their hands. At length Philomélus, being forced to a general engagement under disadvantageous circumstances, was surrounded, and on the point of being made prisoner, when he threw himself headlong from a rock, to escape falling into the hands of his enemies (B. c. 353). Onomar'chus, the lieutenant and brother of the Phocian general, safely conducted the remnant of the army to the fastnesses of Delphi. He proved an able and prudent leader. With the treasures of the Delphic temple he purchased the aid of Ly'cophron, the chief of the Thessalian princes; and, thus supported, he committed fearful ravages in the territories of Boótia and Lócris. The Thebans, in great distress, applied for aid to Philip, king of Macedon, who had long sought a pretext for interfering in the affairs of Greece (B. c. 352): he marched immediately to their relief, completely routed the Phocians in the plains of Thessaly, and suspended from a gibbet the body of Onomar'chus which was found among the slain. He dared not, however, pursue his advantages further; for he knew that an attempt to pass the straits of Thermop'ylæ would expose him to the hostility of all the Grecian states which he was not yet prepared to encounter.

Phayl'lus, the brother of the two preceding leaders of the Phocians,. renewed the war, and again became formidable. Philip, under the pretence of checking his progress, attempted to seize Thermop'ylæ; but had the mortification to find the straits pre-occupied by the Athenians. He returned home, apparently wearied of Grecian politics; but he had purchased the services of venal orators, whose intrigues soon afforded him a plausible pretext for renewed interference. The war lingered for two or three years; the treasures of the Delphic temple began to fail, and the Phocians longed for peace. But the vengeance of the Thebans was insatiable: they besought Philip to crush the impious profaners of the temple; and that prince, having lulled the suspicions of

the Athenians, in spite of the urgen warnings of the patriotic Demos'thenes, passed the straits without opposition, and laid the unhappy Phocians prostrate at the feet of their inveterate enemies (B. c. 347). Their cities were dismantled, their country laid desolate, and their vote in the Amphictyonic council transferred to the king of Macedon.

A new sacred war was excited by the artifices of Es'chines, the Athenian deputy to the Amphictyonic council, a venal orator, who had long sold himself to Philip. He accused the Locrians of Amphis ́sa of cultivating the Cirrhéan plain, which had been consecrated with such solemn ceremonies in the first sacred war The Locrians, after the example of the Phocians, refused obedience to the sentence of the Amphic'tyons; and the charge of conducting the war against them was intrusted to Philip (B. c. 339). He hastened to Delphi, marched against Amphis'sa, took it by storm; and soon after revealed his designs against the liberties of Greece, by seizing and fortifying Elateía, the capital of Phócis. The Athenians and Thebans instantly took up arms; but they intrusted their forces to incompetent generals; and when they encountered the Macedonians at Charoneía, they were irretrievably defeated. The independence of the Grecian communities was thus destroyed; and in a general convention of the Amphictyonic states at Corinth (B. c. 337), Philip was chosen captain-generaì of conederate Greece, and appointed to lead their united forces against the Persian empire.

CHAPTER XI.

THE HISTORY OF MACEDON.

SECTION I. Geographical Outline.

THE range of Mount Hæ'mus separates Thrace and Macedon from northern Europe, and the Cambúnian mountains on the south divide the latter country from Thessaly. The space intervening between these mountain-chains was, during a long succession of ages, distinguished by different appellations, according as the barbarous nations that tenanted these regions rose into temporary eminence. The most ancient name of Macedonia was Æmath'ia; but the time and cause of the appellation being changed are unknown. It is difficult to describe the boundaries of a country whose limits were constantly varying; but in its most flourishing state, Macedon was bounded on the north by the river Strýmon, and the Scardian branch of Mount Hæ'mus; on the east by the Egean sea; on the south by the Cambúnian mountains; and on the west by the Adriatic. It was said to contain one hundred and fifty different nations; and this number will not appear exaggerated, when it is remembered that each of its cities and towns was regarded as an independent state.

The western division of the country, on the coast of the Adriatic, was for the most part possessed by the uncivilized Taulant'ii. In their territory stood Epidam'nus, founded by a Corcyrean colony, whose name the Romans changed to Dyrac'chium (Durazzo), on account of its illomened signification; and Apollónia, a city colonized by the Corinthians. South of the Taulant'ii, but still on the Adriatic coast, was the territory of the Alymióta, whose chief cities were Elýma, and Bul'lis. East of these lay a litt'e inland district called the kingdom of Oréstes, because the son of Agamem'non is said to have settled there after the murder of his mother.

The southeastern part of the country, called Æmath'ia or Macedonia Proper, contained Egæ'a, or Edes'sa, the cradle of the Macedonian monarchy, and Pel'la, the favorite capital of its most powerful kings. The districts of Æmath'ia that bordered the sea were called Piéria, and were consecrated to the Muses: they contained the important cities Pyd'na, Phy'lace,and Díum. Northeast was the region of Amphax'itis, bordering the Thermaic gulf: its chief cities were Ther'ma, subsequently called Thessaloníca (Salonichi), and Stagíra, the birthplace of Aristotle.

The Chalcidian peninsula, between the Thermaic and Strymonian gulfs, has its coast deeply indented by noble bays and inlets of the

Egean sea. It contained many important trading cities and colonies, the chief of which, Palléne, in the headland of the same name: Potidæ'a, a Corinthian colony; Toróne, on the Toronaic gulf; and Olyn'thus, famous for the many sieges it sustained. In the region of Edónia, near the river Strýmon, was Amphip'olis, a favorite colony of the Athenians, Scotus'sa, and Crenídes, whose name was changed to Philip'pi by the father of Alexander the Great.

The most remarkable mountains of Macedon were the Scardian and other branches from the chain of Hæ'mus; Pangæ'us, celebrated for its rich mines of gold and silver; A'thos, which juts into the Egean sea, forming a remarkable and dangerous promontory; and Olym'pus, which partly belonged to Thessaly. Most of these, but especially the Scardian chain and Mount A'thos, were richly wooded, and the timber they produced was highly valued by shipbuilders. The principal rivers falling into the Adriatic were the Panyásus, the Ap'sus, the Laus, and the Celyd'nus; on the Ægean side were the Haliac'mon, the E'rigon, the Ax'ius, and the Strýmon, which was the northern boundary of Macedon, until Philip extended his dominions to the Nes'

sus.

The soil of Macedonia was very fruitful; on the seacoast especially it produced great abundance of corn, wine, and oil, and most of its mountains were rich in mineral treasures. Macedonia was celebrated for an excellent breed of horses, to which great attention was paid; no fewer than thirty thousand brood mares being kept in the royal stud at Pélla.

SECTION II.-History of the Macedonian Monarchy.

FROM B. C. 813 TO B. c. 323.

AN Argive colony, conducted by Car'anus, is said to have invaded Emath'ia by the command of an oracle, and to have been conducted by a flock of goats to the city of Edes'sa, which was easily stormed (*B. c. 813). The kingdom thus founded was gradually enlarged at the expense of the neighboring barbarous nations; and was fast rising into importance, when, in the reign of king Amyn'tas, it became tributary to the Persians (B. c. 513), immediately after the return of Daríus from his Scythian campaign. After the overthrow of the Persians at Platæ'æ, Macedon recovered its independence; which, however, was never recognised by the Persian kings. Per'diccas II. (B. c. 554), on coming to the throne, found his dominions exposed to the attacks of the Illyrians and Thracians, while his brother was encouraged to contest the crown by the Athenians. He was induced by these circumstances to take the Spartan side in the first Peloponnesian war, and much of the success of Bras'idas was owing to his active co-operation.

Civilization and the arts of social life were introduced into Macedo nia by Archelaus, the son and successor of Per'diccas (B. c. 413). His plans for the reform of the government were greatly impeded by the jealous hostility of the nobles, who were a kind of petty princes, barely conceding to their kings the right of precedence. He was a generous patron of learning and learned men; he invited Soc'rates to