a decree to send a fleet to their relief. The Thebans joined in this expedition; and a league was formed with the islands of Rhodes, Cos, and Chios. The confederate fleet was commanded by Phocion, who delivered Byzantium, Perinthus, and other cities, from the Macedonian yoke, and drove Philip out of the Chersonesus. Philip complained of these acts of hostility; but still further to preserve a show of moderation, he entered into a negotiation for a renewal of peace, which he protracted for two years.

7. The Locrian, or Second Social War.-In the meantime, Philip intrigued at Athens, to obtain the nomination of Æschines, who had long been in his pay, as the deputy to the Amphictyonic council. On taking his seat, Eschines accused the Locrians of Amphissa of sacrilege, in ploughing the fields of Cirrhea, that were consecrated to Apollo by the public and religious laws of Greece. The Locrians, notwithstanding the severity inflicted on the Phocians under a similar pretence, denied the authority of the council in that matter; when the Amphictyons decreed that Philip should have full power to act as he thought fit against them. Thus Philip acquired all that he sought; and having an army in readiness, he marched against Amphissa; took it by storm; and then seized on Elatea, the principal city of Phocia, and fortified it-which revealed his designs against the liberties of Greece. The Athenians, alarmed at this proceeding, sent Demosthenes to solicit the aid of the Thebans against their common enemy. When Philip heard of this confederacy, he determined to come to a decisive battle, before they could be joined by troops from the other Grecian states, and marched into Boeotia. The Macedonian army amounted to 30,000 foot, and 2,000 horse. That of the confederates was equally numerous, and the troops were exceedingly good; but they were commanded by incompetent generals; and when they encountered the Macedonians at Charonæa, they were completely defeated. Philip commanded one wing of his army; and his son, Alexander, the other. In this battle, Demosthenes, who had so vehemently urged the war, acted in the most cowardly manner, being the first to desert his post, and to consult his safety by flight so different is speculative from active courage. The battle of Charonæa, fought 338 B. C., decided the fate of Greece, and subjected all her states to the dominion of the king of Macedon. But it was not his policy to treat them as a conquered people. They retained their separate and independent governments, while he controlled and directed all the national measures. Convoking a general council of the states at Corinth (337), Philip laid before the Amphictyons his project for the conquest of Persia, and obtained from them the appointment of commander-in-chief of the forces of Greece, with authority to fix the quota which each republic should furnish for the war.]

SECTION XXV.*

THE HISTORY OF MACEDON,

To the Death of Philip, 336 B.C.

1. [Geographical Outline.-MACEDONIA was bounded on the east by the Ægean Sea; on the south by Thessaly and Epirus; on the west by the Ionian Sea, or Adriatic; on the north, at first by the river Strymon, and the Scardian branch of Mount Hæmus, but afterwards by the river Nessus. In the most ancient times, this country was called Æmathia, from Æmathius, one of its princes, and was divided into a great many petty principalities.

2. An Hellenic colony from Argos, headed by Caranus, a descendant of Hercules, settled in Æmathia, and laid the foundation of the Macedonian empire, about 800 B. C. He is said to have been conducted to the city of Edessa by a herd of goats, from which circumstance the figure of a goat was adopted for his standard, and became the national symbol, being represented on ancient coins with one horn. According to tradition, Caranus and his followers maintained their footing in the country, more by ingratiating themselves with the barbarous inhabitants, than by force of arms. There is no historian who wrote particularly on Macedon, before the time of Alexander; and consequently its early history is buried in obscurity, till the time of the Persian invasion of Greece.

3. The following Table of the Macedonian kings, from Caranus to Alexander the Great, is given by Syncellus*:

From Caranus to the death of Alexander the Great, 467 years.

4. When the Persians commenced their incursions into Europe, Macedonia, by its situation, must have been one of the

In the Table given by Eusebius, the reign of Caranus commences in 799 B. c, and there is a considerable variation in the commencement and duration of many of the reigns; but the difference between the two chronologies is only eight years on the whole.

first countries they ravaged. Accordingly, as early as the reign of Darius Hystaspes, the Macedonian kings were tributary to the Persians; and were indebted to their deliverance from that yoke, not to their own valour, but to the victories of the Greeks. The battle of Platea restored independence to the Macedonian kingdom, although that independence was not formally acknowledged by the Persians. But the Macedonians were still exposed to the attacks of other formidable neighbours: on one side there were the Thracians; and on the other, the Athenians; who, availing themselves of their extensive navy, reduced to subjection the Grecian settlements on the coast. The differences with Athens commenced in the reign of Perdiccas II., when his brother Philip was assisted in contesting the crown with him, which led him to take the part of Sparta in the Peloponnesian war. Archelaus, the son and successor of Perdiccas, introduced agriculture and civilization among the Macedonians. He constructed roads; built forts; and his court became the seat of literature. He was murdered by one of his courtiers; and his death was followed by a series of civil wars and sanguinary revolutions, which were terminated by the accession of Philip (son of Amyntas IV., and brother of Perdiccas III.), who escaped from Thebes, where he was a hostage, to gain possession of the throne, in 359 B. C.

5. Philip II. ascended the throne of Macedon by popular choice, to the exclusion of his nephew, then a minor; and he secured his power by the success of his arms against the Illyrians, Pæonians, and Athenians-who espoused the interest of his competitors. His reign, which lasted twenty-three years, is one of the most instructive and interesting in the whole range of history, as well on account of the prudence he displayed, as for the manner in which his plans were arranged and executed. Though it may be difficult to trace in his morals the pupil of the great Epaminondas; yet it is impossible to view, without feelings of astonishment, the brilliant career of a man who, under the almost hopeless circumstances in which he commenced his course, never lost his firmness of mind, and who, in the greatest prosperity, preserved his coolness of reflection.

6. At the commencement of his reign, he had to contend with victorious foes abroad, and with two pretenders to the throne at home; but in two years everything was changed, and the independence of his country secured. Having restored tranquillity to his kingdom, he next prepared for its security, by improving the tactics and military discipline of his subjects. The victories of Epaminondas at Leuctra and Mantinea had proved the superiority of a heavy column over the extended lines in which the Greeks usually fought; and, improving on that basis, he formed the celebrated Macedonian phalanx,* which secured victory over

A square battalion of soldiers, formed in ranks close and deep, with their shields joined, and pikes crossing each other, so as to render it impossible to break it.

the barbarians; whilst he had recourse to other means than force (the produce of the Thracian gold mines) for success against the suspiciousness of Athens, and the neighbouring Greek settlements. It was in the conduct of these affairs that the peculiar sagacity of Philip was displayed.

7. The internal government of Macedon, under so skilful and successful a conqueror, must necessarily have been absolute. No pretender would dare to rise up against such a ruler; and the body-guard established by him at the beginning of his reign, and taken from the nobility, contributed to keep up a proper understanding between the prince and the nobles. The power of the kings was insignificant when unaided by them, among whom, as was the case with all the hereditary princes of Greece, they merely held the right of precedence. The court of Philip became a military staff; while the people, from a nation of herdsmen, were converted into a nation of warriors. After the conquest of Illyria, Thrace, Thessaly, and all the adjacent states, he at last succeeded in his ambitious desire of acquiring a complete ascendancy over all the Grecian republics, and the appointment to the command-in-chief of the armies of the confederation, which he proposed to direct against the Persian empire.]

8. At this period, the Persian monarchy had been divided by the revolt of many of the provinces; and Ochus had scarcely brought them into subjection, when he and all his family, except an infant son, were poisoned. He was succeeded by Darius, surnamed Codomannus, who is said to have been the grandson of Darius Nothus. Such was the state of Persia when Philip, on the eve of his great enterprise, was assassinated, while engaged in celebrating a magnificent festival on the marriage of his daughter, Cleopatra, with the king of Epirus (336 B. C.). The assassin was Pausanias, a noble youth and captain of his guards, who is said to have been influenced by private revenge; but it seems certain that his son (according to his letter in Arrian) attributed it to Persian influence. The Athenians, on the death of Philip, meanly expressed the most tumultuous joy, in the hope of a recovery of their liberty; but this visionary prospect was never realized. The spirit of the nation was gone; and in their subsequent revolutions, they only changed their

masters.

SECTION XXVI.

THE HISTORY OF MACEDON.

The Reign of Alexander the Great.

1. Alexander, the son of Philip, succeeded at the age of twenty to the throne of Macedon (B. c. 336). He had been educated by Aristotle, and his extraordinary natural endowments sedulously cultivated. This prince possessed military

abilities of the highest order; and had given proofs, from his earliest years, of that singular heroism which afterwards distinguished him. [On the death of his father, the Thracians, the Illyrians, and other nations, endeavoured to regain their independence; but they were quickly subdued, and never again attempted to revolt. The different states of Greece began to make vigorous preparations for their mutual defence; and the Thebans, on a false report of the death of Alexander in battle against the Illyrians, expelled the Macedonian garrison, and put to death its commanders. Within fourteen days, Alexander appeared before the walls of Thebes, and offered pardon to the city on condition of absolute submission, and the delivering up of all the principal offenders. The Thebans were obstinate; and, after a brief struggle, the city was taken by storm, abandoned to the fury of the soldiers, and then reduced to a heap of ruins. The conqueror spared the lives of those who were descended from Pindar, the priests and their families, and those who had shown attachment to the Macedonian interest; but of the rest of the inhabitants, 6,000 were put to the sword, and 30,000 sold into slavery (335 B.C.). This severity struck terror throughout Greece, and was followed by a general submission. Alexander then assembled the deputies of the nation at Corinth, and communicated to them his resolution of prosecuting the designs of his father for the conquest of Persia. The splendour of the expedition flattered the Greeks, who had ever regarded the Persians as their irreconcilable enemies, and in whose destruction they pleased themselves with the prospect of regaining the honourable ascendancy they had once enjoyed above all contemporary nations.]

2. In the spring of 334 B. C., with an army of 30,000 foot, and 5,000 horse, the sum of seventy talents, and provisions only for a single month, Alexander crossed the Hellespont; and, in traversing Phrygia, visited the tomb of Achilles. Darius Codomannus, resolved to crush at once this inconsiderate youth, met him on the banks of the Granicus with 100,000 foot, and 10,000 horse. The Greeks swam the river, their king leading the van, and attacking the astonished Persians, left 20,000 dead upon the field, and put to flight their whole army. The loss of the Greeks amounted only to 85 horsemen and 30 infantry. Drawing from his first success a presage of continued victory, Alexander now sent home his fleet, leaving to his army the sole alternative, that they must subdue Asia or perish. Prosecuting their course for some time without resistance, the Greeks, were attacked by the Persians in a narrow valley of Cilicia, near the town of Issus. The Persian host amounted to 400,000; but their situation was such that only a small part could come into action, and they were defeated with prodigious slaughter (333 B. C.). The loss of the Persians in this battle was 110,000; that of the Greeks (according to Q. Curtius), only 450.

3. The history of Alexander by Quintus Curtius, though a