raise the sieges of Perinthus and Byzantion, the people of
which towns decreed all kinds of public honors to the
Athenians, as their preservers.*
With a view apparently to indemnify his troops for the
loss of the plunder of the towns, which he had promised
them, Philip took advantage of the alleged treachery of a
Scythian prince, and led them once more over Mount Hae-
mus, and plundered the valley of the Danube. As he was
returning, with a large booty of slaves and mares, his army
was suddenly fallen on by a tribe named the Triballians,
* Diodor. xvi. 7476. Justin, ix. 1, 2. Plut. Phocion, 14. De-
mosth., Crown, 252257.
400 HISTCRY OF GREECE.
and he himself narrowly escaped being slain in the engage-
ment.*
While Philip was in Scythia, a transaction highly dis-
honorable to him was brought to light at Athens. There
was a man, named Antiphon, who had been struck out of
the list as not being a genuine Athenian citizen ; he re-
paired to Philip, and, for a suitable reward, undertook to
serve him, and gratify his own desire of vengeance, by
burning the docks at Athens. He returned secretly, and
lurked at the Piraeeus for that purpose ; but Demosthenes had
received information, and he dragged him before the assem-
bly, and charged him with his design. ^Eschines then rose,
and crying out against the atrocity of going into private
houses without a warrant, and insulting unhappy persons,
so moved the people that they let him go. The court of
Areiopagus, however, had him taken up again and brought
before the people, who, moved by their authority, directed
that he should be put to the torture ; he then confessed
his guilt, and was executed.! This court further testified
its opinion of ^Eschines' character by removing him from
the office of advocate, (avi'dixog,) to which the people had
nominated him in a dispute between the Athenians and De-
lians, regarding the custody of the temple of Delos, and
appointing Hypereides to plead the cause of Athens in his
stead.
During Philip's absence in Scythia, accident or design J
furnished him with a pretext for appearing again in Greece.
^Eschines, being one of the Athenian deputies to the Am-
* Justin, ix.
t Demosth., Crown, 271. Plutarch (Demosth. 14) says that Demos-
thenes' conduct on this occasion was highly aristocratic. He observes,
(as any one must who reads his speeches,) that he rebuked and op-
posed the people with great freedom. Yet Mitford calls him " the
favorite and flatterer of the people ! " He says also that Demosthenes
was no favorite with Plutarch !
% Demosthenes (Crown, 275, 276) maintained that it had been con-
certed between .<Eschines and Philip : ^schines asserted that it was
purely accidental, and we are inclined to believe him.
THE AMPHISSIAN WAR. 401
phictyonic Council, moved (according to himself) with in-
dignation at the Amphictyons, on the motion of a Locrian
of Amphissa, proposing a fine of fifty talents on the Athe-
nians, pointed out to them the Cirrhsean or Crissasan plain,
which the Amphissians were cultivating, and the port which
they had re-opened, and having read to them the ancient
oracle, and the curses denounced on those who should do
so,* left the assembly. An outcry was raised ; and next
day the Delphians, headed by the Amphictyons, went down
into the plain, and destroyed the port, and burned the houses.
The Amphissians came in arms, and drove them off An ex-
traordinary council was held some time after, in which Demos-
thenes kept the Athenians from sharing, and war was de-
clared against the Amphissians. But as some states sent
no troops, and those which came did nothing, Philip was,
at the next meeting, (Ol. 110, 3,) chosen general of the
Amphictyonic army. He immediately issued his orders to
all the members to meet him in arms in Phocis, whither he
led his own troops ; and having dispersed a body of ten
thousand mercenaries, sent by the Athenians to aid the
Amphissians, he reduced Amphissa. He then unveiled his
designs by suddenly seizing Elateia, the key of Bceotia.
Though the Athenians had been expecting a war with
Philip, their dismay was great when they heard of the seizure
of Elateia. In the assembly, Demosthenes proposed that
an embassy should be sent off immediately to Thebes to pro-
pose an alliance. This was adopted, and he himself named
on the embassy ; and all the arts and all the eloquence of
those sent by Philip to oppose him failed before him, and
Thebes joined with Athens. The extraordinary exertions
of the same orator had engaged the Corinthians, Megarians,
and others to unite in the cause of independence ; and within
six weeks from the seizure of Elateia, a combined army was
assembled in Bceotia to oppose the Macedonian monarch.!
* See above, p. 61.
t Demosth., Crown, 284292. Plut. Demosth. 19. Diodor. xvi.
85,86.
34
Y Y
402 HISTORY OF GREECE.
The banks of a small stream near Chaeroneia witnessed
the battle which decided the fate of Greece forever. The
Macedonian army consisted of thirty thousand foot and two
thousand horse, all veteran troops, and commanded by the
ablest generals of the time ; that of the confederates was
from forty to fifty thousand men, but they were mostly
militia, and were led by Chares, and by Lysicles and the
Theban Theagenes men as worthless as Chares him-
self.
The two armies were drawn out at daybreak. The wing
of the Macedonians opposed to the Thebans was led by the
young Alexander, aided by experienced officers ; Philip him-
self commanded the other, which stood against the Athe-
nians. The Greeks fought bravely : the Athenians drove back
the opposite troops, but incautiously pursuing, they were
fallen on and routed by a body of select troops led by Philip
in person. The Thebans, in the mean time, were also de-
feated, and the entire Sacred Band cut to pieces. The Athe-
nians had one thousand killed, and two thousand taken ; the
slain of the Thebans exceeded the number of the prisoners,
either because they fought more desperately, or were more
the objects of the Macedonians' hatred. Philip, with his
wonted humanity and wisdom, issued orders, when the vic-
tory was won, to spare the vanquished.
In the evening Philip gave a banquet to his officers, which
lasted through the night. At its conclusion, it is said, the
whole party went out to view the field of battle. On coming
to where the Sacred Band lay united in death as in life,
the victor is said to have shed tears, and to have exclaimed,
" Perish they who imagine these to have done or endured
any disgrace ! " * When he came to the part of the field
where the Athenians had fought, he gave a loose to his joy,
and putting the commencement of Demosthenes' decree into
metre, sang it aloud.f These anecdotes may be true, or
they may be false ; but we shall find the subsequent conduct
of Philip that of a really great man.
* Plutarch, Pelopidas, 18. t Plutarch, Demosth. 20.
BATTLE OF CHiERONEIA. 403
The Athenians, when they heard of the defeat, expected
an immediate invasion of Attica. On the motion of Hype-
reides, it was decreed to place their families and most valu-
able effects in the Piraeeus, and to restore the atimous to
their rights, admit strangers to isotely, and give freedom to
slaves if they aided in the defence of the city. The incon-
siderate people were for giving the command of the troops
to Charidemus, when the court of Areiopagus interfered,
and Phocion was appointed to the office.* But the pris-
oners taken at Chaeroneia now arrived, having been dis-
missed without ransom ; and Antipater and the young prince
Alexander came with offers of peace, which were readily
accepted. They agreed to give up Samos, for which they
got Oropus, and to send their deputies to the congress which
was to assemble at Corinth. With the Thebans Philip
acted more harshly : several of their leading men were put
to death or banished ; the exiles were recalled, and a Mace-
donian garrison placed in the Cadmeia.
Demosthenes, who was deficient in physical courage, had,
we are told, flung away his shield, and fled at Chaeroneia;
but the people, whom he had raised far above their former
level, recognizing in him the true and unflinching patriot,
gave him now one of the strongest proofs they could of their
confidence. When the public funeral of those who had
fallen at Chaeroneia was to be celebrated, he was the person
chosen to pronounce the epitaphial oration. This may have
been but a piece of Athenian vain-glory and insolence : but
we willingly assign it a better motive. f
The following year, (Ol. 110, 4,) a general congress of
the Amphictyonic states met at Corinth. Philip had pre-
viously, we are told,| led his troops into Peloponnesus, ex-
ercised hostilities against Lacedaemon, fixed the boundaries
* Plutarch, Phocion, 16.
t Demosth., Crown, 320. Plutarch, Demosth. 21.
\ Polyb. ix. 28. xvii. 14. Polyaenus. The orators do not make the
slightest allusion to it.
404 HISTORY OF GREECE.
between it and Argos, Arcadia, and Messene, and given the
chief power in these states to his own friends.
At the congress, Philip's orators pictured in glowing col-
ors the evils inflicted by Persia on Greece. No one rose
to oppose : war was proclaimed unanimously, and Philip
chosen commander-in-chief, with authority to fix the con-
tributions of each state in men and money. The military
force of Greece at this time is given * as 200,000 foot and
15,000 horse, exclusive of the Macedonians. Philip then
returned to Macedonia ; and his first care was to send a
part of his troops, under Parmenion and Attalus, over to
Asia, to occupy some of the Greek towns there, and acquire
intelligence respecting the strength and the means of the
Persian empire.
Strict fidelity to his consort had never been among the
virtues of Philip, and he had now divorced the haughty
Olympias, and espoused the niece of Attalus ; a circumstance
which was mediately the cause of his death. For Attalus had
given the most cruel and degrading insult to a young Mace-
donian of the body-guard, named Pausanias, who, having
already vainly sought justice of the king, resolved to avenge
his injuries on him who had refused to redress them.
The nuptials of his daughter Cleopatra with the king of
Epeirus taking place at this time, Philip, who loved show
and splendor, celebrated them at Mg& with great magnifi-
cence. Numbers repaired thither from all parts of Greece,
and golden crowns from individuals and states were pre-
sented to him in profusion. Games, plays, and processions
occupied the day, banquets the night ; joy and festivity
filled the thoughts of all ; one spirit alone was gloomy.
To show his confidence in all about him, Philip directed
his guards to keep at some distance from him. He ap-
proached the entrance of the theatre, and sending his friends
in before him, was preparing to follow, when Pausanias,
* Justin, ix. 5. If this credulous writer had said but half the num-
ber, he would have been nearer the truth.
DEATH OF PHILIP. 405
who was lying in wait, rushed on him, and plunged his
sword into his body. The king fell dead ; the murderer ran
to where he had a horse at hand for flight; but the bridle
being tied to a vine, he stumbled and fell, and Perdiccas, an
officer of the guard, came up and killed him on the spot.*
Thus perished, in the noon of his glory, and but in the
forty-seventh year of his age, the able king of Macedonia.
The great abilities of Philip must be acknowledged by every
one who reads his history. A consummate statesman, an
able general, an accomplished gentleman, he united all the
qualities which lead to dominion: his very vices t and fail-
ings were suited to further his views ; by his love of wine
and revelry he attached the rude Macedonians and Thessa-
lians, while his excessive passion for the drama and taste
for the arts recommended him to the Greeks. The object of
his ambition was to be the head of the Greek nation ; but,
unlike a vulgar conqueror, he acted with true political
wisdom, and did not sacrifice the substance for the show :
he would be at the head of a free confederation, he would
exercise dominion without constraint, and therefore he left
each state to its own constitution and laws, and incorpo-
rated none in his empire. Where traitors were to be pur-
chased, he paid for them liberally ; and to what government
is secret service money unknown ? He also employed the
usual artifices of statesmen, and could be false and break
engagements when it served his purpose. But the end he
proposed would have been beneficial to Greece, were it not
that Providence seems to have decreed that she never should
know the blessings of concord and unity.
* Diodor. xvi. 91 95. Arist. Pol. v. 8. Mitford and his disciples
have endeavored, in spite of all probability, to make Demosthenes a
confederate with Pausanias.
t Theopompus (apud Athenaeum) has left a fearful picture of Philip's
vices ; but the malignity of that historian is such that we must always
make deductions from his statements. See Polybius, viii. 11 13.
406 HISTORY OF GREECE.
CHAPTER III.*
ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
The direction of the extensive empire which Philip had
created fell now to his son Alexander. The young monarch
was only in the twentieth year of his age; but nature had
bestowed on him talents of the highest order, and the wis-
dom of his father had aided to develop them by placing him
under the care of the great Aristotle. It was now to be seen
if his abilities were adequate to consolidating and extending
the dominion which Philip had left. (01. Ill, 1.)
As soon as he had celebrated his father's obsequies and
regulated the affairs of Macedonia, where he won the hearts
of the people by reducing the taxes, he placed himself at
the head of an army, and advanced into Greece ; for the
Athenians, urged by Demosthenes, who had testified in
rather an unbecoming manner his joy at the murder of
Philip,f were preparing for war, and the Thebans were about
to expel the garrison from the Cadmeia. Aware of the
advantage of promptitude and vigor, Alexander appeared
suddenly in Bceotia, and came and encamped at the foot
of the Theban citadel. The Thebans feared to stir ; the
Athenians, apprehensive of an invasion, collected all their
property into the town, and then sent an embassy to apolo-
gize for what they had done. Demosthenes himself was
one of those sent ; but his courage failing him, he went no
farther than Mount Cithseron. Alexander received the em-
bassy with great favor. He invited deputies from all parts
of Greece to meet him at Corinth, and he was there unani-
mously appointed general autocrator of the army to be em-
ployed to avenge on the Persians their former invasion of
* Arrian, Expedition of Alexander. Plutarch, Alex. Diodor. xviii.
Quintus Curtius.
t ^Eschines, Ctes. 64. Plutarch, Demosth. 22.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 407
Greece ; the only dissidents being the Lacedaemonians, who,
thinking more of what they had been that of what they
were, said that it had always been their custom to lead, not
to follow.
Alexander had hardly returned to Macedonia, when (01.
Ill, 2) his attention was called to the Illyrians, the Tri-
ballians, and other rude tribes, who sought to take advan-
tage of the weakness incident to a new reign. The resist-
ance, however, which they could make against the disci-
plined troops of Macedonia was but feeble. Alexander
crossed Mount Hsemus, between which and the Ister the
Triballians dwelt, and having reduced them, passed that
river to make war on the Getans, who occupied its further
bank. While he was here, reports of his defeat and death
were spread through Greece. Demosthenes, Lycurgus,
Deinarchus, and other orators excited the Athenians to cast
off the Macedonian yoke. The Thebans, who had lost
every thing at Chaeroneia, were easily induced to strike once
more for freedom : they fell on and slew a part of the Mace-
donian garrison, which they caught outside of the Cadmeia,
and then raised a rampart round that fortress, and sent to
summon aid from Argos, Elis, and Arcadia. The Athenians
voted them succors, but sent none. Demosthenes of him-
self made them a present of a large quantity of arms.
In seven days from the time the tidings reached him,
Alexander was in Thessaly ; six more brought him thence
to Thebes, with thirty thousand foot and three thousand
horse. The Peloponnesian allies, hearing of his arrival,
halted at the Isthmus : the Thebans, though left alone,
would listen to no offers of accommodation : they gave him
battle before their gates, and after a most sanguinary con-
flict, were overcome, and the city stormed. To gratify
the Thespians, Plataeans, Orchomenians, Phocians, and
the other enemies of the Thebans, the city was plundered
and destroyed, and the surviving inhabitants sold for
slaves.
Alexander sent next to Athens, demanding that the orators
408 HISTORY OF GREECE.
and generals,* who had shown themselves his constant ene-
mies, should be delivered up to him. The people were in
great anguish and perplexity : Phocion called on the orators
to imitate the daughters of Leon and Hyacinthus, who, as
the legends told, had sacrificed themselves for their country :
the people, however, hooted, and would not listen to him ;
and when Demosthenes spoke in behalf of himself and his
friends, they evinced the greatest sympathy. Demades
(gained, it was said, by a bribe of five talents from those
who were in danger) proposed a decree artfully worded,
declaring that if guilty they should be punished according
to law, and he was sent with this decree to Alexander.
The young king, who now regretted his severity to the The-
bans, was easily induced to forgive, and only Ephialtes and
the notorious Charidemus were obliged to quit Athens. f
Greece being now reduced to submission, Alexander
called on the different states for their contingents of troops ;
and having on his return home celebrated the feast of the
Muses for nine days with great magnificence, and left
Antipater with 12,000 men to govern his European domin-
ions, he crossed the Hellespont, at the head of 30,000 foot and
4500 horse, to achieve the conquest of Asia. (01. 111,3.)
It is not our intention to detail minutely the exploits of
this greatest of conquerors, which belong not properly to
Grecian history, and which would justly require a separate
work. | A very brief sketch of them, therefore, must suffice.
The Persian empire had run the usual course of Asiatic
dominion ; murder, treason, and their attendant crimes had
become frequent in the royal house, and the coherence of
the different parts of the huge empire was growing feebler
every day. The eunuch Bagoas, who now disposed of the
* Namely, Demosthenes, Lycurgus, Hypereides, Polyeuctus, Ephi-
altes, Diotimus, Moerocles, and the generals Chares and Charidemus.
t Diodor. xvii. 15. Plutarch, Demosth. 23.
$ It is our design, on some future occasion, to devote a volume (to
correspond with the present one) to the history of Alexander and his
successors.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 409
throne, had placed on it Darius Codomannus, of a distant
branch of the royal family. This prince, to whom misfor-
tune has given interest, was hardly seated on his throne
when the young Macedonian monarch entered Asia to dis-
pute it with him.
When the Persian officers near the Hellespont heard of the
approach of Alexander, they collected their forces to oppose
him. Memnon,* the Rhodian, who was in their camp,
strongly advised not to give battle, but to retire and lay
the country waste behind them ; but the haughty Persians
spurned this prudent counsel : they engaged with their raw
troops, at the little river Granicus, the soldiers whom Philip
had trained to conquest, and sustained a total defeat. The
Persian army vanished, the Greeks in their pay were put to
death as traitors, and Asia Minor became the prize of the
conqueror. All the Greek cities of the coast opened their
gates to him, and he reestablished their democracies. Sar-
des was surrendered by its Persian governor : no resistance
was met till he reached Halicarnassus, in Caria, which
Memnon defended obstinately for some time. During the
siege, Ephialtes, the exiled Athenian, was slain fighting
bravely against those who had driven him from his country.
Memnon, at length, rinding the town no longer tenable, re-
tired to Cos ; and Alexander, advancing down the coast, con-
tinued to receive the submissions of the inhabitants.
Darius had now sent Memnon a large supply of money,
and committed to him the conduct of the war. This able
commander, well acquainted with the state of things in
Greece, knew that it was there, and not in Asia, that Alex-
* Mentor and Memnon were two young Rhodians, whose sister the
satrap Artabazus had married. Mentor engaged in the service of the
king, (Darius Ochus.) and was of great use in putting down the rebellion
in Egypt ; Memnon, who shared the fortune of his brother-in-law, had
to seek refuge with Philip. Through Mentor's influence they were
both pardoned. We see, therefore, how Memnon was the fittest person
to oppose to the Macedonians and Greeks, with whom he was well
acquainted.
35 zz
410 HISTORY OF GREECE.
andcr must be assailed. He collected a fleet of three hundred
ships, and made himself master of the ^Egean ; he opened
a communication with the Greeks who were ill affected to
Alexander, and was on the point of organizing a powerful
confederacy against him when the conqueror's fortune pre-
vailed. Memnon was carried off by a disease, and no one
remained to take his place.
Alexander was now (Ol. Ill, 4) in Cilicia; and Darius,
who had assembled an army of 500,000 men at Babylon,
was advancing to meet him. In a council of war it had
been debated whether the king himself should lead his army,
and put all on the hazard of a battle, or send a force under
lijis generals. Many of the gallant Persian nobles spoke in
favor of the former course ; but Charidemus, who was pres-
ent, asserted that 100,000 men, of whom a third should be
Greeks, would suffice, and pledged himself with that force to
insure the safety of the empire. This counsel was opposed
by the Persians, who hinted that his object was to betray
the army to the Macedonians. Charidemus grew warm, and
spoke with contempt of the cowardice and effeminacy of the
Persians. Darius, unused to such language, in a moment of
irritation gave the signal to his attendants to put him to
death, and the faithless, drunken mercenary perished, the
victim of his freedom of speech.
At the pass of Issus, leading from Cilicia into Syria,
Darius gave battle to the Macedonians. He was totally
defeated ; his mother, wife, and children fell into the hands
of the victor, whose generous treatment of them does him
eternal honor. Damascus, where the treasure and baggage
of the Persian army lay, opened its gates to Parmenion,
and no resistance was attempted till the army reached Tyre.
(Ol. 112, 1.)
The loss of the Persians at Issus is said to have been
110,000 men, that of the Macedonians only 450. There
were in the army of Darius 30,000 Greek mercenaries,
10,000 of whom had belonged to the army of Memnon, and
had come by sea from Lesbos to Phoenicia. After the bat-
ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 411
tie, 12,000 of these men marched to Tripolis, and got aboard
of the vessels which were lying there; 4090 of them sailed
for Egypt, where they nearly made themselves masters of
the country ; 8000 proceeded to Greece, where Agis, king
of Lacedaemon, took them into pay.
Tyre stood a siege of seven months; the neighboring
towns and country all submitted ; Egypt joyfully received
the conqueror. While here, Alexander laid the foundation
of the city named from himself, which soon became the
great emporium of the trade of the East ; he also marched
with a select body of troops through the desert to the oasis
in which the temple and oracle of Aramon lay, and had him-
self (probably with a political view to future events) pro-
nounced by the priests to be the offspring of a god.
Hearing that Darius had assembled another army, he
quitted Egypt and led his troops over the Euphrates, (Ol.
112, 2,) and near a village named Arbela, at the foot of the
Carduchian (Kurdish) mountains, he came up with the host
of Darius, estimated at a million of men, while his own
could not at most have exceeded fifty thousand. Victory,
as usual, declared for the Europeans : Darius fled to the
northern provinces. Alexander first took Babylon, and then
Susa, where he found immense treasures ; he next advanced