B. C. 349.
252.Athens was now the only power in Greece capable of opposing the Macedonian king, and Athens was no longer possessed of a Miltiades, a Conon, or a Themistocles. A great orator, however, had arisen, and when Olynthus sent envoys to implore aid against the invader, who was now attacking the Chalcidian cities, the eloquence of Demosthenes aroused some faint show of their former spirit. The attempted rescue was defeated, however, by treachery within the walls; and, in 347, Olynthus fell. The threefold peninsula was now in the power of Philip, and he was able to push his interests throughout Greece rather by intrigue than force. Even in Athens a powerful party, sustained by his bribes, labored to undermine the efforts of the true patriots, of whom Demosthenes was chief. Æs´chines was the mouth-piece of the Macedonian party, an orator second only to Demosthenes himself, and won to Philip’s side, probably, more by flatteries than gifts. He constantly urged peace with the king, while Demosthenes, as soon as he perceived the extent of Philip’s designs, opposed them with all the unsparing vehemence of his nature. HisPhilippicsare the most forcible examples in any language of bold and eloquent opposition to an unjust usurpation of power.
B. C. 339.
253.In 340, war was declared on account of the aggressions of Philip on the Bosphorus; and the Second Sacred War, which broke out in the following year, gave him a reason for again passing Thermopylæ. He was now appointed general-in-chief of the Amphictyonic forces, and thus gained a position in the very heart of Greece, which he did not fail to use for his own advantage.
Aug. 7, B. C. 338.
254.The Thebans, in alarm, applied to Athens for aid, which was not refused. The armies met in battle at Chæronea, and the victory of Philip gave the death-blow to Grecian independence. All the states except Sparta acknowledged his sovereignty, and he was made generalissimo of the Hellenic forces in the war now projected against Persia. To overawe the hostility of Sparta, he marched through the Peloponnesus to the southern extremity, and returned by the western coast, meeting no serious opposition.
Philip’s death by assassination interrupted the movement against the Persians, and for a moment revived the hopes of the patriots; but the Macedonian party prevailed under the youthful Alexander, who surpassed his father both as general and as king.
RECAPITULATION.Sparta destroyed the Olynthian confederacy, and seized upon Thebes, which was rescued after three years by Pelopidas and his fellow exiles. Athens regained her dominion both in the eastern and western seas, while Thebes became the head of the new Bœotian League. The treaty of Callias secured peace among all the states, except Thebes and Sparta. The victory of Epaminondas over the Spartans at Leuctra established the Theban supremacy, which was recognized and supported by the Persians during the remaining years of his life. He four times invaded Peloponnesus; organized an Arcadian confederacy, with the new city, Megalopolis, at its head; restored the exiled Messenians to the lands of their ancestors; twice attacked Sparta itself; and, finally, triumphed and fell at Mantinea. Agesilaus died on his return from Egypt, where his aid had secured the throne to Nectanabis. Athens declined from her second period of greatness in consequence of the Social War, B. C. 357-355. The Phocians, with the Delphic treasures which they confiscated, gained ascendency in central Greece, but lost it in war with Philip of Macedon. This king ended the Sacred War (B. C. 357-346) by the destruction of Phocis, assumed her place in the Amphictyonic Council, conquered the Chalcidian peninsulas, led the allied forces in the Second Sacred War, and by his victory at Chæronea established his supremacy over Greece. His son Alexander inherited his civil and military command.
Sparta destroyed the Olynthian confederacy, and seized upon Thebes, which was rescued after three years by Pelopidas and his fellow exiles. Athens regained her dominion both in the eastern and western seas, while Thebes became the head of the new Bœotian League. The treaty of Callias secured peace among all the states, except Thebes and Sparta. The victory of Epaminondas over the Spartans at Leuctra established the Theban supremacy, which was recognized and supported by the Persians during the remaining years of his life. He four times invaded Peloponnesus; organized an Arcadian confederacy, with the new city, Megalopolis, at its head; restored the exiled Messenians to the lands of their ancestors; twice attacked Sparta itself; and, finally, triumphed and fell at Mantinea. Agesilaus died on his return from Egypt, where his aid had secured the throne to Nectanabis. Athens declined from her second period of greatness in consequence of the Social War, B. C. 357-355. The Phocians, with the Delphic treasures which they confiscated, gained ascendency in central Greece, but lost it in war with Philip of Macedon. This king ended the Sacred War (B. C. 357-346) by the destruction of Phocis, assumed her place in the Amphictyonic Council, conquered the Chalcidian peninsulas, led the allied forces in the Second Sacred War, and by his victory at Chæronea established his supremacy over Greece. His son Alexander inherited his civil and military command.
1.The Kingdom of Macedon, lying north of Thessaly and east of Illyr´icum, was of little importance before the reign of Philip II., whose aggressions ended the independent history of Greece. (See Book III, §§ 248-254.) In 507 B. C., Amyntas I. submitted to Darius Hystaspes; and fifteen years later, in the first expedition of Mardonius, the country became a mere province of the Persian empire, the native kings governing as tributaries. After Xerxes’ retreat, B. C. 480, Macedonia became free again, and began to push eastward along the northern coast of the Ægean. Here it met two rivals: the new Thracian kingdom of Sitalces upon its eastern frontier, and the Athenian power in the Greek cities of the Chalcidian peninsulas.
2.When Athens was prostrated by her Sicilian disasters, the short but brilliant reign of Ar´chela´us I. (B. C. 413-399) laid the foundation of Macedonian greatness. He improved his country by roads, strengthened it by forts, and introduced a better discipline into the army. His death was followed by forty years of great tumult, a continued scene of plots and assassinations, to recount which would only confuse without profiting the student. When Perdiccas III. died in battle, he left an infant son, Amyntas, under the regency of his brother Philip. At least five other princes claimed the crown; the victorious Illyrians occupied the western provinces, and Thrace and Pæo´nia were ready to absorb the eastern.
3.Philip overcame all these perils with admirable spirit and ability. He made himself king instead of his nephew, defeated the Illyrians, and took advantage of the Social War to seize Amphipolis, Pydna, and Potidæa. He pushed the Macedonian boundary eastward as far as the Nestus, and built the town of Philip´pi for the protection of the gold mines. These had fallen into neglect during the wars of Athens, but under his improved management they soon yielded a yearly revenue of a thousand talents ($1,250,000).
4.Philip, in his youth, had spent three years in Thebes, where he had studied the tactics of Epaminondas, as well as the language, character, and politics of the Greeks. On coming to power, he devoted unwearied attention to the drilling of his army, until it far surpassed that of any Hellenic state. No less skilled in diplomacy than in military science, he knew how to take advantage of the rivalries in Greece, and the corruptibility of all parties, to play off one against the other, and so render himself supreme. His rapid movements made him seem to be in many places at the same moment, and no circumstance which either threatened or favored his interests escaped his eye.
5.The Olynthian War ended with the capture of thirty-two cities in Chalcidice; the Sacred War made Philip master of Phocis and head of the Amphictyonic League. In eastern Thrace, the Athenians found aid in the Persians, who were already alarmed by the rapid rise of the Macedonian power, and Perin´thus and Byzantium were thus saved for a time. Philip was victorious (B. C. 339) against a Scythian prince of what is now Bulga´ria; and though he was defeated and wounded on his return, in a battle with the Triballi, his plots went on with uninterrupted success. The Second Sacred War gave him supremacy in central Greece, and the victory at Chæronea prostrated all remaining opposition. The Congress at Corinth (B. C. 337) acknowledged his headship, and appointed him to lead the Greek forces against Persia. The advanced guard of the Macedonian army was already in Asia, when Philip was assassinated, during the festivities attending the marriage of his daughter, B. C. 336.
6.In the midst of Philip’s early victories, he had heard of the birth of his son Alexander at Pella. He wrote immediately to his friend Ar´istot´le,[58]expressing his joy that the young prince was born during the life of the philosopher to whom he could most gladly commit his education. On the same day that Alexander was born, the temple of Artemis at Ephesus was burnt to the ground. The priests and soothsayers, regarding the fire as an evil omen, ran about the city beating their breasts and crying aloud, “This day has brought forth the scourge and destroyer of Asia.”B. C. 356.
Coin of Alexander, enlarged one-half.
Coin of Alexander, enlarged one-half.
7.At the age of sixteen, Alexander was left regent of the kingdom during his father’s campaign against Byzantium. At Chæroaea, two years later, he led a corps of Macedonian youth against the Sacred Band of Thebes, and the victory was mainly due to his courage and impetuosity. Upon the death of his father, Alexander, at twenty years of age, ascended a throne beset with many dangers. He expelled or killed his nearest rivals, marched into Greece and convened at Corinth a new congress, which conferred upon him the same dignities and powers previously granted to his father; then instantly returning to Macedon, he signally defeated his enemies on the west and north, some of whom he pursued even beyond the Danube. During these campaigns a false report of his death reached Greece, and Thebes seized the occasion to revolt. But Alexander appeared suddenly before her gates, stormed and took the city, which, by way of warning to others, he completely destroyed—saving only the house of Pindar, the poet—and either enslaved or massacred the inhabitants.
8.Greece was now awed into submission, and Alexander prepared to execute his father’s and his own schemes of Asiatic conquest. In the spring of 334 B. C., he crossed the Hellespont with 35,000 men. The Persians awaiting him at the Granicus were defeated, and Alexander, with his usual celerity, overran Asia Minor, which submitted with little opposition. Memnon, a Rhodian Greek in the service of Darius, and his greatest general, desired to carry the war into Macedonia, by means of the overwhelming fleet of the Persians. His movements detained Alexander some months near the Ægean coast; but his death, in the spring of 333 B. C., left the invader free to march toward the heart of the empire. Darius led a vast army to the plain of the Orontes, where he might have had the advantage over his assailant; but Alexander lingered in the Cilician mountain passes, until the Persian king was impatient and came to meet him. The battle of Issus (B. C. 333, Nov.) resulted in the defeat of the Persians with great slaughter.
9.Instead of following Darius, Alexander proceeded to conquer the sea-coast of the Mediterranean as far as Egypt, thus providing for the securityof Macedon and Greece. Most of the Phœnician cities submitted as he approached, but Tyre withstood him seven months. When it was taken (B. C. 332, July), 8,000 of its people were massacred and 30,000 sold into slavery. Ga´za was captured after a siege of two months. According to Josephus, the conqueror then marched upon Jerusalem. The high priest, Jad´dua, came forth to meet him, wearing the breastplate of precious stones and the miter inscribed with the Holy Name. Alexander prostrated himself with profound reverence before the priest, and explained to his followers that in a vision, before leaving Europe, he had seen such a figure, which had invited him to the conquest of Asia. The high priest pointed out to him the prophecies of Daniel concerning his career; and Alexander, in adding the Jews to his empire, exempted them from tribute every seventh year, when, according to their law, they could neither sow nor reap.
10.In Egypt the Macedonian king was gladly welcomed, for the people hated the Persians for having insulted their gods and profaned their temples. At the western mouth of the Nile he founded a new capital, which he designed as the commercial exchange of the eastern and western worlds. Alexandria, with its great advantages of position, soon became a rich and magnificent city. A less judicious proceeding of the conqueror was a toilsome march across the desert to the temple of Amun. He was rewarded, however, in being saluted by the priests as the son of the god, a distinction which Alexander greatly valued.
11.Turning to the north and east, Alexander now sought the grand contest which was to transfer to him the dominions of Cyrus. He had purposely given Darius time to collect the entire force of his empire, so that one battle might decide its fate. The battle of Arbela (B. C. 331, Oct.) has been described in Book II. As its result the three capitals, Susa, Persep´olis, and Babylon, surrendered almost without resistance; and Alexander might, without further effort, have assumed the pomp and ease of an Oriental monarch. But his restless spirit carried him on to the conquest of the eastern provinces and India. He first marched into Media, where Darius had rallied the remnants of his forces to oppose him, but on his approach the dethroned king fled through the Caspian Gates to Bactria. Before Alexander could overtake him, he was murdered by his rebellious satrap, Bessus, who assumed the title of king of Persia.
12.The Greek mercenaries of Darius, who had formed his most effective force, were now added to the army of the conqueror. From province to province Alexander marched, receiving submission and organizing governments. Bessus fled into Sogdiana, but was taken, and suffered a cruel death for his treason and usurpation. A new city of Alexandria was founded on the Jaxartes; and having chastised the Scythians to the northward, the conqueror returned to Bactria, where he spent the winter of 329 B. C.
13.The genius of Alexander began to be disgraced by the pride and unscrupulous cruelty of an Eastern king. He adopted the Persian dress and ceremonial, and required his courtiers to prostrate themselves before him, as to a divinity rather than a mortal. He had already put to death his friend Philo´tas, on an unproved charge of plotting against his life; and the aged Parme´nio, father of Philotas, was subjected without trial to a similar fate. At Bactra, in a drunken revel, Alexander murdered his friend Clitus with his own hand.
14.During his two years’ war against Sogdiana, Alexander captured a mountain fortress, where Oxyar´tes, a Bactrian prince, had deposited his family. Roxa´na, one of the princesses, became the wife of the conqueror. In the spring of 327 B. C., the Macedonian army crossed the Indus and invaded the Punjab. No resistance was encountered until it reached the Hydas´pes, where Porus, an Indian king, was drawn up with his elephants and a formidable body of men. An obstinate battle resulted in the defeat and capture of Porus; but his brave spirit so commanded the respect of his conqueror, that he was permitted to retain his kingdom.
Alexander founded two cities near the Hydaspes, one named Buceph´ala, in honor of his favorite horse, which died there, and the other, Nicæ´a, in commemoration of his victories. He gave orders for the building of a fleet from the Indian forests, while he advanced with his army still farther to the eastward. All the tribes as far as the Hypha´sis (Sutlej) were conquered, one by one. On arriving at that river, the Macedonians refused to go farther. They declared that they had more than fulfilled the terms of their enlistment, and that they were worn out by the hardships of eight unprecedented campaigns.
15.Alexander was compelled to turn back. His fleet was now ready, and he descended the Hydaspes to the Indus, in the autumn and winter of 327 B. C. His army marched in two columns along the banks, the entire valley submitting with little resistance. Two more cities were founded, and left with Greek garrisons and governors. Arriving at the Indian Ocean, Near´chus was sent with the fleet to the Persian Gulf, while Alexander returned by land. His march through Gedro´sia was the most severe of all his operations, the army suffering for the want of food and water. At Pura he obtained supplies, and proceeded through Kerman to Pasargadæ, and thence to Persepolis. Arriving at Susa in the spring of 325 B. C., he allowed his army some months of needed rest, while he began to organize the vast empire which he had so rapidly built up.
16.Desiring to unite his eastern and western dominions by every bond of sympathy and common interest, he assigned to eighty of his officers Asiatic wives with rich dowries. He had himself set the example by taking for his second wife Barsi´ne, daughter of Darius III.; and when ten thousand of the soldiery married Asiatic women, he gave presents to them all. Twenty thousand Persians were received into the army, anddrilled in Macedonian tactics; while Persian satraps were placed over several provinces, and the court was equally composed of Asiatics and Europeans. Some of Alexander’s veterans, seeing the conquered nations placed on a level with themselves, broke into open mutiny. He silenced their complaints with great address, and then sent 10,000 of them home.
17.Unlike most conquerors, Alexander improved the countries which he had won by arms. Rivers were cleared from obstructions, commerce revived, and western enterprise took the place of Asiatic indolence and poverty. The Greek language and literature were planted every-where: every new exploration added to the treasures of science and the enlightenment of the human race. On his march from Ecbatana to Babylon, Alexander was met by embassadors from almost every part of the known world, who came to offer either submission or friendship.
18.He designed to conquer first Arabia, then Italy, Carthage, and the West, extending his empire from the Indus to the Pillars of Hercules. Babylon was to be his capital; and Alexander descended the river, to inspect in person the improvement of the canals which distributed water over the plain. But his magnificent schemes were cut short from their accomplishment by his early death. On his return from visiting the canals, he found the Arabian expedition nearly ready to sail, and he celebrated the occasion by a banquet to Nearchus and the chief officers. In the midst of the subsequent preparations, the king was attacked by a fever, occasioned by his exertions among the marshes, and aggravated, perhaps, by the wine he had taken at the festival. After an illness of eleven days he died, at the age of thirty-two, having reigned twelve years and eight months.