Chapter I: Philip and Alexander

THE MACEDONIANS.--The Greeks, exhausted by long-continued war with one another, were just in a condition to fall under the dominion of _Macedonia_, the kingdom on the north which had been ambitious to extend its power. The Macedonians were a mixed race, partly Greek and partly Illyrian. Although they were not acknowledged to be Greeks, their kings claimed to be of Greek descent, and were allowed to take part in the Olympian games. At first an inland community, living in the country, rough and uncultivated, made up mostly of farmers and hunters, they had been growing more civilized by the efforts of their kings to introduce Greek customs. _Archelaus_ (413-399 B.C.) had even attracted Greek artists and poets to his court. At the same time they were exerting themselves to extend their power to the sea. The people were hardy and brave. When _Epaminondas_ died, _Philip_ (359-336 B.C.) was on the Macedonian throne. He had lived three years at _Thebes_, and had learned much from Epaminondas, the best strategist and tactician of his day. The decline of public spirit in Greece had led the states to rely very much on mercenary troops, whose trade was war. Philip had a well-drilled standing army. Every thing was favorable to the gratification of his wish to make himself master of Greece. First he aimed to get possession of Greek cities in _Chalcidice_, of which _Olynthus_ was the chief. The Athenians had towns in that region, besides _Amphipolis_, which was formerly theirs. Philip contrived to make the Olynthians his allies; and then, crossing the river _Strymon_, he conquered the western part of _Thrace_, where there were rich gold mines. There, for purposes of defense, he founded the city of _Philippi_.

THE SACRED WAR.--A pretext for interfering in the affairs of Greece, Philip found in the _Sacred War_ in behalf of the temple of Delphi, which had been forced to loan money to the _Phocians_ during a war waged by them against Thebes, to throw off the Theban supremacy. _Athens_ and _Sparta_ joined the Phocians. The Thessalian nobles sided with Philip. He gained the victory in his character of champion of the _Amphictyonic Council_, and took his place in that body, in the room of the Phocians (346 B.C.). But this was not accomplished until he had made peace with the Athenians, so that there was no Athenian force at the pass of Thermopylae to resist his progress.

DEMOSTHENES.--The Athenians had placed themselves at the head of an _Aegean League_, and, had they managed with more spirit and prudence, they might have checked Philip. There was one man, worthy of the best days of Greece, who penetrated the designs of Philip, and exerted his great powers to stimulate his countrymen to a timely resistance. This was _Demosthenes_ (385-322 B.C.). He was the prince of the school of orators who had sprung up in these troublous times. Overcoming natural obstacles, he had trained himself with such assiduity that a place at the head of all orators, ancient and modern, is generally conceded to him. He was a great statesman, moved by a patriotic spirit: his speeches were for the welfare and salvation of the state. In 358 B.C., a war broke out between Athens and its maritime allies, in which Athens was unsuccessful. It was on the conquest of Thessaly by Philip, that _Demosthenes_ made against him the first of that series of famous speeches known as _Philippics_ (351 B.C.). In vain he urged the Athenians to rescue Olynthus. The inefficiency of the aid rendered, enabled Philip to conquer and destroy that city, and to sell its inhabitants as slaves (348 B.C.). Thirty cities he destroyed, and annexed all _Chalcidice_ to Macedon. A Macedonian party was formed at Athens, the foremost leader of which was _Aeschines_, not a good citizen, but an orator only second in rank to Demosthenes. They contended that it was futile to resist the advance of the Macedonian power. Demosthenes went at the head of an embassy to the Peloponnesian states which had taken sides with Philip, but his efforts to dissuade them from this suicidal policy were unavailing. What he wanted was a union of all Greeks against the common enemy, who was bent on robbing them of their liberty. He gathered, at length, a strong party about him at Athens. The overtures of peace from Philip, who was prosecuting his conquests in Thrace, were rejected. Athenian forces obliged the king to give up the siege of _Byzantium_ (341 B.C.). The consequent enlarged influence of Demosthenes was used by him to secure an increase of the fund for carrying on the war. But Philip had his paid supporters in all the Greek states. _Aeschines_ at Athens proved an efficient helper. A deputy at the _Amphictyonic Council_, in 338 B.C., he contrived to bring about another "holy war" against _Amphissa_ in Locris, the end being to give Philip the command. Philip seized _Elatea_, in the east of Phocis, which commanded the entrance to Boeotia and Attica. Dismay spread through Greece. _Demosthenes_ roused the Athenian assembly, where all were silent through fear, to confront Philip boldly, and himself went to Thebes, which he induced to form an alliance with Athens. But the allies were defeated at the fatal battle of _Chaeronea_ (August, 338 B.C.), where _Alexander_, Philip's youthful son, decided the fortune of the day by vanquishing the Theban "sacred band." Philip treated the Thebans with great severity. He placed a garrison in the _Cadmeia_. To Athens he granted favorable terms. Marching into Peloponnesus, he took from Sparta a large part of its territory, and apportioned it to the Messenians, Argives, and Arcadians. At a national assembly at _Corinth_, from which the Spartans were absent, Philip caused himself to be created leader of the Grecian forces against Persia, with the powers of a dictator. Each of the Greek states was to retain its autonomy; and a congress, to meet at Corinth, was to settle differences among them. Two years after the battle of Chaeronea, at the marriage festival of his daughter with the king of Epirus, Philip was assassinated by means of a conspiracy, in which his queen is thought to have been a partner.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT.--Alexander was twenty years old when his father died. His bodily health and vigor qualified him for combats and toils which few soldiers in his army could endure. His energy, rapidity, and military skill lift him to a level with Hannibal and the foremost commanders of any age. He was not without a generous appreciation of art and literature. The great philosopher, _Aristotle_, was one of his tutors. For the eminent authors and artists of Greece he cherished a warm admiration. But his temper was passionate and imperious. _Homer_ was his delight, and in Homer he took Agamemnon for his model; but the direst act of cruelty done by Achilles--that of dragging _Hector_ after his chariot--he exceeded when he dragged _Batis_, a general who had opposed him, at the tail of his chariot through the streets of _Gaza_. Especially when his passions were inflamed by strong drink,--as at banquets, occasions where Macedonian princes before him had been wont to drink to excess,--he was capable of savage deeds.

ALEXANDER IN GREECE: HIS ARMY.--At a congress in Corinth, Alexander was recognized as the leader and general of Greece. In the spring of 335 B.C., he made a campaign against the barbarous peoples north of Macedonia,--the Thracians, the Getae, and the Illyrians. A false report of his death led to an uprising of the Greeks. Quickly returning, he took vengeance on the _Thebans_ by razing their city to the ground, sparing only the temples and _Pindar's_ house, and by selling its thirty thousand inhabitants into slavery. Athens prayed for pardon, which was granted, even the demand for the surrender of Demosthenes and other leaders being revoked. All resistance in Greece was over. Alexander's hands were free to complete his preparations for the task of conquering the Persian Empire. His army was strong through its valor and discipline rather than its numbers. The Macedonian _phalanx_ was the most effective force which had hitherto been used in war. It was made up of foot soldiers drawn up in ranks, three feet apart, with spears twenty-one feet in length, held fifteen feet from the point. The length of the spears and the projection of so many in front of the first rank, gave to the phalanx a great advantage, although such a body of troops could be turned around with difficulty. Alexander began his battles with other troops, and used the phalanx for the decisive charge. Only native Macedonians served in the phalanx. This was the case, also, with _the Guard_, a body of infantry, and with two divisions of cavalry, one clad in heavy armor, and one in light. With these troops were Greek and barbarian soldiers, infantry and cavalry, and a division for hurling stones, which was used not only in sieges, but also in battles. There was a band of young Macedonian soldiers called _pages_, also a body-guard selected from these by promotion; and out of this the king chose his generals. The army consisted of not more than forty thousand men, but it was so organized as to be completely under the control of Alexander; and he was a military genius of the first order.

THE CAMPAIGN OF ALEXANDER: TO THE BATTLE OF ISSUS.--In the spring of 334 B.C., Alexander crossed the _Hellespont_ at _Abydos_. At _Ilium_ (Troy) he performed various rites in honor of the heroes of the Trojan war, his romantic sympathy with whom was the principal tie between him and the Greeks. A Persian army disputed the passage of the _Granicus_. He was the first to enter the river, and in the battle displayed the utmost personal valor. His decisive victory caused nearly the whole of _Asia Minor_ to submit to him. _Halicarnassus_, and the few other towns that held out, were taken by storm. At _Tarsus_ he was cured by his physician, Philip, of a dangerous fever, brought on by a bath in the chilly waters of the river _Cydnus_. _Darius III_., the king of Persia, with a large army, approaching from the Euphrates, encountered him in a valley near _Issus_, in Cilicia. There (333 B.C.) was fought the memorable battle which settled the fate of the Persian Empire. The host of Darius was defeated with great slaughter; and his camp, with his treasures and his family, fell into the hands of the victor.

TO THE BATTLE OF ARBELA.--After the victory of Issus, _Syria_ and _Phoenicia_ submitted, except _Tyre_, which was captured after a siege of seven months. Two thousand of the inhabitants were hung on the walls, and thirty thousand were sold into slavery. Gaza resisted, and there Alexander was severely wounded. After it was taken, he entered _Egypt_, and founded the city of ALEXANDRIA, in its consequences one of the most memorable acts of his life. He marched through _Lybia_ to the temple of _Jupiter Ammon_ (331 B.C.). Having thus subdued the lands on the west, he passed through _Palestine_ and _Syria_ by way of _Damascus_, crossed the _Euphrates_ and the _Tigris_, and met the Persian army in the plains of Gaugamela, near _Arbela_,--an army more than twenty times as large as his own (October, 331 B.C.). After a hotly contested battle, the Persians were routed, and their empire destroyed.

TO THE INVASION OF INDIA.--_Babylon_ and _Susa_ with all their treasures, and, afterwards, _Persepolis_ and _Pasargadae_, fell into the conqueror's hands. He set fire to Persepolis, and sold its male inhabitants into slavery. He pursued _Darius_ into Media, Hyrcania, and Parthia, where the flying king was murdered by _Bessus_, one of his own nobles, that he might not give himself up to Alexander. He then marched east and south through _Persia_ and the modern _Afghanistan_. He tarried at _Prophthasia_ (Furrah) for two months. Here it was that he charged _Philotas_, one of his best officers, with a conspiracy against his life, and put him to death; and after this he ordered the murder of _Parmenio_, his best general, who had been a companion in arms of King Philip. Founding cities in different places as he advanced, he crossed the _Oxus_, marched through _Sogdiana_, and crossed the _Jaxartes_ (Sir-Daria). While at _Samarcand_, in a drunken revel, he slew _Clitus_, the friend who had saved his life in the battle of the Granicus. In a fit of remorse he went without food or drink for three days. In _Bactra_, the capital of _Bactria_, he married _Roxana_, a princess of the country. By this time his head was turned by his unexampled victories, conquests and power. He began to demand of his followers the cringing adulation that was paid to Oriental monarchs, and when it was denied was ready to inflict summary vengeance.

TO THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER.--Crossing the eastern Caucasus (the _Hindu-Kush_), Alexander moved down the right bank of the _Indus_, subduing the tribes whom he met in his path. On the further side of the _Hydaspes_, he met the Indian prince _Porus_, whom he defeated and captured, and converted into an ally. He continued his marches and his line of victories as far as the river _Hyphasis_. Here the Macedonian troops would go no farther. Alexander turned back (327 B.C.), and with his army and fleet moved down the _Hydaspes_ to the _Indus_, and down the _Indus_ to the sea. _Nearchus_, his admiral, sailed along the shore to the west, while Alexander conducted the rest of the army amid infinite hardships through the desert, and finally met him on the coast. In the beginning of the year 325, he reached _Susa_. Here he plainly manifested his purpose of combining Macedonia and Greece with the East in one great empire. He adopted the Persian costume and ceremonial, and married both the daughter of _Darius III_. and the sister of _Artaxerxes III_. He prevailed on eighty of his Macedonian officers and ten thousand Macedonian soldiers to take Persian wives. For himself he exacted the homage paid to a divinity. These measures, looking to the amalgamation of Macedon and Greece with the East on terms of equality, were most offensive to the old comrades and subjects of Alexander. He was obliged to quell a mutiny, which he accomplished with consummate address and courage (July, 324 B.C.). In the marshes about Babylon, a place which he intended to make his capital, he contracted a fever, which was aggravated by daily revels, and which terminated his life (323 B.C.), after a reign of twelve years and eight months.

INFLUENCE OF ALEXANDER.--The Persian Empire, when it was attacked by Alexander, was a gigantic body without much vitality. Yet to overcome it, there was requisite not only the wonderful military talents of the conqueror, but the vigilance and painstaking which equally characterized him. He has been called "an adventurer." To fight and to conquer, and to spread his dominion wherever there were countries to subdue, seems to have been his absorbing purpose. The most substantial result of his exploits, which read more like fable than authentic history, was to spread _Hellenism_,--to diffuse at least a tincture of Greek civilization, together with some acquaintance with the Greek language, over the lands of the East. This was a most important work in its bearing on the subsequent history of antiquity, and more remotely on the history of all subsequent times.