ence of mind, and escaped with difficulty; but Epaminon'das, proudly recounting his heroic deeds, awed his accusers into silence, and was conducted home in triumph.

On

The Peloponnesian war lingered during the six following years. The Spartans were engaged in punishing their revolted subjects in Lacónia; the Thebans were involved in a difficult struggle against Alexan'der, the tyrant of Phéra, who had succeeded to the influence of Jáson in Thessaly, and Ptolemy, the usurper of the throne of Macedon. Pelop'idas was intrusted with the command of the army sent to regulate these difficulties. He forced Alexan'der to submit to the terms of peace imposed by the Theban senate, and he restored Perdic'cas, the legitimate heir, to the throne of Macedon. To secure the Theban interest in the north, he brought home with him several of the Macedonian princes and nobles as hostages, among whom was Philip, the younger brother of Perdic'cas, and future conqueror of Greece. his return, Pelop'idas was treacherously seized by the tyrant of Phéræ, and thrown into prison; nor was he liberated until Epaminon'das, after the defeat of many inferior leaders, was sent into Thessaly, where he soon forced the tyrant Alexan'der to unconditional submission. Pelop'idas, after his liberation, was sent as an ambassador to Persia, where his eloquence so charmed Artaxer'xes, that he broke off his alliance with Spar'ta and concluded a league with the Thebans. The greater number of the Grecian states refused to accede to this union, partly from their ancient hostility to Persia, partly from jealousy of Thebes. Epaminon'das was therefore sent a third time into the Peloponnésus with a powerful army, to revive the spirit of the former confederacy against Sparta (B. c. 366). He wasted much precious time in trying to obtain a naval power, and he was long prevented from undertaking any enterprise of importance by the jealousy and dissensions of his allies, especially the Arcadians. While he was thus employed, his colleague Pelop'idas fell in a battle against Alexan'der, the tyrant of Phéræ (B. c. 364); and the Thebans, through sorrow for his death, made no public rejoicings for their victory. His loss was poorly compensated by the destruction of the tyrant, who was soon after murdered by his own family.

In the following year, Epaminon'das entered upon his last campaign, by marching against the Peloponnesian states which had separated from the Theban alliance. Knowing the unprotected condition of Spar'ta, he made a forced march, and appeared before the city while the army was at a considerable distance. His attack was fierce; but it was repelled by the valor of Archida'mus, the son of Agesilaus, who, with a handful of men, compelled the Thebans to retreat. Foiled in this attempt, he resolved to surprise the wealthy city of Mantinæ'a; and would have succeeded, had not a squadron of Athenian cavalry accidentally reached the place a little before the appearance of the Thebans, and by their determined valor baffled the utmost efforts of the assailants. These repeated disappointments induced Epaminon'das to hazard a pitched battle. It was fought in the neighborhood of Mantinæ'a, and was the most arduous and sanguinary contest in which the Greeks had yet engaged. Epaminon'das fell in the arms of victory; and the Thebans, neglecting to pursue their advantages, rendered this

sanguinary struggle indecisive, and productive of no other consequence than a general languor and debility in all the Grecian states. The 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.

Sparta was anxious to recover Messénia; but this being opposed by the Persian king, Agesilaus, 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; Chabrias, 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 republicans were forced to comply (B. c. 356). The confederate states regained complete freedom and independence, which they preserved for twenty years, when they, with the rest of Greece, fell under the dominion 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 (в. 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 Del'phi. 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 Bœótia 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'yla; 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 urgent 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-generai 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 Emath'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 Bullis. East of these lay a little 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 math'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