Ægean sea. It contained many important trading cities and colonies, the chief of which, Palléne, in the headland of the same name: Potidæ'a, a Corinthian colony; Toróne, on the Toronaic gulf; and Olyn'thus, famous for the many sieges it sustained. In the region of Edónia, near the river Strýmon, was Amphip'olis, a favorite colony of the Athenians, Scotus'sa, and Crenídes, whose name was changed to Philip'pi by the father of Alexander the Great.

The most remarkable mountains of Macedon were the Scardian and other branches from the chain of Hæ'mus; Pangæ'us, celebrated for its rich mines of gold and silver; A'thos, which juts into the Ægean sea, forming a remarkable and dangerous promontory; and Olym'pus, which partly belonged to Thessaly. Most of these, but especially the Scardian chain and Mount A'thos, were richly wooded, and the timber they produced was highly valued by shipbuilders. The principal rivers falling into the Adriatic were the Panyásus, the Ap'sus, the Laus, and the Celyd'nus; on the Ægean side were the Haliac'mon, the E'rigon, the Ax'ius, and the Strýmon, which was the northern boundary of Macedon, until Philip extended his dominions to the Nes'

sus.

The soil of Macedonia was very fruitful; on the seacoast especially it produced great abundance of corn, wine, and oil, and most of its mountains were rich in mineral treasures. Macedonia was celebrated for an excellent breed of horses, to which great attention was paid; no fewer than thirty thousand brood mares being kept in the royal stud at Pélla.

SECTION II-History of the Macedonian Monarchy.

FROM B. C. 813 TO B. c. 323.

AN Argive colony, conducted by Car'anus, is said to have invaded Emath'ia by the command of an oracle, and to have been conducted by a flock of goats to the city of Edes'sa, which was easily stormed (B. C. 813). The kingdom thus founded was gradually enlarged at the expense of the neighboring barbarous nations; and was fast rising into importance, when, in the reign of king Amyn'tas, it became tributary to the Persians (B. c. 513), immediately after the return of Daríus from his Scythian campaign. After the overthrow of the Persians at Platæ'æ, Macedon recovered its independence; which, however, was never recognised by the Persian kings. Per'diccas II. (B. c. 554), on coming to the throne, found his dominions exposed to the attacks of the Illyrians and Thracians, while his brother was encouraged to contest the crown by the Athenians. He was induced by these circumstances to take the Spartan side in the first Peloponnesian war, and much of the success of Bras'idas was owing to his active co-operation.

Civilization and the arts of social life were introduced into Macedonia by Archelaus, the son and successor of Per'diccas (B. c. 413). His plans for the reform of the government were greatly impeded by the jealous hostility of the nobles, who were a kind of petty princes, barely conceding to their kings the right of precedence. He was a generous patron of learning and learned men; he invited Soc'rates to

his court; and munificently protected Eurip'ides when he was forced to depart from Athens.

Archelaus was murdered by Crat'erus, one of his favorites (B. C. 400); and his death was followed by a series of civil wars and sanguinary revolutions, which possess no interest or importance. They were terminated by the accession of Philip (B. c. 360), who, on the death of his brother Perdic cas III., escaped from Thebes, whither he had been sent as a hostage, and was chosen king in preference to his nephew, whose infancy disqualified him from reigning in a crisis of difficulty and danger.

Philip found his new kingdom assailed by four formidable armies, and distracted by the claims of two rival competitors for the throne, one of whom had the powerful support of the Athenians. Educated in the arts of war and state-policy by the great Epaminon'das, Philip displayed valor and wisdom adequate to the crisis: he purchased, by darge bribes, the forbearance rather than the friendship of the Illyrians, Pæonians, and Thracians; he then marched with his whole force against Argæ'us and his Athenian auxiliaries, whom he defeated in a general engagement. Arge'us was slain, and his supporters remained prisoners of war. Philip, anxious to court the faver of the Athenians, dismissed his captives without ransom, and resigned his pretensions to Amphip'olis.

Having restored tranquillity to his kingdom, he began to prepare for its security by improving the tactics and military discipline of his subjects. Epaminon'das, at Leuc'tra and Mantineía, had shown the superiority of a heavy column over the long lines in which the Greeks usually arranged their forces; and, improving on this lesson, he instituted the celebrated Macedonian phalanx. He soon found the advantage of this improvement: having been forced to war by the Pæonians, he subdued their country, and made it a Macedonian province; and then, without resting, he marched against the Illyrians, whom he overthrew so decisively, that they begged for peace on any conditions he pleased to impose.

While Athens was involved in the fatal war against the colonies Philip, though professing the warmest friendship for the republic, captured Amphipolis, Pyd'na, and Petida a; and stripped Cotys, king of Thrace, the most faithful ally the Athenians possessed, of a great portion of his dominions. Thence he turned his arms against the tyrants of Thes'saly and Epírus; and received from the Thessalians, in gratitude for his services, the cession of all the revenues arising from their fairs and markets, as well as all the conveniences of their harbors and shipping. When the campaign was concluded (B. c. 357), he married Olympias, daughter of the king of Epírus, a princess equally remarkable for her crimes and her misfortunes.

While Greece was distracted by the second sacred war, Philip was steadily pursuing his policy of extending his northern frontiers, and securing the maritime cities of Thrace. He was vigorously opposed by Kersoblep'tes and an Athenian army; in spite, however, of these enemies, he captured the important city of Methóne; but he deemed the conquest dearly purchased by the loss of an eye during the siege. His attention was next directed to the sacred war, which he was invi

ted to undertake by the Thebans. Having subdued the Phocians, he made an attempt to seize Thermop'ylæ (B. c. 352), but was baffled by the energetic promptitude of the Athenians. They were roused to this display of valor by the eloquent harangues of the orator Demos'thenes, whose whole life was spent in opposing Philip's designs against Grecian liberty. He was soon after doomed to meet a second disappointment; his troops being driven from the island of Eubœ'a by the virtuous Phocion, the last and most incorruptible of the long list of generals and statesmen that adorned the Athenian republic.

These disappointments only stimulated his activity. Having purchased, by large bribes, the services of several traitors in Olyn'thus, he marched against that opulent city (B. C. 349), while the venal orators at Athens, whom he had taken into his pay, dissuaded the careless and sensual Athenians from hastening to the relief of their allies. The noble exhortations, solemn warnings, and bitter reproaches of Demos'thenes, failed to inspire his countrymen with energy: they wasted the time of action in discussions, embassies, and fruitless expeditions; and when they began to prepare for some more serious interference, they were astounded by the intelligence that Olyn'thus was no more. It had been betrayed to Philip, who levelled its walls and buildings to the ground, and dragged the inhabitants into slavery. This triumph was followed by the conquest of the whole Chalcidian peninsula, with its valuable commercial marts and seaports. His artifices and bribes disarmed the vengeance of the Athenians, and lulled them into a fatal security, while Philip finally put an end to the sacred war, by the utter destruction of the Phocians. They even permitted him to extend his conquests in Thebes, and to acquire a commanding influence in the Peloponnésus, by leading an armament thither, which completed the humiliation of the Spartans.

For several years Philip was engaged in the conquest of the commercial cities in the Thracian Chersonese and on the shores of the Propon'tis, while the Athenians made some vigorous but desultory efforts to check his progress. At length the third sacred war against the Locrians of Amphis'sa gave him an opportunity of again appearing as the champion of the national religion of Greece. He entered Phócis, and thence marched to Amphis'sa, which he totally destroyed (B. c. 338). Before the southern Greeks could recover from their astonishment, he threw off the mask which had hitherto concealed his plans, and announced to the states his design of becoming their master, by seizing and fortifying Elatéia. The Thebans and Athenians united in defence of Grecian liberty, but unfortunately they intrusted their forces to feeble and treacherous commanders. They encountered the Macedonians, headed by Philip and his valiant son Alexander, in the plains of Cheronéia, and were irretrievably ruined. They were forced to accept of peace dictated by the conqueror, who treated the Thebans with dreadful severity, but showed great forbearance and kindness to the Athenians. In the following year a general convention of the Grecian states was held at Corinth, where it was resolved that all should unite in a war against the Persians, and that Philip should be appointed captain-general of the confederate forces. While preparations were making for this great enterprise, Philip was stabbed to the

heart by Pausanias, a Macedonian nobleman (B. c. 336), whose motives for committing such an atrocious crime can not be satisfactorily ascertained.

Alexan'der, deservedly surnamed the Great, succeeded his father, but on his accession had to contend against a host of enemies. The Thracians, the Illyrians, and the other barbarous tribes of the north, took up arms, hoping that they might easily triumph over his youth and inexperience. But they were miserably disappointed. Alexander, in an incredibly short space of time, forced their fastnesses, and inflicted on them so severe a chastisement, that they never again dared to attempt a revolt. But, in the meantime, a report had been spread in Greece, that Alexander had fallen in Illyria. The different states began to make vigorous preparations for shaking off the yoke of Macedon; and the Thebans took the lead in the revolt, by murdering the governors that Philip had appointed, and besieging the garrison in the Cadméia (B. c 335). Fourteen days had scarcely elapsed, when Alexander, eager for vengeance, appeared before the walls of Thebes. After a brief struggle, the city was taken by storm, and levelled with the ground. The conqueror spared the lives of those who were descended from Pin'dar, of the priestly families, and of all who had shown attachment to the Macedonian interest; but the rest of the inhabitants were doomed to death or slavery. It must, however, be remarked, that the Baotians in Alexander's army were more active than the Macedonians in this scene of barbarity, and that the Thebans, by their previous treatment of the Baotian cities, had provoked retaliation. Alexander subsequently regretted the fate of Thebes, and confessed that its destruction was both cruel and impolitic.

This dreadful calamity spread terror throughout Greece; the states hastened to renew their submission; and Alexander, whose whole soul was bent on the conquest of Asia, accepted their excuses, and renewed the confederacy, of which his father had been chosen chief. He then intrusted the government of Greece and Macedon to Antip'ater, and prepared to invade the great empire of Persia with an army not exceeding five thousand horse, and thirty thousand foot (B. c. 334). He led his forces to Sestus in Thrace, whence they were transported across the Hellespont without opposition, the Persians having totally neglected the defence of their western frontier.

The Persian satraps rejected the prudent advice of Mem'non, who recommended them to lay waste the country, and force the Macedonians to return home by the pressure of famine; but they collected an immense army, with which they took post on the Granícus, a river that flows from Mount Ida into the Propon'tis. Alexander did not hesitate a moment in engaging the enemy, notwithstanding the vast superiority of the hostile forces. He forded the river at the head of his cavalry, and, after being exposed to great personal danger, obtained a decisive victory, with the loss of only eighty-five horsemen and thirty of the light infantry. This glorious achievement was followed by the subjugation of all the provinces west of the river Hálys, which had formed the ancient kingdom of Lydia; and before the first campaign closed, Alexander was the undisputed master of Asia Minor.

The second campaign opened with the reduction of Phrygia, after

which the Macedonian hero entered Cilicia, and, marching through the pass called the Syrian Gates, reached the bay of Is'sus, where he expected to meet Daríus and the Persian army. But that monarch, persuaded by his flatterers that Alexander was afraid to meet him and trembled at his approach, had entered the defiles in quest of the Greeks, and was thus entangled in the narrow valleys of the Syrian straits, where it was impossible to derive advantage from his vast superiority of numbers. Alexander instantly prepared to profit by this imprudence. He attacked the barbarian columns with his resistless phalanx, and broke them to pieces. The valor of the Greek mercenaries in the pay of Persia for a time rendered the victory doubtful; but the Macedonians, victorious in every other part of the field, attacked this body in flank, and put it to a total rout. Daríus fled in the very beginning of the engagement, leaving his wife, his mother, his daughters, and his infant son, to the mercy of the conqueror. The Persians entangled and crowded in the defiles of the mountains, suffered so severely in their flight, that they made no effort to defend their camp, which, with all its vast treasures, became the prey of the Macedonians. The conduct of Alexander after this unparalleled victory proved that he deserved success. He treated the captive Persian princesses with the greatest respect and kindness, and dismissed without ransom the Greeks whom he had made prisoners while fighting against their country.

Before invading Upper Asia, Alexander prudently resolved to subdue the maritime provinces. He encountered no resistance until he demanded to be admitted into the city of Tyre, when the inhabitants boldly set him at defiance. It would be inconsistent with our narrow limits to describe the siege of this important place (B. c. 332). Suffice it to say, that, after a tedious siege and desperate resistance, Tyre was taken by storm and its inhabitants either butchered or enslaved. This success was followed by the submission of all Palestine, except Gáza, which made as obstinate a defence as Tyre, and was as severely punished. From Gáza the Macedonians entered Egypt, which submitted to them almost without a blow.

Having received, during the winter, considerable reinforcements from Greece, Macedon, and Thrace, Alexander opened his fourth campaign by crossing the Euphrátes at Thap'sacus; thence he advanced to the Tigris, and, having forded that river, entered the plains of Assyria. He found Daríus with an immense army, composed not merely of Persians, but of the wild tribes from the deserts east of the Caspian, encamped near the village of Gaugaméla; but as this place is little known, the battle that decided the fate of an empire is more usually named from Arbéla, the nearest town of importance to the plains on which it was fought (B. c. 331). Having halted for a few days to refresh his men, Alexander advanced early in the morning against the vast host of Daríus. Daríus led his forces forward with so little skill that the horse became intermingled with the foot, and the attempt to disentangle them broke the line. Alexander, forming his troops into a wedge, occupied this gap, and pushing right forward, threw the Asiatics into irretrievable confusion. The Persian cavalry on the left wing continued to maintain the fight after the centre was broken, but when