A Smaller History of Greece

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Timoleon was distinguished for gentleness as well as for courage,
but towards traitors and despots his hatred was intense. He had
once saved the life of his elder brother Timophanes in battle at
the imminent peril of his own; but when Timophanes, availing
himself of his situation as commander of the garrison in the
Acrocorinthus, endeavoured to enslave his country, Timoleon did
not hesitate to consent to his death. Twice before had Timoleon
pleaded with his brother, beseeching him not to destroy the
liberties of his country; but when Timophanes turned a deaf ear
to those appeals, Timoleon connived at the action of his friends,
who put him to death, whilst he himself, bathed in a flood of
tears, stood a little way aloof. The great body of the citizens
regarded the conduct of Timoleon with love and admiration. In
the mind of Timoleon, however, their approving verdict was far
more than outweighed by the reproaches and execrations of his
mother. For many years nothing could prevail upon him to return
to public life. He buried, himself in the country far from the
haunts of men, till a chance voice in the Corinthian assembly
nominated him as the leader of the expedition against Dionysius.

Roused by the nature of the cause, and the exhortations of his
friends, Timoleon accepted the post thus offered to him. His
success exceeded his hopes. As soon as he appeared before
Syracuse, Dionysius, who appears to have abandoned all hope of
ultimate success, surrendered the citadel into his hands, on
condition of being allowed to depart in safety to Corinth (B.C.
343). Dionysius passed the remainder of his life at Corinth,
where he is said to have displayed some remnants of his former
luxury by the fastidious taste which he showed in the choice of
his viands, unguents, dress, and furniture; whilst his literary
inclinations manifested themselves in teaching the public singers
and actors, and in opening a school for boys.

Timoleon also expelled the other tyrants from the Sicilian
cities, and gained a great victory over the Carthaginians at the
river Crimesus (or Crimissus). He restored a republican
constitution to Syracuse; and his first public act was to destroy
the impregnable fortifications of the citadel of Ortygia, the
stronghold of the elder and the younger Dionysius. All the
rewards which Timoleon received for his great services were a
house in Syracuse, and some landed property in the neighbourhood
of the city. He now sent for his family from Corinth, and became
a Syracusan citizen. He continued, however, to retain, though in
a private station, the greatest influence in the state. During
the latter part of his life, though he was totally deprived of
sight, yet, when important affairs were discussed in the
assembly, it was customary to send for Timoleon, who was drawn in
a car into the middle of the theatre amid the shouts and
affectionate greetings of the assembled citizens. When the
tumult of his reception had subsided he listened patiently to the
debate. The opinion which he pronounced was usually ratified by
the vote of the assembly; and he then left the theatre amidst the
same cheers which had greeted his arrival. In this happy and
honoured condition he breathed his last in B.C. 336, a few years
after the battle of Crimesus. He was splendidly interred at the
public cost, whilst the tears of the whole Syracusan population
followed him to the grave.

CHAPTER XIX.

PHILIP OF MACEDON, B.C. 359-336.

The internal dissensions of Greece produced their natural fruits;
and we shall have now to relate the downfall of her independence
and her subjugation by a foreign power. This power was
Macedonia, an obscure state to the north of Thessaly, hitherto
overlooked and despised, and considered as altogether barbarous,
and without the pale of Grecian civilization. But though the
Macedonians were not Greeks, their sovereigns claimed to be
descended from an Hellenic race, namely, that of Temenus of
Argos; and it is said that Alexander I. proved his Argive descent
previously to contending at the Olympic games. Perdiccas is
commonly regarded as the founder of the monarchy; of the history
of which, however, little is known till the reign of Amyntas I.,
his fifth successor, who was contemporary with the Pisistratidae
at Athens. Under Amyntas, who submitted to the satrap Megabyzus,
Macedonia became subject to Persia, and remained so till after
the battle of Plataea. The reigns of the succeeding sovereigns
present little that is remarkable, with the exception of that of
Archelaus (B.C. 413). This monarch transferred his residence
from AEgae to Pella, which thus became the capital. He
entertained many literary men at his court, such as Euripides,
who ended his days at Pella. Archelaus was assassinated in B.C.
399, and the crown devolved upon Amyntas II., a representative of
the ancient line. Amyntas left three sons, the youngest being
the celebrated Philip, of whom we have now to speak.

It has been already mentioned that the youthful Philip was one of
the hostages delivered to the Thebans as security for the peace
effected by Pelopidas. His residence at Thebes gave him some
tincture of Grecian philosophy and literature; but the most
important lesson which he learned at that city was the art of
war, with all the improved tactics introduced by Epaminondas.
Philip succeeded to the throne at the age of 23 (B.C. 359), and
displayed at the beginning of his reign his extraordinary energy
and abilities. After defeating the Illyrians he established a
standing army, in which discipline was preserved by the severest
punishments. He introduced the far-famed Macedonian phalanx,
which was 16 men deep, armed with long projecting spears.

Philip's views were first turned towards the eastern frontiers of
his dominions, where his interests clashed with those of the
Athenians. A few years before the Athenians had made various
unavailing attempts to obtain possession of Amphipolis, once the
jewel of their empire, but which they had never recovered since
its capture by Brasidas in the eighth year of the Peloponnesian
war. Its situation at the mouth of the Strymon rendered it also
valuable to Macedonia, not only as a commercial port, but as
opening a passage into Thrace. The Olynthians were likewise
anxious to enrol Amphipolis as a member of their confederacy, and
accordingly proposed to the Athenians to form an alliance for the
purpose of defending Amphipolis against their mutual enemy. An
alliance between these two powerful states would have proved an
insurmountable obstacle to Philip's views: and it was therefore
absolutely necessary to prevent this coalition. Here we have the
first instance of Philip's skill and duplicity in negotiation.
By secretly promising the Athenians that he would put Amphipolis
into their hands if they would give him possession of Pydna, he
induced them to reject the overtures of the Olynthians; and by
ceding to the latter the town of Anthemus, he bought off their
opposition. He now laid siege to Amphipolis, which, being thus
left unaided, fell into his hands (B.C. 358). He then forthwith
marched against Pydna, which surrendered to him; but on the
ground that it was not the Athenians who had put him in
possession of this town, he refused to give up Amphipolis to
them.

Philip had now just reason to dread the enmity of the Athenians,
and accordingly it was his policy to court the favour of the
Olynthians, and to prevent them from renewing their negotiations
with the Athenians. In order to separate them more effectually,
he assisted the Olynthians in recovering Potidaea, which had
formerly belonged to their confederacy, but was now in the hands
of the Athenians. On the capture of the town he handed it over
to the Olynthians. Plutarch relates that the capture of Potidaea
was accompanied with three other fortunate events in the life of
Philip, namely, the prize gained by his chariot at the Olympic
games, a victory of his general Parmenio over the Illyrians, and
the birth of his son Alexander. These events happened in B.C.
356.

Philip now crossed the Strymon, on the left bank of which lay
Pangaeus, a range of mountains abounding in gold-mines. He
conquered the district, and founded there a new town called
Philippi, on the site of the ancient Thracian town of Crenides.
By improved methods of working the mines he made them yield an
annual revenue of 1000 talents, nearly 250,000l.

Meanwhile Athens was engaged in a war with her allies, which has
been called the SOCIAL WAR; and which was, perhaps, the reason
why she was obliged to look quietly on whilst Philip was thus
aggrandizing himself at her expense. This war broke out in B.C.
357. The chief causes of it seem to have been the contributions
levied upon the allies by the Athenian generals. The war lasted
three years; and as Artaxerxes, the Persian king, threatened to
support the allies with a fleet of 300 ships, the Athenians were
obliged to consent to a disadvantageous peace, which secured the
independence of the more important allies (B.C. 355).

Another war, which had been raging during the same time, tended
still further to exhaust the Grecian states, and thus pave the
way for Philip's progress to the supremacy. This was the SACRED
WAR, which broke out between Thebes and Phocis in the same year
as the Social War (B.C. 357). An ill-feeling had long subsisted
between those two countries. The Thebans now availed themselves
of the influence which they possessed in the Amphictyonic council
to take vengeance upon the Phocians and accordingly induced this
body to impose a heavy fine upon the latter people, because they
had cultivated a portion of the Cirrhaean plain, which had been
consecrated to the Delphian god, and was to lie waste for ever.
The Phocians pleaded that the payment of the fine would ruin
them; but instead of listening to their remonstrances, the
Amphictyons doubled the amount, and threatened, in case of their
continued refusal to reduce them to the condition of serfs. Thus
driven to desperation, the Phocians resolved to complete the
sacrilege with which they had been branded, by seizing the very
temple of Delphi itself. The leader and counsellor of this
enterprise was Philomelus, who, with a force of no more than 2000
men, surprised and took Delphi. At first, however, he carefully
abstained from touching the sacred treasure; but being hard
pressed by the Thebans and their allies, he threw off the
scruples which he had hitherto assumed, and announced that the
sacred treasures should be converted into a fund for the payment
of mercenaries. On the death of Philomelus, who fell in battle,
the command was assumed by his brother Onomarchus, who carried on
the war with vigour and success. But he was checked in his
career by Philip, who had previously been extending his dominion
over Thessaly, and who now assumed the character of a champion of
the Delphic god, and made his soldiers wear wreaths of laurel
plucked in the groves of Tempe. He penetrated into Thessaly, and
encountered the Phocians near the gulf of Pagassae. In the
battle which ensued, Onomarchus was slain, and his army totally
defeated (B.C. 352). This victory made Philip master of
Thessaly. He now directed his march southwards with the view of
subduing the Phocians; but upon reaching Thermopylae he found the
pass guarded by a strong Athenian force, and was compelled, or
considered it more prudent, to retreat.

After his return from Thessaly Philip's views were directed
towards Thrace and the Chersonese. It was at this juncture that
Demosthenes stepped forwards as the proclaimed opponent of
Philip, and delivered the first of those celebrated orations
which from their subject have been called "the Philippics." This
most famous of all the Grecian orators was born in B.C. 382-381.
Having lost his father at the early age of seven, his guardians
abused their trust, and defrauded him of the greater part of his
paternal inheritance. This misfortune, however, proved one of
the causes which tended to make him an orator. Demosthenes, as
he advanced towards manhood, perceived with indignation the
conduct of his guardians, for which he resolved to make them
answerable when the proper opportunity should arrive, by accusing
them himself. His first attempt to speak in public proved a
failure, and he retired from the bema amidst the hootings and
laughter of the citizens. The more judicious and candid among
his auditors perceived, however, marks of genius in his speech,
and rightly attributed his failure to timidity and want of due
preparation. Eunomus, an aged citizen, who met him wandering
about the Piraeus in a state of dejection at his ill success,
bade him take courage and persevere. Demosthenes now withdrew
awhile from public life, and devoted himself perseveringly to
remedy his defects. They were such as might be lessened, if not
removed, by practice, and consisted chiefly of a weak voice,
imperfect articulation, and ungraceful and inappropriate action.
He derived much assistance from Satyrus the actor, who exercised
him in reciting passages from Sophocles and Euripides. He
studied the best rhetorical treatises and orations, and is said
to have copied the work of Thucydides with his own hand no fewer
than eight times. He shut himself up for two or three months
together in a subterranean chamber in order to practise
composition and declamation. His perseverance was crowned with
success; and he who on the first attempt had descended from the
bema amid the ridicule of the crowd, became at last the most
perfect orator the world has ever seen.

Demosthenes had established himself as a public speaker before
the period which we have now reached; but it is chiefly in
connexion with Philip that we are to view him as a statesman as
well as an orator. Philip had shown his ambition by the conquest
of Thessaly, and by the part he had taken in the Sacred War; and
Demosthenes now began to regard him as the enemy of the liberties
of Athens and of Greece. In his first "Philippic" Demosthenes
tried to rouse his countrymen to energetic measures against this
formidable enemy; but his warnings and exhortations produced
little effect, for the Athenians were no longer distinguished by
the same spirit of enterprise which had characterized them in the
days of their supremacy. No important step was taken to curb the
growing power of Philip; and it was the danger of Olynthus which
first induced the Athenians to prosecute the war with a little
more energy. In 350 B.C., Philip having captured a town in
Chalcidice, Olynthus began to tremble for her own safety, and
sent envoys to Athens to crave assistance. Olynthus was still at
the head of thirty-two Greek towns, and the confederacy was a
sort of counterpoise to the power of Philip. It was on this
occasion that Demosthenes delivered his three Olynthaic orations,
in which he warmly advocated an alliance with Olynthus.

Demosthenes was opposed by a strong party, with which Phocion
commonly acted. Phocion is one of the most singular and original
characters in Grecian history. He viewed the multitude and their
affairs with a scorn which he was at no pains to disguise;
receiving their anger with indifference, and their praises with
contempt. His known probity also gave him weight with the
assembly. He was the only statesman of whom Demosthenes stood in
awe; who was accustomed to say, when Phocion rose, "Here comes
the pruner of my periods." But Phocion's desponding views, and
his mistrust of the Athenian people, made him an ill statesman at
a period which demanded the most active patriotism. He doubtless
injured his country by contributing to check the more enlarged
and patriotic views of Demosthenes; and though his own conduct
was pure and disinterested, he unintentionally threw his weight
on the side of those who, like Demades and others, were actuated
by the basest motives. This division of opinion rendered the
operations of the Athenians for the aid of the Olynthians languid
and desultory. Town after town of the confederacy fell before
Philip; and in 347 Olynthus itself was taken. The whole of the
Chalcidian peninsula thus became a Macedonian province.

The prospects of Athens now became alarming, her possessions in
the Chersonese were threatened, as well as the freedom of the
Greek towns upon the Hellespont. The Athenians had supported the
Phocians in the Sacred War, and were thus at war with Thebes. In
order to resist Philip the attention of the Athenians was now
directed towards a reconciliation with Thebes, especially since
the treasures of Delphi were nearly exhausted, and on the other
hand the war was becoming every year more and more burthensome to
the Thebans. Nor did it seem improbable that a peace might be
concluded not only between those two cities, but among the
Grecian states generally. It seems to have been this aspect of
affairs that induced Philip to make several indirect overtures to
the Athenians in the summer of B.C. 347. In spite of subsidies
from Delphi the war had been very onerous to them, and they
received these advances with joy, and eventually agreed to the
terms of a peace. Having thus gained over the Athenians, Philip
marched through Thermopylae, and entered Phocis, which
surrendered unconditionally at his approach. He then occupied
Delphi, where he assembled the Amphictyons to pronounce sentence
upon those who bad been concerned in the sacrilege committed
there. The council decreed that all the cities of Phocia, except
Abae, should be destroyed, and their inhabitants scattered into
villages containing not more than fifty houses each. Sparta was
deprived of her share in the Amphictyonic privileges; the two
votes in the council possessed by the Phocians were transferred
to the kings of Macedonia; and Philip was to share with the
Thebans and Thessalians the honour of presiding at the Pythian
games (B.C. 346).

The result of the Sacred War rendered Macedon the leading state
in Greece. Philip at once acquired by it military glory, a
reputation for piety, and an accession of power. His ambitious
designs were now too plain to be mistaken. The eyes of the
blindest among the Athenians were at last opened; the promoters
of the peace which had been concluded with Philip incurred the
hatred and suspicion of the people; whilst on the other hand
Demosthenes rose higher than ever in public favour.

Philip was now busy with preparations for the vast projects which
he contemplated, and which embraced an attack upon the Athenian
colonies, as well as upon the Persian empire. For this purpose
he had organized a considerable naval force as well as an army;
and in the spring of 342 B.C. he set out on an expedition against
Thrace. His progress soon appeared to menace the Chersonese and
the Athenian possessions in that quarter; and at length the
Athenian troops under Diopithes came into actual collision with
the Macedonians. In the following year Philip began to attack
the Greek cities north of the Hellespont. He first besieged and
captured Selymbria on the Propontis, and then turned his arms
against Perinthus and Byzantium. This roused the Athenians to
more vigorous action. War was formally declared against Philip,
and a fleet equipped for the immediate relief of Byzantium.
Philip was forced to raise the siege not only of that town but of
Perinthus also, and finally to evacuate the Chersonesus
altogether. For these acceptable services the grateful
Byzantians erected a colossal statue in honour of Athens.

After this check Philip undertook an expedition against the
Thracians; but meantime his partisans procured for him an
opportunity of marching again into the very heart of Greece.

Amphissa, a Locrian town, having been declared by the
Amphictyonic council guilty of sacrilege, Philip was appointed by
the council as their general to inflict punishment on the
inhabitants of the guilty town. Accordingly he marched
southwards early in B.C. 338; but instead of proceeding in the
direction of Amphissa, he suddenly seized Elatea, the chief town
in the eastern part of Phocis, thus showing clearly enough that
his real design was against Boeotia and Attica. Intelligence of
this event reached Athens at night, and caused extraordinary
alarm, In the following morning Demosthenes pressed upon the
assembly the necessity for making the most vigorous preparations
for defence, and especially recommended them to send an embassy
to Thebes, in order to persuade the Thebans to unite with them
against the common enemy.

The details of the war that followed are exceedingly obscure.
Philip appears to have again opened negotiations with the
Thebans, which failed; and we then find the combined Theban and
Athenian armies marching out to meet the Macedonians. The
decisive battle was fought on the 7th of August, in the plain of
Chaeronea in Boeotia, near the frontier of Phocis (B.C. 338). In
the Macedonian army was Philip's son, the youthful Alexander, who
was intrusted with the command of one of the wings; and it was a
charge made by him on the Theban sacred band that decided the
fortune of the day. The sacred band was cut to pieces, without
flinching from the ground which it occupied, and the remainder of
the combined army was completely routed. Demosthenes, who was
serving as a foot-soldier in the Athenian ranks, has been
absurdly reproached with cowardice because he participated in the
general flight.

The battle of Chaeronea crushed the liberties of Greece, and made
it in reality a province of the Macedonian monarchy. To Athens
herself the blow was almost as fatal as that of AEgospotami. But
the manner in which Philip used his victory excited universal
surprise. He dismissed the Athenian prisoners without ransom,
and voluntarily offered a peace on terms more advantageous than
the Athenians themselves would have ventured to propose. Philip,
indeed, seems to have regarded Athens with a sort of love and
respect, as the centre of art and refinement, for his treatment
of the Thebans was very different, and marked by great harshness
and severity. They were compelled to recall their exiles, in
whose hands the government was placed, whilst a Macedonian
garrison was established in the Cadmea.

A congress of the Grecian states was now summoned at Corinth, in
which war was declared against Persia, and Philip was appointed
generalissimo of the expedition.

In the spring of B.C. 336 Philip sent some forces into Asia,
under the command of Attalus, Parmenio, and Amyntas, which were
designed to engage the Greek cities of Asia in the expedition.
But before quitting Macedonia, Philip determined to provide for
the safety of his dominions by celebrating the marriage of his
daughter with Alexander of Epirus. It was solemnized at AEgae,
the ancient capital of Macedonia, with much pomp, including
banquets, and musical and theatrical entertainments. The day
after the nuptials was dedicated to theatrical entertainments.
The festival was opened with a procession of the images of the
twelve Olympian deities, with which was associated that of Philip
himself. The monarch took part in the procession, dressed in
white robes, and crowned with a chaplet. Whilst thus proceeding
through the city, a youth suddenly rushed out of the crowd, and,
drawing a long sword which he had concealed under his clothes,
plunged it into Philip's side, who fell dead upon the spot. The
assassin was pursued by some of the royal guards, and, having
stumbled in his flight, was despatched before he could reach the
place where horses had been provided for his escape. His name
was Pausanias. He was a youth of noble birth, and we are told
that his motive for taking Philip's life was that the king had
refused to punish an outrage which Attalus had committed against
him.

Thus fell Philip of Macedon in the twenty-fourth year of his
reign and forty-seventh of his age (B.C. 336). When we reflect
upon his achievements, and how, partly by policy and partly by
arms, he converted his originally poor and distracted kingdom
into the mistress of Greece, we must acknowledge him to have been
an extraordinary, if not a great man, in the better sense of that
term. His views and his ambition were certainly as large as
those of his son Alexander, but he was prevented by a premature
death from carrying them out; nor would Alexander himself have
been able to perform his great achievements had not Philip handed
down to him all the means and instruments which they required.

CHAPTER XX.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT, B.C. 336-323.

Alexander, at the time of his father's death, was in his
twentieth year, having been born in B.C. 356. His early
education was entrusted to Leonidas, a kinsman of his mother, a
man of severe and parsimonious character, who trained him with
Spartan simplicity and hardihood; whilst Lysimachus, a sort of
under-governor, early inspired the young prince with ambitious
notions, by teaching him to love and emulate the heroes of the
Iliad. according to the traditions of his family, the blood of
Achilles actually ran in the veins of Alexander; [His mother
Olympias was the daughter of Neoptolemus, king of Epirus who
claimed descent from Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles.] and
Lysimachus nourished the feeling which that circumstance was
calculated to awaken by giving him the name of that hero, whilst
he called Philip Peleus, and himself Phoenix. But the most
striking feature in Alexander's education was, that he had
Aristotle for his teacher, and that thus the greatest conqueror
of the material world received the instructions of him who has
exercised the most extensive empire over the human intellect. It
was probably at about the age of thirteen that he first received
the lessons of Aristotle, and they can hardly have continued more
than three years, for Alexander soon left the schools for the
employments of active life. At the age of sixteen we find him
regent of Macedonia during Philip's absence; and at eighteen we
have seen him filling a prominent military post at the battle of
Chaeronea.

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