A Smaller History of Greece
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William Smith >> A Smaller History of Greece
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When the news of Alexander's death reached Athens, the anti-
Macedonian party, which, since the exile of Demosthenes, was led
by Hyperides, carried all before it. The people in a decree
declared their determination to support the liberty of Greece.
Envoys were despatched to all the Grecian states to announce the
determination of Athens, and to exhort them to struggle with her
for their independence. This call was responded to in the
Peloponnesus only by the smaller states, whilst Sparta, Arcadia,
and Achaia kept aloof. In northern Greece the confederacy was
joined by most of the states except the Boaotians; and Leosthenes
was appointed commander-in-chief of the allied forces.
The allied army assembled in the neighbourhood of Thermopylae.
Antipater now advanced from the north, and offered battle in the
vale of the Spercheus; but being deserted by his Thessalian
cavalry, who went over to his opponents during the heat of the
engagement, he was obliged to retreat and threw himself into
Lamia, a strong fortress on the Malian gulf. Leosthenes,
desirous to finish the war at a blow, pressed the siege with the
utmost vigour; but his assaults were repulsed, and he was
compelled to resort to the slower method of a blockade. From
this town the contest between Antipater and the allied Greeks has
been called the Lamian War.
The novelty of a victory over the Macedonian arms was received
with boundless exultation at Athens, and this feeling was raised
to a still higher pitch by the arrival of an embassy from
Antipater to sue for peace. But the Athenians were so elated
with their good fortune, that they would listen to no terms but
the unconditional surrender of Antipater. Meantime Demosthenes,
though still an exile, exerted himself in various parts of the
Peloponnesus in counteracting the envoys of Antipater, and in
endeavouring to gain adherents to the cause of Athens and the
allies. The Athenians in return invited Demosthenes back to his
native country, and a ship was sent to convey him to Piraeus,
where he was received with extraordinary honours.
Meanwhile Leonnatus, governor of the Hellespontine Phrygia, had
appeared on the theatre of war with an army of 20,000 foot and
2500 horse. Leosthenes had been slain at Lamia in a sally of the
besieged; and Antiphilus, on whom the command of the allied army
devolved, hastened to offer battle to Leonnatus before he could
arrive at Lamia. The hostile armies met in one of the plains of
Thessaly, where Leonnatus was killed and his troops defeated.
Antipater, as soon as the blockade of Lamia was raised, had
pursued Antiphilus, and on the day after the battle he effected a
junction with the beaten army of Leonnatus.
Shortly afterwards Antipater was still further reinforced by the
arrival of Craterus with a considerable force from Asia; and
being now at the head of an army which outnumbered the forces of
the allies, he marched against them and gained a decisive victory
over them near Crannon in Thessaly, on the 7th of August, B.C.
322. The allies were now compelled to sue for peace; but
Antipater refused to treat with them except as separate states,
foreseeing that by this means many would be detached from the
confederacy. The result answered his expectations. One by one
the various states submitted, till at length all had laid down
their arms. Athens, the original instigator of the insurrection,
now lay at the mercy of the conqueror. As Antipater advanced,
Phocion used all the influence which he possessed with the
Macedonians in favour of his countrymen; but he could obtain no
other terms than an unconditional surrender. On a second mission
Phocion received the final demands of Antipater; which were, that
the Athenians should deliver up a certain number of their
orators, among whom were Demosthenes and Hyperides; that their
political franchise should be limited by a property
qualification; that they should receive a Macedonian garrison in
Munychia; and that they should defray the expenses of the war.
Such was the result of the Lamian war, which riveted the
Macedonian fetters more firmly than ever.
After the return of the envoys bringing the ultimatum of
Antipater, the sycophant Demades procured a decree for the death
of the denounced orators. Demosthenes, and the other persons
compromised, made their escape from Athens before the Macedonian
garrison arrived. AEgina was their first place of refuge, but
they soon parted in different directions. Hyperides fled to the
temple of Demeter (Ceres) at Hermione in Peloponnesus, whilst
Demosthenes took refuge in that of Poseidon (Neptune) in the isle
of Calaurea, near Troezen. But the satellites of Antipater,
under the guidance of a Thurian named Archias who had formerly
been an actor, tore them from their sanctuaries. Hyperides was
carried to Athens, and it is said that Antipater took the brutal
and cowardly revenge of ordering his tongue to be cut out, and
his remains to be thrown to the dogs. Demosthenes contrived at
least to escape the insults of the tyrannical conqueror. Archias
at first endeavoured to entice him from his sanctuary by the
blandest promises, But Demosthenes, forewarned, it is said, by a
dream, fixing his eyes intently on him, exclaimed, "Your acting,
Archias, never touched me formerly, nor do your promises now."
And when Archias began to employ threats, "Good," said
Demosthenes; "now you speak as from the Macedonian tripod; before
you were only playing a part. But wait awhile, and let me write
my last directions to my family." So taking his writing
materials, he put the reed into his mouth, and bit it for some
time, as was his custom when composing; after which he covered
his head with his garment and reclined against a pillar. The
guards who accompanied Archias, imagining this to be a mere
trick, laughed and called him coward, whilst Archias began to
renew his false persuasions. Demosthenes, feeling the poison
work--for such it was that he had concealed in the reed now bade
him lead on. "You may now," said he, "enact the part of Creon,
and cast me out unburied; but at least, O gracious Poseidon, I
have not polluted thy temple by my death which Antipater and his
Macedonians would not have scrupled at." But whilst he was
endeavouring to walk out, he fell down by the altar and expired.
The history of Alexander's successors is marked from first to
last by dissension, crimes, and unscrupulous ambition. It is
only necessary for the purpose of the present work to mention
very briefly the most important events.
Alexander on his death-bed is said to have given his signet-ring
to Perdiccas, but he had left no legitimate heir to his throne,
though his wife Roxana was pregnant. On the day after
Alexander's death a military council was assembled, in which
Perdiccas assumed a leading part; and in which, after much
debate, an arrangement was at length effected on the following
basis: That Philip Arrhidaeus, a young man of weak intellect,
the half-brother of Alexander (being the son of Philip by a
Thessalian woman named Philinna), should be declared king,
reserving however to the child of Roxana if a son should be born,
a share in the sovereignty: that the government of Macedonia and
Greece should be divided between Antipater and Craterus: that
Ptolemy should preside over Egypt and the adjacent countries:
that Antigonus should have Phrygia Proper, Lycia, and Pamphylia:
that the Hellespontine Phrygia should be assigned to Leonnatus:
that Eumenes should have the satrapy of Paphlagonia and
Cappadocia, which countries, however, still remained to be
subdued: and that Thrace should be committed to Lysimachus.
Perdiccas reserved for himself the command of the horse-guards,
the post before held by Hephaestion, in virtue of which he became
the guardian of Philip Arrhidaeus, the nominal sovereign. It was
not for some time after these arrangements had been completed
that the last rites were paid to Alexander's remains. They were
conveyed to Alexandria, and deposited in a cemetery which
afterwards became the burial-place of the Ptolemies. Nothing
could exceed the magnificence of the funeral car, which was
adorned with ornaments of massive gold, and was so heavy, that it
was more than a year in being conveyed from Babylon to Syria,
though drawn by 84 mules. In due time Roxana was delivered of a
son, to whom the name of Alexander was given, and who was
declared the partner of Arrhidaeus in the empire. Roxana had
previously inveigled Statira and her sister Drypetis to Babylon,
where she caused them to be secretly assassinated.
Perdiccas possessed more power than any of Alexander's generals,
and he now aspired to the Macedonian throne. His designs,
however, were not unknown to Antigonus and Ptolemy ; and when he
attempted to bring Antigonus to trial for some offence in the
government of his satrapy, that general made his escape to
Macedonia, where he revealed to Antipater the full extent of the
ambitious schemes of Perdiccas, and thus at once induced
Antipater and Craterus to unite in a league with him and Ptolemy,
and openly declare war against the regent. Thus assailed on all
sides, Perdiccas resolved to direct his arms in the first
instance against Ptolemy. In the spring of B.C. 321 he
accordingly set out on his march against Egypt, at the head of a
formidable army, and accompanied by Philip Arrhidaeus, and Roxana
and her infant son. He advanced without opposition as far as
Pelusium, but he found the banks of the Nile strongly fortified
and guarded by Ptolemy, and was repulsed in repeated attempts to
force the passage of the river; in the last of which, near
Memphis, he lost great numbers of men by the depth and rapidity
of the current. Perdiccas had never been popular with the
soldiery, and these disasters completely alienated their
affections. A conspiracy was formed against him, and some of his
chief officers murdered him in his tent.
The death of Perdiccas was followed by a fresh distribution of
the provinces of the empire. At a meeting of the generals held
at Triparadisus in Syria, towards the end of the year 321 B.C.,
Antipater was declared regent, retaining the government of
Macedonia and Greece; Ptolemy was continued in the government of
Egypt; Seleucus received the satrapy of Babylon; whilst Antigonus
not only retained his old province, but was rewarded with that of
Susiana.
Antipater did not long survive these events. He died in the year
318, at the advanced age of 80, leaving Polysperchon, one of
Alexander's oldest generals, regent; much to the surprise and
mortification of his son Cassander, who received only the
secondary dignity of Chiliarch, or commander of the cavalry.
Cassander was now bent on obtaining the regency; but seeing no
hope of success in Macedonia, he went over to Asia to solicit the
assistance of Antigonus.
Polysperchon, on his side, sought to conciliate the friendship of
the Grecian states, by proclaiming them all free and independent,
and by abolishing the oligarchies which had been set up by
Antipater. In order to enforce these measures, Polysperchon
prepared to march into Greece, whilst his son Alexander was
despatched beforehand with an army towards Athens to compel the
Macedonian garrison under the command of Nicanor to evacuate
Munychia. Nicanor, however, refused to move without orders from
Cassander, whose general he declared himself to be. Phocion was
suspected of intriguing in favour of Nicanor, and being accused
of treason, fled to Alexander, now encamped before the walls of
Athens. Alexander sent Phocion to his father, who sent him back
to Athens in chains, to be tried by the Athenian people. The
theatre, where his trial was to take place, was soon full to
overflowing. Phocion was assailed on every side by the clamours
of his enemies, which prevented his defence; from being heard,
and he was condemned to death by a show of hands. To the last
Phocion maintained his calm and dignified, but somewhat
contemptuous bearing. When some wretched man spat upon him as he
passed to the prison, "Will no one," said he, "check this
fellow's indecency?" To one who asked him whether he had any
message to leave for his son Phocus, he answered, "Only that he
bear no grudge against the Athenians." And when the hemlock
which had been prepared was found insufficient for all the
condemned, and the jailer would not furnish more unless he was
paid for it, "Give the man his money," said Phocion to one of his
friends, "since at Athens one cannot even die for nothing." He
died in B.C. 317, at the age of 85. The Athenians afterwards
repented of their conduct towards Phocion. His bones, which had
been cast out on the frontiers of Megara, were brought back to
Athens, and a bronze statue was erected to his memory.
Whilst Alexander was negotiating with Nicanor about the surrender
of Munychia, Cassander arrived in the Piraeus with a considerable
army, with which Antigonus had supplied him. Polysperchon was
obliged to retire from Athens, and Cassander established an
oligarchical government in the city under the presidency of
Demetrius of Phalerus.
Although Polysperchon was supported by Olympias, the mother of
Alexander the Great, he proved no match for Cassander, who became
master of Macedonia after the fall of Pydna in B.C. 316. In this
city Olympias had taken refuge together with Roxana and her son;
but after a blockade of some months it was obliged to surrender.
Olympias had stipulated that her life should be spared, but
Cassander soon afterwards caused her to be murdered, and kept
Roxana and her son in custody in the citadel of Amphipolis.
Shortly afterwards Cassander began the restoration of Thebes
(B.C. 315), in the twentieth year after its destruction by
Alexander, a measure highly popular with the Greeks.
A new war now broke out in the East. Antigonus had become the
most powerful of Alexander's successors. He had conquered
Eumenes, who had long defied his arms, and he now began to
dispose of the provinces as he thought fit. His increasing power
and ambitious projects led to a general coalition against him,
consisting of Ptolemy, Seleucus, Cassander, and Lysimachus, the
governor of Thrace. The war began in the year 315, and was
carried on with great vehemence and alternate success in Syria,
Phoenicia, Asia Minor, and Greece. After four years all parties
became exhausted with the struggle, and peace was accordingly
concluded in 311, on condition that the Greek cities should be
free, that Cassander should retain his authority in Europe till
Alexander came of age, that Ptolemy and Lysimachus should keep
possession of Egypt and Thrace respectively, and that Antigonus
should have the government of all Asia. This hollow peace, which
had been merely patched up for the convenience of the parties
concerned, was not of long duration. It seems to have been the
immediate cause of another of those crimes which disgrace the
history of Alexander's successors. His son, Alexander, who had
now attained the age of sixteen, was still shut up with his
mother Roxana in Amphipolis; and his partisans, with injudicious
zeal, loudly expressed their wish that he should be released and
placed upon the throne. In order to avert this event Cassander
contrived the secret murder both of the mother and the son.
This abominable act, however, does not appear to have caused a
breach of the peace. Ptolemy was the first to break it (B.C.
310), under the pretext that Antigonus, by keeping his garrisons
in the Greek cities of Asia and the islands, had not respected
that article of the treaty which guaranteed Grecian freedom.
After the war had lasted three years Antigonus resolved to make a
vigorous effort to wrest Greece from the hands of Cassander and
Ptolemy, who held all the principal towns in it. Accordingly, in
the summer of 307 B.C. he despatched his son Demetrius from
Ephesus to Athens, with a fleet of 250 sail, and 5000 talents in
money. Demetrius, who afterwards obtained the surname of
"Poliorcetes," or "Besieger of Cities," was a young man of ardent
temperament and great abilities. Upon arriving at the Piraeus he
immediately proclaimed the object of his expedition to be the
liberation of Athens and the expulsion of the Macedonian
garrison. Supported by the Macedonians, Demetrius the Phalerean
had now ruled Athens for a period of more than ten years. Of
mean birth, Demetrius the Phalerean owed his elevation entirely
to his talents and perseverance. His skill as an orator raised
him to distinction among his countrymen; and his politics, which
led him to embrace the party of Phocion, recommended him to
Cassander and the Macedonians. He cultivated many branches of
literature, and was at once an historian, a philosopher, and a
poet; but none of his works have come down to us. The Athenians
heard with pleasure the proclamations of the son of Antigonus his
namesake, the Phalerean was obliged to surrender the city to him,
and to close his political career by retiring to Thebes. The
Macedonian garrison in Munychia offered a slight resistance,
which was soon overcome, Demetrius Poliorcetes then formally
announced to the Athenian assembly the restoration of their
ancient constitution, and promised them a large donative of corn
and ship-timber. This munificence was repaid by the Athenians
with the basest and most abject flattery. Both Demetrius and his
father were deified, and two new tribes, those of Antigonias and
Demetrias, were added to the existing ten which derived their
names from the ancient heroes of Attica.
Demetrius Poliorcetes did not, however, remain long at Athens.
Early in 306 B.C. he was recalled by his father, and, sailing to
Cyprus, undertook the siege of Salamis. Ptolemy hastened to its
relief with 140 vessels and 10,000 troops. The battle that
ensued was one of the most memorable in the annals of ancient
naval warfare, more particularly on account of the vast size of
the vessels engaged. Ptolemy was completely defeated; and so
important was the victory deemed by Antigonus, that on the
strength of it he assumed the title of king, which he also
conferred upon his son. This example was followed by Ptolemy,
Seleucus, and Lysimachus.
Demetrius now undertook an expedition against Rhodes, which had
refused its aid in the attack upon Ptolemy. It was from the
memorable siege of Rhodes that Demetrius obtained his name of
"Poliorcetes." After in vain attempting to take the town from
the sea-side, by means of floating batteries, from which stones
of enormous weight were hurled from engines with incredible force
against the walls, he determined to alter his plan and invest it
on the land-side. With the assistance of Epimachus, an Athenian
engineer, he constructed a machine which, in anticipation of its
effect, was called Helepolis, or "the city-taker." This was a
square wooden tower, 150 feet high, and divided into nine
stories, filled with armed men, who discharged missiles through
apertures in the sides. When armed and prepared for attack, it
required the strength of 2300 men to set this enormous machine in
motion. But though it was assisted by the operation of two
battering-rams, each 150 feet long and propelled by the labour of
1000 men, the Rhodians were so active in repairing the breaches
made in their walls, that, after a year spent in the vain attempt
to take the town, Demetrius was forced to retire and grant the
Rhodians peace.
In 301 B.C, the struggle between Antigonus and his rivals was
brought to a close by the battle of Ipsus in Phrygia, in which
Antigonus was killed, and his army completely defeated. He had
attained the age of 81 at the time of his death. A third
partition of the empire of Alexander was now made. Seleucus and
Lysimachus shared between them the possessions of Antigonus.
Lysimachus seems to have had the greater part of Asia Minor,
whilst the whole country from the coast of Syria to the
Euphrates, as well as a part of Phrygia and Cappadocia, fell to
the share of Seleucus. The latter founded on the Orontes a new
capital of his empire, which he named Antioch, after his father
Antiochus, and which long continued to be one of the most
important Greek cities in Asia. The fall of Antigonus secured
Cassander in the possession of Greece.
Demetrius was now a fugitive, but in the following year he was
agreeably surprised by receiving an embassy from Seleucus, by
which that monarch solicited his daughter Stratonice in marriage.
Demetrius gladly granted the request, and found himself so much
strengthened by this alliance, that in the spring of the year 296
he was in a condition to attack Athens, which he captured after a
long siege, and drove out the bloodthirsty tyrant Lachares, who
had been established there by Cassander.
Meanwhile Cassander had died shortly before the siege of Athens,
and was succeeded on the throne of Macedon by his eldest son,
Philip IV. [Philip Arrhidaeus is called Philip III.] But that
young prince died in 295, and the succession was disputed between
his two brothers, Antipater and Alexander. Demetrius availed
himself of the distracted state of Macedonia to make himself
master of that country (B.C. 294). He reigned over Macedonia,
and the greater part of Greece, about seven years. He aimed at
recovering the whole of his father's dominions in Asia; but
before he was ready to take the field, his adversaries, alarmed
at his preparations, determined to forestall him. In the spring
of B.C. 287 Ptolemy sent a powerful fleet against Greece, while
Pyrrhus on the one side and Lysimachus on the other
simultaneously invaded Macedonia. Demetrius had completely
alienated his own subjects by his proud and haughty bearing, and
by his lavish expenditure on his own luxuries; while Pyrrhus by
his generosity, affability, and daring courage, had become the
hero of the Macedonians, who looked upon him as a second
Alexander. The appearance of Pyrrhus was the signal for revolt:
the Macedonian troops flocked to his standard and Demetrius was
compelled to fly. Pyrrhus now ascended the throne of Macedonia;
but his reign was of brief duration; and at the end of seven
months he was in turn driven out by Lysimachus. Demetrius made
several attempts to regain his power in Greece, and then set sail
for Asia, where he successively endeavoured to establish himself
in the territories of Lysimachus, and of his son-in-law Seleucus.
Falling at length into the hands of the latter, he was kept in a
kind of magnificent captivity in a royal residence in Syria;
where, in 283, at the early age of 55, his chequered career was
brought to a close, partly by chagrin, and partly by the sensual
indulgences with which be endeavoured to divert it.
Lysimachus, Seleucus, and Ptolemy now divided the empire of
Alexander between them. In Egypt the aged Ptolemy had abdicated
in 285 in favour of his son by Berenice afterwards known as
Ptolemy Philadelphus, and to the exclusion of his eldest son,
Ptolemy Ceraunus, by his wife Eurydice. Ptolemy Ceraunus quitted
Egypt in disgust, and fled to the court of Lysimachus; and
Arsinoe, the wife of Lysimachus, jealous of her stepson
Agathocles, the heir apparent to the throne, and desirous of
securing the succession for her own children, conspired with
Ptolemy Ceraunus against the life of Agathocles. She even
procured the consent of Lysimachus to his murder; and after some
vain attempts to make away with him by poison, he was flung into
prison, where Ptolemy Ceraunus despatched him with his own hand.
Lysandra, the mother of Agathocles, fled with the rest of her
family to Seleucus, to demand from him protection and vengeance;
and Seleucus, induced by the hopes of success, inspired by the
discontent and dissensions which so foul an act had excited among
the subjects of Lysimachus, espoused her cause. The hostilities
which ensued between him and Lysimachus were brought to a
termination by the battle of Corupedion, fought near Sardis in
281, in which Lysimachus was defeated and slain. By this
victory, Macedonia, and the whole of Alexander's empire, with the
exception of Egypt, southern Syria, Cyprus, and part of
Phoenicia, fell under the sceptre of Seleucus.
That monarch, who had not beheld his native land since he first
joined the expedition of Alexander, now crossed the Hellespont to
take possession of Macedonia. Ptolemy Ceraunus, who after the
battle of Corupedion had thrown himself on the mercy of Seleucus,
and had been received with forgiveness and favour, accompanied
him on this journey. The murder of Agathocles had not been
committed by Ptolemy merely to oblige Arsinoe. He had even then
designs upon the supreme power, which he now completed by another
crime. As Seleucus stopped to sacrifice at a celebrated altar
near Lysimachia in Thrace, Ptolemy treacherously assassinated him
by stabbing him in the back (280). After this base and cowardly
act, Ptolemy Ceraunus, who gave himself out as the avenger of
Lysimachus, was, by one of those movements wholly inexplicable to
our modern notions, saluted king by the army; but the Asiatic
dominions of Seleucus fell to his son Antiochus, surnamed Soter.
The crime of Ptolemy. however, was speedily overtaken by a just
punishment. In the very same year his kingdom of Macedonia and
Thrace was invaded by an immense host of Celts, and Ptolemy fell
at the head of the forces which he led against them. A second
invasion of the same barbarians compelled the Greeks to raise a
force for their defence, which was intrusted to the command of
the Athenian Callippus (B.C. 279). On this occasion the Celts
attracted by the report of treasures which were now perhaps
little more than an empty name, penetrated as far southwards as
Delphi, with the view of plundering the temple. The god, it is
said, vindicated his sanctuary on this occasion in the same
supernatural manner as when it was attacked by the Persians: it
is at all events certain that the Celts were repulsed with great
loss, including that of their leader Brennus. Nevertheless some
of their tribes succeeded in establishing themselves near the
Danube; others settled on the sea-coast of Thrace whilst a third
portion passed over into Asia, and gave their name to the country
called Galatia.
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