donians to pray the gods to give them a lawful successor to the kingdom by his niece. This so irritated Alexander, that throwing one of the cups at him, "You villain," said he, "what, am I then a bastard?" Then Philip got up and made at his son with his sword; but by good fortune for them both, either his rage, or the wine he had drunk, made him slip, and fall on the floor. At which Alexander insulted over him: "See there," said he, "the man, who makes preparations to pass out of Europe into Asia, overturned in passing from one seat to another." After this drunken scene, he and his mother Olympias withdrew from Philip's company, and when he had placed her in Epirus, he himself retired into Illyria. About which time, Demaratus the Corinthian, an old friend of the family, who might say his mind among them without offence, coming to visit Philip, after the first compliments and embraces were over, Philip asked him, whether the Grecians were at amity with one another. "It ill becomes you," replied Demaratus, "to be so solicitous about Greece, when you have involved your own house in so many dissensions and calamities." This reproach brought him to reason, and he sent presently for his son home, and with Demaratus's help induced him to return.

Afterwards, however, when Pixodorus, viceroy of 10 Caria, sent Aristocritus to treat for a match between his eldest daughter and Philip's son Arrhidæus, hoping by this alliance to secure his assistance upon occasion, Alexander's mother and friends presently beset him with tales and calumnies, as if Philip, by a splendid marriage and important alliance, were preparing the way for settling the kingdom upon Arrhidæus. In alarm at this,

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he despatched Thessalus, the tragic actor, into Caria, to dispose Pixodorus to slight Arrhidæus, both as illegitimate and a fool, and rather to ask for Alexander as his son-in-law. This proposal was far more agreeable to Pixodorus than the former. But Philip, choosing a time when his son was alone, went to his apartment, taking with him Philotas the son of Parmenio, one of Alexander's intimate friends and companions, and there chid him severely, and reproached him bitterly, that he should be so degenerate and unworthy of the power he was some day to have, as to desire the alliance of a mean Carian, who was at best but the slave of a barbarian prince. He wrote also to the Corinthians to send Thessalus to him in chains, and banished Harpalus, Nearchus, Erigyius, and Ptolemy, his son's companions; whom Alexander afterwards recalled, and raised to great. honour. But when Pausanias, having had an outrage done to him at the instance of Attalus and Cleopatra, Death of for which he could obtain no reparation, murdered Philip, Philip, B.C. 336. the guilt of the act was laid for the most part upon

Olympias, who was said to have encouraged and exasperated the enraged youth to revenge; and some sort of suspicion attached even to Alexander himself, who, it was said, when Pausanias came and complained to him of the injury he had received, repeated the verse out of Euripides's Medea:

On husband, bride, and him that gave the bride.*

* Upon all of whom, says Jason, in the speech from which the line is quoted, Medea is threatening to take her revenge: Jason, Creüsa, and Creon in the play; Philip, Cleopatra, and Attalus in the allusion.

However, he took care to find out and punish the accomplices of the conspiracy severely, and was indignant with Olympias for treating Cleopatra inhumanly in his absence.

Alexander was but twenty years old, when he suc- 11 ceeded to a kingdom beset on all sides with hostility, hatred, and danger. For not only the barbarous nations that bordered on Macedonia were impatient of being governed by any but their own native princes, but in Greece also, Philip, though he had been victorious in the war, yet, as the time had not been sufficient for him to complete his conquest and accustom people to his sway, had simply left all things in a general disorder and confusion. It seemed to the Macedonians a very critical time; and some would have persuaded Alexander to give up all thought of retaining the Greeks in subjection by force of arms, and apply himself rather to win back by gentle means the allegiance of the tribes who were designing revolt, and try the effect of indulgence in arresting the first motions towards revolution. But he, with quite another mind, and following the very opposite course of argument, resolved, by boldness and a lofty bearing, himself to earn the safety of his kingdom, which one slightest act of concession would encourage all to assail. He reduced the barbarians to tranquillity, and put an end to all fear of war from them, by a rapid expedition into their country as far as the river Danube, where he gave Syrmus, king of the Triballians, an entire overthrow. And hearing the Thebans were in revolt, and the Athenians in correspondence with them, he immediately marched through the pass of Thermopyla, saying that to Demosthenes who had called him a child

while he was in Illyria and in the country of the Triballians, and a youth when he was in Thessaly, he would

appear a man before the walls of Athens. When he Destruc- came before Thebes, to show how willing he was to Thebes, accept their repentance for what was past, he only deB.C. 335. manded of them Phoenix and Prothytes, and proclaimed

tion of

12

a general pardon to those who would come over to him. But when the Thebans merely retorted by demanding Philotas and Antipater to be delivered up to them, and by a proclamation on their part, invited all who would assert the liberty of Greece to come over to them, he led on the Macedonians to the attack against them. The Thebans indeed defended themselves with a zeal and courage beyond their strength, being many times outnumbered by their enemies. But when also the Macedonian garrison sallied out upon them from the Cadmea, they were so hemmed in on all sides, that the greater part of them fell in the battle; and the city itself was taken, sacked, and razed, Alexander's hope being that so severe an example might terrify the rest of Greece into obedience, and in order also to gratify the hostility of his confederates, the Phocians and Platæans. So that except the priests, and some few who had heretofore been the friends and connections of the Macedonians, the family of the poet Pindar, and those who were known to have opposed the public vote for the war, all the rest, to the number of thirty thousand, were publicly sold for slaves; upwards of six thousand having fallen by the sword.

Among the many sad calamities that befell in the city, it happened that some Thracian soldiers having entered and plundered the house of a matron of high

character and repute, named Timoclea, their captain, after he had used violence with her, to satisfy his avarice also, asked her, if she knew of any money concealed; to which she answered she did, and bade him follow her into a garden, where she showed him a well, into which, she told him, upon the taking of the city she had thrown what she had of most value. The greedy Thracian presently stooping down to view the place where he thought the treasure lay, she came behind him, and pushed him into the well, and then flung stones in upon him, till she had killed him. After which, when the soldiers led her away bound to Alexander, her very mien and bearing showed her to be a woman of dignity, and of a mind no less elevated, not betraying the least sign of fear or astonishment. And when the king asked her who she was, "I am," said she, "the sister of Theagenes, who fought the battle of Charonea with your father Philip, and fell there in command for the liberty of Greece." Alexander was so surprised, both at what she had done, and what she said, that he could not choose but give her and her children their freedom to go whither they pleased.

After this he received the Athenians into favour, 13 although they had shown themselves so much concerned at the calamity of Thebes, that out of sorrow they omitted the celebration of the Mysteries, and entertained those who escaped with all possible humanity. Whether it were, like the lion, that his passion was now satisfied, or that after an example of extreme cruelty he had a mind to appear merciful, it happened well for the Athenians; for he not only