BOOK IV. THE MACEDONIAN EMPIRE AND RISE OF THE HELLENISTIC KINGDOMS. FROM THE ACCESSION OF PHILIP TO THE ACCESSION OF ANTIOCHUS SOTER, B.C. 359 to B.C. 280. VOL. II. B CHAPTER XV. PHILIP OF MACEDON. B.C. 359 TO B.C. 336. Λέγεται τι καινόν ; γένοιτο γὰρ ἄν τι καινότερον ἢ Μακεδὼν ἀνὴρ Αθηναίους καταπολεμῶν καὶ τὰ τῶν Ἑλλήνων διοικῶν ; Do you ask, What is the news? What could be greater news than a Macedonian making war upon the Athenians, and regulating the affairs of Greece?"-DEMOSTHENES, "That dishonest victory At Chæronea, fatal to liberty, Killed with report that old man eloquent."*-MILTON. ACCESSION OF PHILIP-HIS FIRST SUCCESSES-THE MACEDONIAN MONARCHY-EDUCATION PHILIP. FOR the space of nearly a century and a half, from the Ionic revolt to the battle of Mantinea, the whole interest of the world's history has centered in the Greek republics. Having proved the power of liberty to raise the intellectual state of man to its highest pitch, they failed to show how the liberty they had achieved could be made the basis of a permanent constitution or extended to the world at large. Exhausted by their intestine conflicts, they were doomed to follow in the train of a master, who, in the name of the old cause of Hellenic liberty against Persian despotism, founded yet another Asiatic empire, short-lived indeed in itself, but which proved the means of extending Greek civilization to the East. That master was the ruler of a country adjacent to Greece, but hitherto regarded as beyond the Hellenic pale. The military genius of its new and youthful sovereign now first brought its natural resources into full action. PHILIP II., sometimes called the Great, ascended the throne of Macedonia in B.C. 359. He was the youngest of the three sons *The allusion is to the death of Isocrates on hearing of the battle of Charonea, See p. 30. of Amyntas IL His eldest brother, Alexander II, had been slain, at the age of twenty-three, after a reign of only two years, by Ptolemy Alorites (B.c. 369-367). The second brother, Perdiccas III., who recovered the crown by killing the usurper, fell in battle against the Illyrians, after a reign of five years (B.C. 364-359), having left his infant son, and probably his kingdom, to the guardianship of Philip, when he set out on the campaign. A minority, always intolerable in a rude state, such as Macedonia then was, invited rival claimants for the crown, and gave Philip a fair pretext for seizing it himself. Young as he was, he at once displayed that deep policy which was always a chief source of his success. Of his two competitors, Pausanias was favoured by the king of Thrace, whom Philip gained over by liberal offers: the other, Argæus, was supported by the Athenians, to whom he promised to restore their ancient, and still much regretted, possession of Amphipolis;-in which Perdiccas had placed a Macedonian garrison. Philip made the same offers, and withdrew the garrison; and, having defeated Argæus, he showed great kindness to some Athenian volunteers, who had accompanied the pretender, and sent them back to Athens as envoys of conciliation. These measures were followed by a peace with Athens, and the formal acknowledgment of their right to Amphipolis (B.c. 359). Having disposed of these rivals, Philip hastened to meet the dangers that threatened Macedonia from the barbarian tribes on the north and west. The upper courses of her rivers were occupied by the Pæonians, a powerful Thracian tribe, long dangerous neighbours, and who were now threatening an invasion. Philip speedily subdued them, but allowed them to remain as his subject allies, under their own kings, whom we find ruling over them down to the time of the Roman conquest. He next advanced against the more formidable Illyrians. As a geographical term, Illyria denotes the country between Mount Pindus and the Mediterranean, from the borders of Epirus on the south, as far north and west as the river Save and the Julian Alps, corresponding to the modern Albania and Bosnia. But, in an ethnic sense, the name describes no compact and united people, but a number of tribes of Thracian race, intermixed with others of Celtic origin, in consequence of that great movement from the west, which we shall have to notice in connection with the history of Rome. It was one result of this movement, that the Illyrian tribes pressed more and more upon their neighbours; and of late a large body of them, under their aged king Bardylis, had occupied a consider |