A. J. C. 358.

In this general remissness, it was not to be supposed that their allies would treat them with the respect they demanded. Most of the states, that had hitherto been in alliance with them, and had found security under their protection, took up arms against them. In reducing these, Chabrias, Iphicrates, and Timotheus, gained great reputation, and are supposed to have been consummate generals; but their successes are too minute to rank them among the class of eminent commanders; and, whatever their skill might have been, there was wanted a great occasion for its display. This war was opened with the siege of Chio, in which the Athenians were repulsed; and Chabrias, unwilling to abandon his vessel, preferred death to flight. The siege of Byzantium followed; before which, the fleets of the contending powers were dispersed by a storm in consequence of which the Athenian generals were recalled. Timotheus was fined a great sum, but being too poor to pay, he went into voluntary banishment. Iphicrates was also obliged to answer for himself, but got off by his eloquence; and, in the mean time, the affairs of Athens succeeded but ill under the guidance of Charis, who was left sole commander. A peace was concluded; whereby every city and people were left to the full enjoyment of their liberty, and thus the war of the allies ended, after having continued three years.

During these transactions, a power was growing up in Greece, hitherto unobserved, but now too conspicuous and formidable to be overlooked in the general

picture: this was that of the Macedonians; a people hitherto obscure, and in a manner barbarous; and who, though warlike and hardy, had never yet presumed to intermeddle in the affairs of Greece. But now, several circumstances concurred to raise them from that obscurity, and to involve them in measures, which, by degrees, wrought a thorough change in the state of Greece. It will be necessary, therefore, to begin with a short account of their power and origin, before we enter into a detail of that conspicuous part which they afterwards performed on the theatre of the world.

CHAPTER XIII.

FROM THE BIRTH TO THE DEATH OF PHILIP,
KING OF MACEDON.

THE people of Macedon were hitherto considered as making no part of the Grecian confederacy; they were looked upon as foreigners, as men, in a measure, semi-barbarous; who boasted, indeed, of taking their origin from the Greeks, but who hitherto neither possessed their politeness, nor enjoyed their freedom; they had little or no intercourse with their mothercountry; they had contracted the habits and manners of the natives where they were settled, and from thence they were treated with similar disrespect.

The first king who is mentioned with any degree of certainty to have reigned in Macedonia, was Caranus, by birth an Argive, and said to be the sixteenth in descent from Hercules. It was upon this foundation that Philip afterwards grounded his pretensions to be of the race of Hercules, and assumed to himself divine honours. Caranus is commonly reputed to have led forth a body of his countrymen, by the advice of the oracle, into those parts, where he settled, and made himself king. Caranus having, according to the general account, reigned twenty-eight years, the succession was continued after him to the times we are now treating of. But there is very little

worth notice recorded of these kings, they being generally employed in defending themselves against the incursions of their neighbours; and as to their domestic affairs, they were remarkable only for the frequent murders and usurpations which happened in the royal family.

Amyntas, father of Philip, began to reign the third year of the ninety-sixth Olympiad. Having the very year after been warmly attacked by the Illyrians, and dispossessed of a great part of his kingdom, which he thought it scarce possible for him ever to recover again, he addressed himself to the Olynthians; and in order to engage them the more firmly in his interest, he had given up to them a considerable tract of land in the neighbourhood of their city. He was restored to the throne by the Thessalians; upon which he was desirous of resuming the possession of the lands, which nothing but the ill situation of his affairs had obliged him to resign to the Olynthians. This occasioned a war; but Amyntas not being strong enough to make head singly against so powerful a people, the Greeks, and the Athenians in particular, sent him succours, and enabled him to weaken the power of the Olynthians, who threatened him with a total and sudden ruin.

Amyntas died, after having reigned twenty-four years. He left three legitimate children; namely, Alexander, Perdiccas, and Philip, Alexander, the eldest son, reigned but one year. Perdiccas, the second brother, was opposed by Pausanias, the Lacedæmonian, who began by seizing some fortresses;

but, by the assistance of Iphicrates, the Athenian general, the usurper was expelled, and Perdiccas, the lawful sovereign, confirmed on the throne. He did not, however, long continue in tranquillity. Ptolemy, a natural son of Amyntas, laid claim to the crown, and disputed his title; which, by mutual consent, was referred to Pelopidas, the Theban, a man much revered both for his probity and his valour. Pelopidas determined in favour of Perdiccas; and, having judged it necessary to take pledges on both sides, in order to oblige the two competitors to observe the articles of the treaty accepted by them, among other hostages, he carried Philip with him to Thebes, where he resided several years. He was then ten years of age. Eurydice, at her leaving this much-loved son, earnestly besought Pelopidas to procure him an education worthy of his birth, and of the city to which he was going an hostage. Pelopidas placed him with Epaminondas, who had a celebrated Pythagorean philosopher in his house for the education of his son, Philip improved greatly by the instructions of his preceptor, and much more by those of Epaminondas, under whom he undoubtedly made some campaigns, though no mention is made of them. He could not possibly have had a more excellent master, whether for war, or the conduct of life; for this ilIustrious Theban was, at the same time that he was a warrior, a very great philosopher; that is to say, a wise and virtuous man. Philip was very proud of being his pupil, and proposed him as a model to himself; most happy, could he have copied him perfectly!