gonus began to execute those ambitious projects, which he had long been meditating in private, but had never dared hitherto openly to avow. He first advanced to Babylon, of which he made himself master; Seleucus, the governor, having fled into Egypt, and thrown himself upon the protection of Ptolemy. He next invaded the provinces of Colosyria and Phoenicia, which he compelled to submit: and having built a fleet of five hundred sail in less than a twelvemonth, he attacked and reduced the city of Tyre.

In the mean time, a league was formed between Ptolemy, Lysimachus, Seleucus, and Cassander, for checking the progress of Antigonus's arms. Ptolemy advanced with a large army to Gaza, where he attacked and defeated Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, who had been left to command in his father's absence. But Demetrius soon recovered the honour he had lost, by attacking, in his turn, one of Ptolemy's generals, and giving him a complete overthrow. Ptolemy, however, was enabled, by his victory at Gaza, to furnish Seleucus with a small body of forces, with which he returned to Babylon, and resumed the government of that city, which he continued to enjoy till his death.

Though not only Antigonus, but even Ptolemy, Lysimachus, and Cassander, had for some time acted as independent princes, still they affected to acknowledge a kind of submission to Alexander, the young king of Macedon. But this was a mere pretence to blind the eyes of the people; and that pretence being now no longer thought necessary, they all of them threw off the mask, and openly assumed a title to that sovereign power, of which they were really possessed. Antigonus and his son were proclaimed kings of Syria; Ptolemy was declared king of Egypt; Cassander, king of Macedon; and Lysimachus and Seleucus took the same badge of royalty in the provinces they governed.

It is not to be supposed that such restless and ambitious spirits would long live in harmony and concord among themselves. The Syrian kings invaded Egypt, of which they hoped to make a conquest; but in this they were disappointed. They next turned their arms against Rhodes; but though Demetrius, who, on account of his wonderful success in storming cities, was called Poliorcetes, employed against it the utmost efforts of his military skill, yet was he obliged to abandon the enterprise. For this, indeed, he was furnished with a plausible pretext, in consequence of an embassy from the Athenians, intreating him to come and free them from the oppression of Cassander, who was now besieging their city. Demetrius readily complied with their request, and not only compelled Cassander to give over the siege of Athens, but even to retreat with precipitation into Macedon.

By this time the power of the Syrian kings was become so formidable, as to threaten the independence of all the neighbouring states, and a general combination was therefore formed against them. It consisted chiefly of the Macedonians, Thracians, and Egyptians, who assembled a large body of forces, amounting, in the whole, to about seventy-four thousand men. The kings of Syria were not long in meeting them with a still superior army, and a battle ensued in the neighbourhood of Ipsus, a small town in Phrygia. Both sides behaved with uncommon gallantry; but, after a fierce and obstinate struggle, the Syrians were completely defeated, and their king Antigonus left dead upon the spot. Demetrius escaped with about nine thousand

men.

CHAPTER XVII.

REVOLUTIONS

IN MACEDON AND GREECE, FROM THE DEATH OF ANTIPATER TO THE FINAL OVERTHROW OF THE FAMILY OF PHILIP.

CASSANDER, as we have already observed, had usurped the throne of Macedon. The steps by which he attained to that high dignity, it may not be improper here a little more particularly to relate. Alarıned, as he justly was, at the conduct of Polyperchon, in recalling Olympias to court, and intrusting her, not only with the care of the young king, but even with the direction of the public councils, he began, in concert with his friends, to adopt such measures, as appeared to be the most proper for securing themselves against the effects of that woman's resentment; for he well knew that she bore an implacable hatred to the memory of his father, and to all that were either descended from, or had been connected with him.

One of the first steps, which Polyperchon took by her advice, was to issue an edict, abolishing, throughout all the states of Greece, the aristocratic form of government, which Antipater had revived, and restoring the democratic mode, which had existed a little before it. His ostensible reason for embracing this measure, was the bestowing upon the people a greater degree of liberty than they then enjoyed; but his real motive was the displacing those governors whom Antipater had appointed, and thereby weakening the interest of Cassander. The more intelligent part of the citizens easily saw through the deceit; but the people in general. were caught by it, and clamoured loudly against all those who dared to oppose the execution of the edict, and, among

others, against the virtuous Phocion, who fell a sacrifice to their prejudices on this occasion. Being brought to a trial for this pretended crime, he asked, whether he was to be proceeded against according to the regular forms of law? and being told that he was, he replied, "How is that possible, if no hearing is to be allowed me!" Perceiving, from the violence of the popular resentment, that no opportunity of defence would be granted him, he exclaimed, “As for myself, I confess the crime of which I am accused, and submit cheerfully to the sentence of the law; but consider,

ye Athenians! what it is that these men have done, that they should thus be involved in the same calamity with me." The people called out vehemently, "They are your accomplices, and we need no farther proof of their guilt." A decree was then drawn up and read, by which Phocion and several others were condemned to death. As they were leading this great man to the place of execution, a friend asked him, if he had any commands to leave for his son: "Only this," replied he very coolly," that he forget how all the Athenians treated his father."

The revenge of his enemies was not satiated even with his death. They passed a decree, by which his body was banished the Athenian territories, and a penalty was denounced against any person who should furnish fire for his funeral pile. One Conopion conveyed the corpse a little beyond Eleusina, where he borrowed fire of a Megarian woman, and burned it. A Megarian matron, who attended on that occasion, raised an humble monument on the spot, in memory of the unfortunate orator; and having carried home his ashes, which she had previously collected with great care, she buried them under her hearth; putting up, at the same time, this prayer to her household gods: "To you, O ye deities, who protect this place, do I commit the precious remains of the most excellent Phocion: protect

them, I beseech you, from every insult, and deliver them one day to be deposited in the sepulchre of his ancestors, when the Athenians shall have become wiser."

A short time only had intervened, when the prayer of the pious matron was fulfilled. The Athenians, as in former instances of a similar kind, began to abate of their fury, and to have their eyes opened to the truth. They recollected the many services which the state had derived from the superior wisdom of Phocion's counsels and on that recollection, they could not but wonder at the part they had acted. They decreed, for the victim of their rage, a statue of brass; they ordered his ashes to be brought back to Athens at the public expence; and passed an act, by which all his accusers were to be put to death. Agnonides, who had a capital hand in carrying on the prosecution against Phocion, was seized and executed. Epicurus and Demophilus fled; but Phocion's son overtook them, and revenged the death of his father.

Polyperchon, having thus freed himself from so powerful an opponent as Phocion, proceeded to execute his decree with unrelenting severity; and whoever dared to thwart his will, in this particular, was instantly condemned to death. Olympias too, now thinking she might gratify her revenge without control, and without the fear of future retribution, began to wreak her resentment upon all those who were either the objects of her jealousy or hatred. King Aridæus, the son of Philip by a concubine, naturally fell under this predicament. She had already deprived him of his understanding by means of a potion she had given him; and she now had the cruelty to deprive him of his life, and even to inflict the same punishment on his queen Eurydice, who was likewise his niece, and grand-daughter to Philip. She had, indeed, some shadow of reason for proceeding to such extremities against them. They had not only disapproved