p. 580 | The Empire of Grecia by A. T. J.

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 1, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 37.

The Empire of Grecia.

By A. T. J.

(Continued.)

THE RISE OF ALEXANDER.

BUT it was not for Philip to carry the war against Persia. He could unite Greece under one head; he could shape the forces so that they could be wielded by one mighty arm; and then his work was done. It was reserved for a mightier than he to hurl the rugged forces of Macedon and Greece against the multitudes of the Persian king. B. c. 336, Philip was assassinated at the marriage feast of his daughter. Thus he died at the age of forty-seven years, after a reign of twenty-four years. Ochus, king of Persia, died the same year—poisoned by the eunuch Bagoas, one of his chief ministers. Alexander the Great, at twenty years of age, succeeded Philip as king of Macedon, and Darius Codomannus succeeded Ochus in the rule of the Persian Empire. Thus the last king of Persia and his conqueror, that was to be, began to reign in the same year—B. c. 336. See Rollin, "Hist. of Philip," sec. 7, par. 1; and "Hist. of Alexander," sec. 2, par. 1; "Seven Great Monarchies," Fifth Mon., chap. 7, par. 188.

"The prospects of Alexander were full of uncertainty and peril, up to the very day of Philip's assassination. . . . Cleopatra [Philip's second wife] was at this time in the ascendent; Olympia [Philip's divorced wife, mother of Alexander] was violent and mischievous; and Philip only forty-seven years of age. Hence the future threatened nothing but aggravated dissension and difficulties for Alexander. . . . From such formidable perils, visible in the distance, if not immediately impending, the sword of Pausanias [Philip's assassin] guaranteed both Alexander and the Macedonian kingdom. But at the moment when the blow was struck, and when the Lynkestian Alexander, one of those privy to it, ran to forestall resistance, and place the crown on the head of Alexander the Great, no one knew what to expect from the young prince thus suddenly exalted, at the age of twenty years. . . . It remained to be proved whether the youthful son of Philip was capable of putting down opposition and upholding the powerful organization created by his father.

"But Alexander, present and proclaimed at once by his friends, showed himself, both in word and deed, perfectly competent to the emergency. He mustered, caressed, and conciliated, the divisions of the Macedonian army and the chief officers. His addresses were judicious and energetic, engaging that the dignity of the kingdom should be maintained unimpaired, and that even the Asiatic projects already proclaimed should be prosecuted with as much vigor as if Philip still lived.

"By unequivocal manifestations of energy and address, and by dispatching rivals or dangerous malcontents, Alexander thus speedily fortified his position on the throne at home. But from the foreign dependents of Macedon—Greeks, Thracians, and Illyrians—the like acknowledgment was not so easily obtained. Most of them were disposed to throw off the yoke; yet none dared to take the initiative of moving, and the suddenness of Philip's death found them altogether unprepared for combination. By that event the Greeks were discharged from all engagement, since the vote of the confederacy had elected him personally as imperator. They were now at full liberty, in so far as there was any liberty at all in the proceeding, to elect any one else, or to abstain from re-electing at all, and to even let the confederacy expire.

"Now it was only under constraint and intimidation, as was well known both in Greece and Macedonia, that they had conferred this dignity on Philip, who had earned it by splendid exploits, and had proved himself the ablest captain and politician of the age. They were by no means inclined to transfer it to a youth like Alexander, until he had shown himself capable of bringing the like coercion to bear, and extorting the same submission. The wish to break loose from Macedonia, widely spread throughout the Grecian cities, found open expression from Demosthenes and others in the assembly at Athens.

"Apprised of these impulses prevalent throughout the Grecian world, Alexander felt the necessity of checking them by a demonstration immediate, as well as intimidating. The energy and rapidity of his proceedings speedily overawed all those who had speculated on his youth, or had adopted the epithets applied to him by Demosthenes. Having surmounted, in a shorter time than was supposed possible, the difficulties of his newly-acquired position at home, he marched into Greece at the head of a formidable army, seemingly about two months after the death of Philip. He was favorably received by the Thessalians, who passed a vote constituting Alexander head of Greece in place of Philip; which vote was speedily confirmed by the Amphictyonic assembly, convoked at Thermopylæ.

"Alexander next advanced to Thebes, and from thence over the isthmus of Corinth into Peloponnesus. . . . His great force probably not inferior to that which had conquered at Chæroneia, spread terror everywhere, silencing all except his partisans. Nowhere was the alarm greater than at Athens. The Athenians, recollecting both the speeches of their orators, and the votes of their assembly . . . trembled lest the march of Alexander should be directed against their city, and accordingly made preparation for a siege. . . . At the same time, the assembly adopted . . . a resolution of apology and full submission to Alexander; they not only recognized him as chief of Greece, but conferred upon him divine honors, in terms even more emphatic than those bestowed on Philip. The mover, with other legates, carried the resolution to Alexander, whom they found at Thebes, and who accepted the submission.

"After displaying his force in various portions of Peloponnesus, Alexander returned to Corinth, where he convened deputies from the Grecian cities generally. . . . Alexander asked from the assembled deputies the same appointment which the victorious Philip had required and obtained two years before—the hegemony or headship of the Greeks collectively for the purpose of prosecuting war against Persia. To his request of a prince at the head of an irresistible army, one answer only was admissible. He was nominated imperator with full powers by land and sea.

"The convention sanctioned by Alexander was probably the same as that settled by and with his father Philip. Its grand and significant feature was, that it recognized Hellas [Greece] as a confederacy under the Macedonian prince as imperator, president, or executive head and arm. It crowned him with a legal sanction as keeper of the peace within Greece, and conqueror abroad in the name of Greece."—Grote's History of Greece, chap. 91, par. 9, 10, 11, 14, 16, 17, 18.

Alexander "summoned, at Corinth, the assembly of the several States and free cities of Greece, to obtain from them the same supreme command against the Persians as had been granted to his father a little before his death. No diet ever debated on a more important subject. It was the Western world deliberating on the ruin of the East, and the methods for executing a revenge that had been suspended more than an age. The assembly held at this time will give rise to events, the relation of which will appear astonishing and almost incredible; and to revolutions which will change the appearance of things nearly throughout the world.

"To form such a design required a prince, bold, enterprising, and experienced in war; . . . but above all, a monarch who had supreme authority over all the States of Greece, none of which singly was powerful enough to make so arduous an attempt; and which required, in order to their acting in concert, to be subject to one chief, who might give motion to the several parts of that great body, by making them all concur to the same end. Such a prince was Alexander. It was not difficult for him to rekindle in the minds of the people their ancient hatred of the Persians, their perpetual and irreconcilable enemies whose destruction they had more than once sworn, and whom they had determined to extirpate, in case an opportunity should ever present itself for that purpose. . . . The deliberations of the assembly were therefore very short, and that prince was unanimously* appointed generalissimo against Persia."—Rollin, Hist. Alexander, sec. 2, par. 15, 16.

While Alexander left "Macedonian officers in the exercise of their new imperial authority throughout Greece and the islands," he himself "returned home to push the preparations for his Persian campaign. He did not however think it prudent to transport his main force into Asia, until he had made his personal ascendancy felt by the Macedonian dependencies, westward, northward, and northeastward of Pella—Illyrians, Pæonians, and Thracians. Under these general names were comprised a number of distinct tribes, or nations, warlike and for the most part predatory. Having remained unconquered until the victories of Philip, they were not kept in subjection even by him without difficulty: nor were they at all likely to obey his youthful successor, until they had seen some sensible evidence of his personal energy."—Grote, chap. 91, par. 26.

But they were soon effectually treated to a "sensible evidence of his personal energy"—in just about five months he had swept the country from the borders of Macedonia through the midst of Thracia and Mœsia to and across the Danube at about the twenty-sixth degree of longitude; then up the Danube about 150 miles; then southeastward to the southern point of Lake Lychnidus (the present Ochrida Lake) in the southern part of Illyria (the present Albania); and in less than three weeks afterward he stood with his army in Bœotia, to the south of Thebes, ready to chastise that city for her rebellion during his absence. Thebes was razed to the ground; and Alexander marched on to Corinth, where he received deputations from various Grecian cities, and presided at a meeting of the assembled deputies of the Grecian States, where he levied the quota of troops that each State should supply in the intended expedition, the following spring, against Persia. This being settled, "Alexander left Greece for Pella in the autumn of 335 B. c., and never saw it again."—Grote, chap. 91, last paragraph but one. For the full account of this expedition beyond the Danube and back to Thebes and to Corinth, see Grote, chap. 91, par. 27 and to the end of the chapter. For the line of march, not only here but in all his campaigns, see "Ginn & Heath's Classical Atlas," map No. 19.

"The ensuing winter was employed in completing his preparations; so that early in the spring of 334 B. c., his army, destined for the conquest of Asia, was mustered between Pella and Amphipolis, while his fleet was at hand to lend support."—Grote, chap. 92, par. 1.

"The army intended for Asia, having been assembled at Pella was conducted by Alexander himself first to Amphipolis, where it crossed the Strymon; next along the road near the coast, to the river Nestus and to the towns of Abdera and Maroneia; then through Thrace across the rivers Hebrus and Melas; lastly, through the Thracian Chersonese to Sestos. Here it was met by his fleet, consisting of 160 triremes, with a number of trading vessels besides; made up in large proportions from contingents

furnished by Athens and Grecian cities. The passage of the whole army—infantry, cavalry, and machines—on ships, across the strait from Sestos in Europe to Abydos in Asia, was superintended by Parmenio, and accomplished without either difficulty or resistance.

"The army when reviewed on the Asiatic shore after its crossing, presented a total of 30,000 infantry, and 4,500 cavalry. . . . Besides these troops, there must have been an effective train of projectile machines and engines, for battles and sieges, which we shall soon find in operation. As to money, the military chest of Alexander, exhausted in part by profuse donatives to Macedonian officers," contained only seventy talents—$78,085—no more than enough to maintain his army for thirty days; besides this he had, in bringing together and fitting out his army, incurred a debt of about $1,450,150.—Grote, chap. 92, par. 24, 27, 28.

Thus, in the spring of 334 B. c., on the soil of the Persian Empire, stood Alexander the Great, "as the chief of united Greece," and "the conqueror abroad in the name of Greece," carrying to all the nations of the East the Greek power, Greek art, the Greek language, and Greek civilization. And so, according to the word of the Lord, spoken two hundred years before, "The Prince of Grecia" HAD "come." Dan. 10 : 20.