Early European History Part 25

THE MACEDONIAN ARMY

Philip's most important achievement was the creation of the Macedonian army, which he led to the conquest of Greece and which his son was to lead to the conquest of the World. Taking a hint from the tactics of Epaminondas, Philip trained his infantry to fight by columns, but with sufficient intervals between the files to permit quick and easy movements.

Each man bore an enormous lance, eighteen feet in length. When this heavy phalanx was set in array, the weapons carried by the soldiers in the first five ranks presented a bristling thicket of lance-points, which no onset, however determined, could penetrate. The business of the phalanx was to keep the front of the foe engaged, while hors.e.m.e.n rode into the enemy's flanks. This reliance on ma.s.ses of cavalry to win a victory was something new in warfare. Another novel feature consisted in the use of engines called catapults, able to throw darts and huge stones three hundred yards, and of battering rams with force enough to hurl down the walls of cities.

All these different arms working together made a war machine of tremendous power--the most formidable in the ancient world until the days of the Roman legion.

CONQUESTS OF PHILIP

Philip commanded a fine army; he ruled with absolute sway a territory larger than any other h.e.l.lenic state; and he himself possessed a genius for both war and diplomacy, With such advantages the Macedonian king entered on the subjugation of disunited Greece. His first great success was won in western Thrace. Here he founded the city of Philippi [2] and seized some rich gold mines, the income from which enabled him to keep his soldiers always under arms, to fit out a fleet, and, by means of liberal bribes, to hire a crowd of agents in nearly every Greek city. Philip next made Macedonia a maritime state by subduing the Greek cities on the peninsula of Chalcidice. [3] He also appeared in Thessaly, occupied its princ.i.p.al fortresses, and brought the frontier of Macedonia as far south as the pa.s.s of Thermopylae.

40. DEMOSTHENES AND THE END OF GREEK FREEDOM

DEMOSTHENES, 384-322 B.C.

Philip for many years had been steadily extending his sway over Greece. In the face of his encroachments would Athens, Sparta, and Thebes, so long the leading cities, submit tamely to this Macedonian conqueror? There was one man, at least, who realized the menace to Greek freedom from Philip's onward march. In Demosthenes Greece found a champion of her threatened liberties.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DEMOSTHENES (Vatican Museum, Rome) A marble statue, probably a copy of the bronze original by the sculptor Polyeuctus. The work, when found, was considerably mutilated and has been restored in numerous parts. Both forearms and the hands holding the scroll are modern additions. It seems likely that the original Athenian statue showed Demosthenes with tightly clasped hands, which, with his furrowed visage and contracted brows, were expressive of the orator's earnestness and concentration of thought.]

DEMOSTHENES AS AN ORATOR AND A PATRIOT

Demosthenes was the last, as well as the most famous, of the great Athenian orators. When he first began to speak, the citizens laughed at his long, involved sentences, over-rapid delivery, and awkward bearing.

Friends encouraged him to persist, a.s.suring him that, if the manner of his speeches was bad, their matter was worthy of Pericles. Numerous stories are told of the efforts made by Demosthenes to overcome his natural defects. He practiced gesturing before a mirror and, to correct a stammering p.r.o.nunciation, recited verses with pebbles in his mouth. He would go down to the seash.o.r.e during storms and strive to make his voice heard above the roar of wind and waves, in order the better to face the boisterous a.s.sembly. Before long he came to be regarded as the prince of speakers even in the city of orators. Demosthenes was a man cast in the old heroic mold. His patriotic imagination had been fired by the great deeds once accomplished by free Greeks. Athens he loved with pa.s.sionate devotion. Let her remember her ancient glories, he urged, and, by withstanding Philip, become the leader of h.e.l.las in a second war for liberty.

LAST STRUGGLE OF THE GREEKS

The stirring appeals of the great orator at first had little effect. There were many friends of Philip in the Greek states, even in Athens itself.

When, however, Philip entered central Greece and threatened the independence of its cities, the eloquence of Demosthenes met a readier response. In the presence of the common danger Thebes and Athens gave up their ancient rivalry and formed a defensive alliance against Philip. Had it been joined by Sparta and the other Peloponnesian states, it is possible that their united power might have hurled back the invader. But they held aloof.

BATTLE OF CHAERONEA, 338 B.C.

The decisive battle was fought at Chaeronea in Boeotia. On that fatal field the well-drilled and seasoned troops of Macedonia, headed by a master of the art of war, overcame the citizen levies of Greece. The Greeks fought bravely, as of old, and their defeat was not inglorious.

Near the modern town of Chaeronea the traveler can still see the tomb where the fallen heroes were laid, and the marble lion set up as a memorial to their dauntless struggle.

PHILIP'S POLICY AS A CONQUEROR

Chaeronea gave Philip the undisputed control of Greece. But now that victory was a.s.sured, he had no intention of playing the tyrant. He compelled Thebes to admit a Macedonian garrison to her citadel, but treated Athens so mildly that the citizens were glad to conclude with him a peace which left their possessions untouched. Philip entered the Peloponnesus as a liberator. Its towns and cities welcomed an alliance with so powerful a protector against Sparta.

CONGRESS AT CORINTH, 337 B.C.

Having completely realized his design of establis.h.i.+ng Macedonian rule over Greece, Philip's restless energy drove him forward to the next step in his ambitious program. He determined to carry out the plans, so long cherished by the Greeks, for an invasion of Asia Minor and, perhaps, of Persia itself. In the year 337 B.C. a congress of all the h.e.l.lenic states met at Corinth under Philip's presidency. The delegates voted to supply s.h.i.+ps and men for the great undertaking and placed Philip in command of the allied forces. A Macedonian king was to be the captain-general of h.e.l.las.

DEATH OF PHILIP, 336 B.C.

But Philip was destined never to lead an army across the h.e.l.lespont. Less than two years after Chaeronea he was killed by an a.s.sa.s.sin, and the scepter pa.s.sed to his young son, Alexander.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ALEXANDER (Glyptothek, Munich) Probably an authentic portrait of the youthful Alexander about 338 B.C.]

41. ALEXANDER THE GREAT

THE YOUTHFUL ALEXANDER

Alexander was only twenty years of age when he became ruler of Macedonia.

From his father he inherited the powerful Frame, the kingly figure, the masterful will, which made so deep an impression on all his contemporaries. His mother, a proud and ambitious woman, told him that the blood of Achilles ran in his veins, and bade him emulate the deeds of that national hero. We know that he learned the _Iliad_ by heart and always carried a copy of it on his campaigns. As he came to manhood, Alexander developed into a splendid athlete, skillful in all the sports of his rough-riding companions, and trained in every warlike exercise.

EDUCATION OF ALEXANDER BY ARISTOTLE

Philip believed that in Alexander he had a worthy son, for he persuaded Aristotle, [4] the most learned man in Greece, to become the tutor of the young prince. The influence of that philosopher remained with Alexander throughout life. Aristotle taught him to love Greek art and science, and instilled into his receptive mind an admiration for all things Grecian.

Alexander used to say that, while he owed his life to his father, he owed to Aristotle the knowledge of how to live worthily.

ALEXANDER CRUSHES REBELLION

The situation which Alexander faced on his accession might well have dismayed a less dauntless spirit. Philip had not lived long enough to unite firmly his wide dominions. His unexpected death proved the signal for uprisings and disorder. The barbarous Thracians broke out in widespread rebellion, and the Greeks made ready to answer the call of Demosthenes to arms. But Alexander soon set his kingdom in order. After crus.h.i.+ng the tribes of Thrace, he descended on Greece and besieged Thebes, which had risen against its Macedonian garrison. The city was soon captured; its inhabitants were slaughtered or sold into slavery; and the place itself was destroyed. The terrible fate of Thebes induced the other states to submit without further resistance.

SEEMING STRENGTH OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE

With Greece pacified, Alexander could proceed to the invasion of Persia.

Since the days of Darius the Great the empire had remained almost intact-- a huge, loosely-knit collection of many different peoples, whose sole bond of union was their common allegiance to the Great King. [5] Its resources were enormous. There were millions of men for the armies and untold wealth in the royal treasuries. Yet the empire was a hollow sh.e.l.l.

EXPEDITION OF THE "TEN THOUSAND," 401-400 B.C.

Some seventy years before Alexander set forth on his expedition the Greeks had witnessed a remarkable disclosure of the military weakness of Persia.

One of those rare revolts which troubled the security of the Persian Empire broke out in Asia Minor. It was headed by Cyrus the Younger, a brother of the Persian monarch. Cyrus gathered a large body of native troops and also hired about ten thousand Greek soldiers. He led this mixed force into the heart of the Persian dominions, only to fall in battle at Cunaxa, near Babylon. The Greeks easily routed the enemy arrayed against them, but the death of Cyrus made their victory fruitless. In spite of their desperate situation the Greeks refused to surrender and started to return homewards. The Persians dogged their footsteps, yet never ventured on a pitched battle. After months of wandering in a.s.syria and Armenia the little band of intrepid soldiers finally reached Trapezus, (Modern Trebizond) a Greek city on the Black Sea.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map, ROUTE OF THE TEN THOUSAND]

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE EXPEDITION

The story of this invasion of Persia and the subsequent retreat was written by the Athenian Xenophon [6] in his _Anabasis_. It is one of the most interesting books that have come down to us from antiquity. We can judge from it how vivid was the impression which the adventures of the "Ten Thousand" made on the Greeks of Xenophon's time. A small army had marched to the center of the Persian dominions, had overcome a host many times its size, and had returned to Greece in safety. It was clear proof that the Persian power, however imposing on the outside, could offer no effective resistance to an attack by a strong force of disciplined Greek soldiers. Henceforth the Greeks never abandoned the idea of an invasion of Persia.

ALEXANDER'S INVASION

The gigantic task fell, however, to Alexander, as the champion of h.e.l.las against the "barbarians." With an army of less than forty thousand men Alexander destroyed an empire before which, for two centuries, all Asia had been wont to tremble. History, ancient or modern, contains no other record of conquests so widespread, so thorough, so amazingly rapid.

42. CONQUEST OF PERSIA AND THE FAR EAST, 334-323 B.C.

BATTLE OF THE GRANICUS, 334 B.C.

Alexander crossed the h.e.l.lespont in the spring of the year 334 B.C. He landed not far from the historic plain of Troy and at once began his march along the coast. Near the little river Granicus the satraps of Asia Minor had gathered an army to dispute his pa.s.sage. Alexander at once led his cavalry across the river in an impetuous charge, which soon sent the Persian troops in headlong flight. The victory cost the Macedonians scarcely a hundred men; but it was complete. As Alexander pa.s.sed southward, town after town opened its gates--first Sardis, next Ephesus, then all the other cities of Ionia. They were glad enough to be free of Persian control. Within a year Asia Minor was a Macedonian possession.

BATTLE OF ISSUS, 333 B.C.

In the meantime Darius III, the Persian king, had been making extensive preparations to meet the invader. He commanded half a million men, but he followed Alexander too hastily and had to fight in a narrow defile on the Syrian coast between the mountains and the sea. In such cramped quarters numbers did not count. The battle became a ma.s.sacre, and only the approach of night stayed the swords of the victorious Macedonians. A great quant.i.ty of booty, including the mother, wife, and children of Darius, fell into Alexander's hands. He treated his royal captives kindly, but refused to make peace with the Persian king.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE ALEXANDER MOSAIC (Naples Museum) This splendid mosaic composed of pieces of colored gla.s.s formed the pavement of a Roman house at Pompeii in Italy. It represents the charge of Alexander (on horseback at the left) against the Persian king in his chariot, at the battle of Issus.]

CAPTURE OF TYRE, 332 B.C.