GREECE 199 ike preparations for his eastern campaign; it his departure was delayed by domestic rents, and in the spring of 336 he was assassi- ated, after sending forward a body of troops. Jexander, then 20 years old, immediately acceeded to the throne, and announced his intention to follow in his father's footsteps ; but the occasion of Philip's death was seized the Greeks for an attempt to throw off
- Macedonian supremacy. Alexander's vigor
id rapidity of action disconcerted the move- ent. He advanced rapidly toward Thebes, id the Athenians despatched envoys to de- bate his anger. A general congress was smbled at Corinth, and Alexander was ap- inted to his father's place as commander-in- lief of the expedition against Persia. Re- irning to Macedonia, with the intention of tnmencing his march to the East, he was jvented from carrying his plans into imme- ite execution by the disturbed state of the racians and Triballians. He marched against sm, and quickly reduced them to obedience ; t it his absence in the north tempted the eeks, especially the Athenians and the The- is, into another insurrection. Alexander Ldenly appeared in the neighborhood of lebes, defeated the insurgents, took the city, " ". the inhabitants into slavery, and levelled houses, except that of Pindar, preserving ily the Cadmea for a Macedonian garrison, te demanded that the ten leading orators of ithens should be surrendered to him, and was ly induced to desist from this requirement the intercession of Phocion. Having set- 1 the affairs of Greece, and leaving Antipater regent, in the spring of 334 he set out on his arch for the Hellespont. (See ALEXANDER IE GREAT.) In the distribution of Alexander's
- dominions among his generals on his death
}), Antipater and Craterus were to share the rernment of Macedonia and Greece, in the ne of his half-brother Philip Arrhidseus and the child of Roxana, should that be a son, as iociated kings, while Perdiccas and Leonna- i were to act as regents in the East ; arrange- lents which were of short duration, and were llowed by numerous other partitions of pow- and provinces. During Alexander's absence m Greece attempts had been made to throw the Macedonian yoke. The Spartans took arms, but were defeated near Megalopolis Antipater (331). In 325 Harpalus arrived Athens with treasures he had stolen from ilexander ; but though he attempted to bribe tie leading politicians, he did not secure the protection of the state as he had expected. The news of Alexander's death made a great change, and the party opposed to Macedon in Athens immediately rose to the supremacy. An extensive confederacy was formed, an army ras assembled near Thermopylae under the imand of Leosthenes, and Antipater, who thrown himself into Lamia near the Ma- gulf, was closely besieged. He was re- iced to such straits that he sent an embassy to Athens to sue for peace ; but the Athenians refused to listen to any terms short of uncon- ditional surrender. Leonnatus had come from Hellespontine Phrygia with an army of 20,000 foot and 2,500 horse. Antiphilus, who had succeeded to the command of the allied army after the death of Leosthenes at Lamia, met him in Thessaly, defeated his army, and slew the leader. Antipater soon after joined the defeated army, and, being reenforced by Cra- terus with a considerable force from Asia, de- feated the allied army near Crannon (322). The allies now sued for peace ; but Antipater would only treat with the separate states, and all except Athens speedily laid down their arms. As Antipater marched upon Athens, Phocion was sent in the hope of securing favor- able terms. Antipater required that a certain number of the orators, including Demosthenes and Hyperides, should be surrendered, that a property qualification should be required for the franchise, and that a Macedonian garrison should be received into Munychia. On the motion of Demades, the Athenians condemned the orators to death ; but they escaped from Athens before the arrival of the Macedoni- ans. They were torn from the sanctuaries in which they had taken refuge by Archias, an officer of Antipater. Demosthenes put an end to his life by taking poison in the temple of Neptune, on the island of Calaurea; Hy- perides was barbarously put to death at Ath- ens. In the East, quarrels broke out be- tween Perdiccas, who had become the princi- pal regent, and the other generals of Alexan- der, who assailed him on all sides. In 321 he marched against Egypt, and was there assas- sinated by some of his own officers. Antipater was now declared regent, with the govern- ment of Macedonia and Greece. He died in 319, and was succeeded by Polysperchon as regent, who proclaimed the independence of the Grecian states, and despatched his son Alexander with orders to compel the Macedo- nian garrison to evacuate Munychia. Phocion took refuge with him, but was sent back, in chains to Athens, where in 317 he was put to death with every circumstance of outrage and indignity. Polysperchon being unsuccessful in an expedition in the Peloponnesus, the Athe- nians joined the alliance of Cassander, Antip- ater's son, who established an oligarchy ^ at Athens under the government of Demetrius Phalereus. He became master of Macedonia, and in 315 restored Thebes, which had been in ruins since its destruction by Alexander. In the same year a war broke out in the East, but in 311 a peace was concluded, which was violated the next year by Ptolemy, governor of Egypt. In 30 1 ? Antigonus, who then held almost all Asia Minor and Syria, sent his son Demetrius, afterward called Poliorcetes (be j sieger of cities), to Athens with a powerful fleet. Demetrius Phalereus was forced to surrender, and returned to Thebes. The ancient constitu- tion was restored, and Demetrius and his father
