made up an army both of horse and foot, such as could not be overcome. 3. After Philip had brought the Athenians and Thessalians under his power, he took for his wife the daughter of Aruba, king of the Molossi: she was called Olympias. Aruba thought that he should enlarge his kingdom, when he gave his daughter to Philip; but he deceived him in that hope, and took all that Aruba had, and afterwards banished him till the end of his life. Then Philip fought against the city of Methone, in the kingdom of the Thebans'; and there, one of his eyes was shot out with an arrow. He, nevertheless, took the city, and killed every one, that he found therein. By his wiles, he afterwards overcame all the people of Greece, because it was their custom that every city should have its own government, and none would be under another, but they were often at war among themselves. Then they asked Philip first from one city, then from another, to help them against those with whom they were at war. When he had overpowered those, against whom he was then at war, and also the people, who before asked him for help, he then brought both under his sway. Thus he beguiled all the Greeks into his power. 4. When the Greeks understood that, and also being very angry, that one king should so easily, almost without any struggle, bring them under his power, just as if they were enslaved to him; he, indeed, often sold them into slavery to other nations, whom formerly none could take in war,-they then all rose in war against him; and he humbled himself to the people, whom he there most sorely dreaded. These were the Thessalians, whom he prevailed upon to join him in war against the Athenians. When they came to the boundary with their army, they had closed their passes.' As Philip could not get within to wreak his 9 6 Oros. 1. III: c. 12, Haver. p. 168-170. 7 Methone, where Philip lost his eye, was in Macedonia, on the Thermaic gulf. 8 Græciam prope totam, consiliis præventam, viribus domuit. Quippe Græciæ civitates dum imperare singulæ cupiunt, imperium omnes perdiderunt: et dum in mutuum exitium sine modo ruunt omnibus perire, quod singulæ amitterent, oppressæ demum servientesque senserunt: quarum dum insanas concertationes Philippus, veluti è specula observat, auxiliumque semper inferioribus suggerendo, contentiones, bellorum fomites, callidus doli artifex fovet, victos sibi pariter victoresque subjecit. Haver. p. 169, 5—10, and p. 170, 1—3. 9 Oros. 1. III: c. 12, Haver. p. 170—172. 1 Igitur Philippus ubi exclusum se ab ingressu Græciæ, præstructis Thermopylis videt, paratum in hostes bellum, vertit in socios: nam civitates, quarum paulo ante dux fuerat ad gratulandum ac suscipiendum patentes hostiliter invadit, crudeliter diripit: omnique societatis conscientia penitus abolita, conjuges liberosque omnium sub corona vendidit, templa vengeance, he then turned upon those, who alone were faithful to him, sacked their city, killed all the people, and overthrew their places of worship, as he did all that he found everywhere, yea also his own; until the priests told him, that all the gods were angry with him, and withstood him. Although they were all angry with him, for the twenty-five years in which he was at war, he was not overcome. Then he marched into the land of Cappadocia, and there by treachery slew all the kings. Afterwards all the Cappadocians gave way to him. He then turned against his three brothers, and one he slew, and two fled into the city of Olynthus, which was the strongest and most wealthy' in the kingdom of Macedonia. Philip marched after them, and stormed the city, and slew the brothers and all that were therein. The three were not the brothers of Philip by his mother, but by his father. 5. At that time,' in the country of the Thracians, two kings, who were brothers, were quarrelling about the kingdom. They sent to Philip, and asked him to settle the kingdom, and to be witness that it was equally divided. Philip came to their meeting with a great army and slew both the kings, and all the counsellors, and seized both the kingdoms.-Afterwards the Athenians asked Philip to be their leader against the Phocians, though they formerly closed their passes against him; and that he would do one of two things, either make peace for them, or help them to overcome the Phocians. He promised that he would help to overcome them. At the same time also, the Phocians begged his help against the Athenians. He promised them, that he would make peace for them. After he had both the passes in his power, he also brought the kingdoms under his sway; and scattered his army throughout the cities, and told them, that they were to pillage the land, till they had laid it waste, so that the people were sorry, both that they must bear the greatest evil, and that they durst not free themselves from it. But he told them to slay all the most powerful; and the others,- some he sent into banishment,—some he settled in other marches. Thus quoque universa subvertit spoliavitque, nec tamen unquam per viginti quinque annos quasi iratis diis victus est. Haver. p. 171, 4-10. 2 Per dolum, finitimos reges interfecit. Id. p. 171, 11. 4 Oros. 1. III: c 12, Haver. p. 172-174. Philip humbled the great kingdoms: though each of them formerly thought that it might have power over many others, they at last found themselves brought to nought. 5 6. Afterwards it seemed to Philip, that, on land, he had not power to satisfy the people with rewards, who were always fighting together with him; but he gathered ships, and they became pirates, and forthwith took, at one time, a hundred and eighty trading ships. He then chose a city near the sea called Byzantium, because he thought that there they might best have peace within; and also that there they should be most handy for waging war upon every land. But the citizens withstood him. Philip surrounded them with his army, and fought against them. The same Byzantium was first built by Pausanias, a leader of the Lacedæmonians, and afterwards enlarged by the Christian emperor Constantine, and from his name, it was called Constantinople, and is now the highest royal seat, and head of all the eastern empire. After Philip had long surrounded the city, he was grieved that he had not so much money to give his army, as they were accustomed to receive. He then divided his army into two parts some he set round the city, and with other bands he went and plundered many cities of the Chersonesians, a people of Greece. Afterwards [about 339 B. C.] he marched with his son Alexander into Scythia, where king Atheas had the sovereignty, who was formerly his companion in the war against the Istrians; and he would then march into that country. But the people of the land guarded themselves against him, and marched towards him with an army. When Philip heard of it, he sent to those, who had surrounded the city, for more help, and marched against them with all his force. Though the Scythians had a great many more men, and were themselves more brave, yet Philip entrapped them by his wiles, in as much as he hid the third part of his army, and himself with it, and ordered the two parts, that, as soon as they began to fight, they should flee towards him, that then, he might entrap them with the third part, when they had 5 Oros. 1. III: c. 13. Haver. p. 174-176. 6 6 Ad Scythiam quoque cum Alexandro filio prædandi intentione pertransiit. Scythis tunc Atheas regnabat: qui quum Istrianorum bello premeretur, auxilium a Philippo per Apollonienses petiit: sed continuo Istrianorum rege mortuo, et belli metu, et auxiliorum necessitate liberatus, pactionem fœderis cum Philippo habitam dissolvit. Oros. 1. III: c. 13. Haver. p. 175, 6-11. Atheas first asked Philip to assist him against the Istrians, and then laughed at him for sending an army. Hence this expedition. Justin. 1. ix: e. 2. 8 passed by. Twenty thousand Scythians, women and men, were there slain and taken; and twenty thousand horses were taken : however, they met with no store of riches, as they had before when they gained the mastery of the battle-field. The poverty of the Scythians was first found out in that battle. After Philip turned from thence, other Scythians, called Triballi,' went after him with a small force. Philip thought their warfare unworthy of him, until a Cwene shot him through the thigh, and killed the horse on which he sat. When his army saw that he fell with his horse, they all fled and left all the booty, that they had formerly taken.' It was a great wonder, that, on the fall of the king, so great an army fled, which before would not flee, although many thousands were slain. When Philip was wounded, he craftily gave leave to all the Greeks, that their governments might stand among them, as they formerly did in olden times. But as soon as he was healed, he pillaged Athens.' Then they sent to the Lacedæmonians, and prayed that they would be friends, though they had formerly long been foes; and prayed also that they all would so strive together as to be able to drive their common enemy from them. Some of them agreed, and gathered a greater force of men than Philip: others, for fear of him, durst not. Philip then thought that he could no longer withstand them in a pitched battle; but he often harassed them 7 The Triballi were a powerful Scythian race. They were, like all the Scythians, warlike and brave, as is evident by their attack upon Philip and by their victory. Justin, whom Orosius chiefly follows, is in this instance more precise than Orosius, stating why the Tribalii opposed Philip:--Revertenti ab Scythia Triballi Philippo occurrunt; negant se transitum daturos, ni portionem accipiant prædæ. Hinc jurgium et mox prælium; in quo ita in femore vulneratus est Philippus, ut per corpus ejus equus interficeretur. Justin. 1. IX: c. 3.—Alfred distinctly states, that these Triballi were Scythians,-offór hine [Philippum opere Scippie, . . . Tribaballe wæron hatene. Though the Triballi were victorious in the present attack, and took immense spoil from Philip, they were afterwards completely routed by his son, Alexander the Great. B. C. 335. 8 Cwéne, one from Cwén-land [See p. 38, note 36]. It seems that some of the Cwénes migrated with the Triballi and other Scythian tribes from the north to the Danube, for they were now [B. C. 339] amongst the Triballi, as is evident from one of them wounding Philip. 9 Quum omnes occisum putarent, in fugam versi, prædam amiserunt. Haver. p. 175, 19, 20. 1 Aliquantula deinde mora dum convalescit a vulnere, in pace conquievit. Statim vero ut convaluit, Atheniensibus bellum intulit. Haver. p. 175, 20-23. 2 Totius Græciæ civitates legationibus fatigant, ut communem hostem, communibus viribus petant. Itaque aliquantæ urbes Atheniensibus sese conjunxêre, quasdam vero ad Philippum belli metus traxit. Haver. p. 176, 1—4 by foragers, scouting about, till they were separated, and he then suddenly marched with his army upon Athens. At that time the Athenians were so dreadfully slaughtered, and beaten. down, that afterwards they had neither any power, nor any freedom.3 7. After that, Philip led an army against the Lacedæmonians and against the Thebans, and greatly troubled and disgraced them until they were utterly routed, and kept under. After Philip had brought all the Greeks under his power, he gave his daughter to Alexander, the king, his own kinsman, to whom he had formerly given the kingdom of Epirus. On that day, they tilted on horse-back, both Philip and Alexander, to whom he gave his daughter, and Alexander his own son, and also many others with them, as was their custom at such times. When it happened that Philip rode out from the crowd to the sport, then one of his old foes met him and stabbed him to death." 8. "I wot not," said Orosius, "why those former wars are so much liked by you Romans, and are so pleasant to hear in songs; and why you praise so highly the times of such sorrows. Now, though only a little of such sorrows comes upon you, yet you bemoan these as the worst times, and can as bitterly weep over them, as you can joyfully laugh over the other. If you be such heroes, as you think you are, then should you as willingly bear your own sorrows, since they are less, than what you hear of theirs. Then would these times seem to you better than those, for your sorrows now are less, than theirs then were. Philip harassed the people of Greece for twenty-five years, both burning their cities and slaying their people, and banishing some into foreign countries, while the sorrows of you Romans, of which you always speak, were only for three days. The mischief of Philip 3 Pugnam longe omnibus anterioribus bellis atrociorem fuisse, ipse rerum exitus docuit. Nam hic dies apud universam Græciam adquisitæ dominationis gloriam, et vetustissimæ libertatis statum finivit. Haver. p. 176, 6-9. 4 Oros. 1. III: c. 14, Haver. p. 176-177, 17. 5 In A. S. Plegedon hy of horsum, they played on horse-back. 6 Die nuptiarum, quum ad ludos magnifice adparatos inter duos Alexandros, filium generumque, contenderet, a Pausania, nobili Macedonum adolescente, in angustiis sine custodibus, circumventus, occisus est. Haver. p. 177, 14-17. 7 Much enlarged by Alfred, from Oros. 1. III: c. 14, Haver. p. 177, 17—22, 178, 1-3. and p. 8 Per viginti quinque annos incendia civitatum, excidia bellorum, subjectiones provinciarum, cædes hominum, opum rapinas, prædas pecorum, mortuorum venditiones captivitatesque vivorum unius regis fraus, ferocia, et dominatus agitavit. Haver. p. 178, 2-5. |