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the Macedonian monarch, whose ambition disdained the limits set 

 to his conquests by the surrounding ocean, panted to display his 

 genius on that nobler theatre, the continent of Asia. Flattered by 

 the easy subjugation of one empire, he already, in the comprehen- 

 sive grasp of his aspiring -mind, meditated the destruction of 

 another; and no object less magnificent than the sceptre of. Persia, 

 weakened as that monarchy was by. its vast extent, and undermined 

 by the general corruption of both governors and governed, seemed 

 worthy of his boundless ambition. 



Greece, in a divided state, impressed Persia with no terror; 

 united, she was dreadful and irresistible. Her present-union, indeed, 

 under Philip, was the result of constraint ; and, though the means 

 used by that politic prince to effect the general submission to his 

 will through all its limits, which followed the decisive battle of 

 Choronaea, ought ever to be spoken of in the strong reprobative 

 language of Demosthenes, yet it cannot be denied that some power- 

 ful commanding influence was necessary to cement the varying 

 interests ; and that, without it, the national energy could never have 

 been fully concentrated, nor effectually directed to one focal point. 

 The ancient ardour to revenge the invasion of Xerxes still glowed in 

 every Grecian bosom, inflamed by the accumulated injuries and 

 oppressions experienced during nearly three centuries from the 

 imperious satraps that presided on her western frontier. Philip 

 himself, in addition to the general incentive of glory and aggran- 

 dizement, pretended also private motives of revenge for the assis- 

 tance recently and avowedly given by the king of Persia to the 

 besieged cities of Perinthus and Byzantium*. By means of his 

 usurped authority, having convened a general assembly of the 

 Amphyctions, he there procured himself to be declared generalissimo 



* Died. Sic. lib. xvi. cap. 77. 



