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his eloquence and awe them by his sword. Thebes paid the penalty 

 of its obstinate perseverance in rebellion by its utter destruction ; 

 and Athens itself was glad to escape the same fate by making the 

 most abject submission to that conqueror against whom she had 

 been the principal means of inciting the rest of Greece to take up 

 arms*. In this disgraceful reverse of fortune, however, it should 

 not be forgotten that she had the virtue to refuse surrendering up 

 Demosthenes to the fury of his enemy, and Alexander was too 

 ardently intent upon his meditated Persian expedition, to delay it, 

 by prolonging the contest for the sole cause of punishing that ob- 

 Christ, noxious orator. Greece being thus restored to a state of profound 



334. 



tranquillity, Alexander was unanimously appointed generalissimo of 

 its united forces destined to act against Persia, in a general assembly 

 of the states convened for that purpose at Corinth ; and, having 

 made the necessary arrangements for preserving that security 

 during his absence, both in Macedonia and the rest of the depen- 

 dent cities, but especially in Macedonia, of which he appointed 

 Antipater governor, with an army highly disciplined and brave, of 

 twelve thousand infantry^ and fifteen hundred horse, he commenced 

 that celebrated expedition, to the particular detail of which we now 

 return. 



Alexander was one of those enlightened princes who consider 

 RELIGION as essential to the wise government of an empire. Pre- 

 viously, therefore, to his departure from Greece, he offered mag- 

 nificent sacrifices to the gods of his country, in order to gain their 

 protection and avert evil. Indeed, his conduct in this respect was 

 uniformly consistent throughout the whole of his expedition, as no 

 undertaking of consequence commenced or terminated without the 

 solemnity of sacrifice. To these sacrifices succeeded public feasts of 



* Arrian, lib. i. cap. 10, 11, et Plutarch in Vita Alexand. 



