36 Some Eminent Men 



Alexander the Great needs no particular in- 

 troduction. He was the son of Philip of Mace- 

 don, and was born when his father was 26. But 

 if we will look more at essentials and less at the 

 spectacular we will observe that Alexander reaped 

 where Philip had sown, and that Philip was the 

 brains back of Alexander's achievements. Philip 

 was born when his father Amyntas II was about 

 63, and Amyntas was born about 90 years after 

 the birth of his grandfather, Alexander I. In- 

 cluding the 26 for Alexander the Great, the aver- 

 age is nearly 45 for four generations. 



Men of unusual ability gravitated to Washing- 

 ton during the war, and were given unusual 

 authority. Let us suppose that one of these men 

 should be superior to others, and be given more 

 authority than that given to any one else. How 

 much superior would that person have to be be- 

 fore we abolished the republic, made that man 

 an emperor, and gave him the honorary title of 

 Augustus? But Octavius changed the Roman 

 Republic into an Empire, and is known as Au- 

 gustus of Rome. He was born in 63 B. C., and 

 his great-grandfather was in the battle of Cannae, 

 fought in 216 B. C. The least we can figure 



