MACEDONIA. 83 



It was now that a new power sprang into life. 

 Macedonia was a hilly country on the northern bound- 

 aries of Greece ; and a Greek colony having settled there 

 in ancient times, the reigning house and the language of 

 the Court were Hellenic ; the mass of the people were 

 barbarians. It was an old head placed on young shoul- 

 ders ; the intellect of the Greek united with the strength 

 and sinews of wild and courageous mountaineers. 



The celebrated Philip, when a young man, had 

 passed some time in Greece : he had seen what could 

 be done with money in that country ; he conjectured 

 what might be done if the money were sustained by 

 arms. When he became king of Macedon, he made 

 himself president of the Greek confederation, obtaining 

 by force and skilful address, by bribery and intrigue, 

 the position which Athens and Sparta had once pos- 

 sessed. He was preparing to conquer Persia, and to 

 avenge the ancient wrongs of Greece, when he was 

 murdered ; and Alexander, like Frederic the Great, 

 inherited an army disciplined to perfection, and the 

 great design for which that army had been prepared. 



Alexander reduced and garrisoned the rebellious 

 Greece, passed over into Asia Minor, defeated a Persian 

 army at the Granicus, marched along the Ionian coast 

 and crossed over the snowy range of Taurus, which the 

 Persians neglected to defend. He heard that the Great 

 King was behind him with his army entangled in the 

 mountains. He went back, won the battle of Issus, 

 and took prisoner the mother and the wife and the 

 daughter of Darius. He passed into Syria and laid 

 siege to Tyre, the Cherbourg of the Persians, and took 

 it after seven months : this gave him possession of the 

 Mediterranean sea. He passed down the Syrian coast, 

 crossed the desert, — a three days' journey, — which 



