£2 
M ACE 
try, and to implore the Athenians.to fet it free. This fuit 
Demofthenes recommended warmly to the people ; who 
lent thither their fatnous leader Phocion, fupporte /1 by 
formidable votes, but a very {lender army ; yet fo well did 
he manage the affairs of the commonwealth and her allies, 
that Philip quickly found he mult fora time abandon that 
project; which, however, he did not till he had formed 
another no lefs beneficial to himfelf, or lefs dangerous to 
Athens. It was the profecution of his conquefts in Thrace, 
which lie thought of pufhing much farther than he had 
hitherto done or could be realonably fufpecjed to have any 
intention of doing. 
Extraordinary preparations were made by the Macedo¬ 
nian monarch for this campaign. His fon Alexander was 
left regent of the kingdom ; and lie himfelf with 30,000 
men laid iiege to Perinthus, one of the ftrongeft cities in 
the country. At prefent, however, all his arts of cajoling 
and pretending friendfliip were inefficient to deceive the 
Athenians. They gave the command of their army and 
fleet to .Phocion, a general of great abilities, and with 
whom Philip would have found it very hard to contend. 
"On the other hand, the king of Perfia began to be jea¬ 
lous of the growing power of the Macedonian monarch. 
The Perfian kings had been accultomed to regard thofe of 
Macedon as their faithful allies; but the good fortune of 
Philip, the continual clamour of the Athenians againft 
him, and his dethroning at pleafure the petty princes of 
Thrace, made hirmnow regarded in another light. When 
therefore he led his troops againft Perinthus, the Great 
King, as he was ftyled by the Greeks, lent his letters man¬ 
datory to the governors of the maritime provinces, direct¬ 
ing them to fupply the place with all things in their power ; 
in confequence of which they filled it with troops, granted 
fubfidies in ready money, and fent befides great convoys 
of provifion and ammunition. The Byzantines alfo, fup- 
pofing their own turn would be next, exerted their utmoft 
endeavours for the prefervation of Perinthus ; fending 
thither the flower of their youth, with all other necella- 
r;es for an obftinate defence. The confequence of all this 
■was, that Philip found himfelf obliged to raife the fiege 
with great lofs. 
That the reputation of the Macedonian arms might not 
link by this difgrace, Philip made war on the Scythians 
and Triballi, both of whom he defeated ; and then formed 
a.defign of invading Attica, though lie had no fleet to 
tranfport his troops, and knew very well that the Thefl'a- 
Iiar.s were not to be depended upon if he attempted to 
snarch through the Pifse, and that the Thebans would 
even then be ready to oppofe his march. To obviate all 
thefe difficulties, he had recourfe to Athens itfelf; where, 
hy means of his partifans, he procured his old friend 
yEfchines to be fent their deputy to the Amphiftyons. 
This feemed a fmall matter, and yet was the hinge on 
■which his whole projedt turned. By that time .ASfchines 
had taken his feat, a queftion was ftirred in the council, 
whether the Locrians of Amphifia had not been guilty of 
facrilege in ploughing the fields of Cyrrha in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of the temple of Delphi. The affembly being 
divided in their opinions, aTfchines propofed to take a 
view ; which was accordingly decreed. But, when the Am- 
phiftyons came in order to fee how things flood, the Lo¬ 
crians, either jealous of their property, or fpurred thereto 
by the fuggeltions of fome who faw farther than them- 
fe.lveS, fell upon thofe venerable perfons fo rudely, that 
they were compelled to l'ectire themfelves by flight. The 
Amphidtyons decreed, that an army Ihould be raifed, un¬ 
der the command of one of their own number, to chaftife 
the delinquents; bur, as this army was to be compofed of 
troops fent from all parts of Greece, the appearance at the 
rendezvous was fo inconfiderable, that the Amphiftyons 
fent to command them durft undertake nothing. The 
whole matter being reported to the council, iEfchines, in 
a long and eloquent harangue, fnowed how much the wel- 
fareand even the fafety of Greece depended on the defer¬ 
ence paid to their decrees; and, after inveighing againft 
DON. 
the want of public fpirit in fueh as had not fent their 
quotas at the time appointed by the council, he moved 
that they fliould eleft Philip for their general, and pray 
him to execute their decree. The deputies from the othe"r 
ftates, conceiving thaf-by this expedient their refpedtive 
conftituents would be free from any farther trouble or ex- 
penfe, came into it at once ; whereupon a decree was im¬ 
mediately drawn up, purporting that am ballad ors fliould 
be fent to Philip of Macedon, in the name of Apollo and 
the Amphiftyons. once more to require his affiftance, and 
to notify to him, that the flates of Greece had unani- 
moufly chofen him their general, with full power to ait 
as he thought fit againft inch as had oppofed the autho¬ 
rity of the Amphictyons. Thus of a fudden Philip ac¬ 
quired all that he fought; and, having an army ready in 
expectation of this event, he immediately marched to exe¬ 
cute the commands of the Amphiftyons in appearance, 
but in reality to accomplifh his own defigns : for, having 
parted into Greece with his army, inltead of attacking the 
Locrians, he feized immediately upon Elatea, a great city 
of Phocis upon the river Cephifns. 
The Athenians in the mean time were in the utmoft 
confufion on the news of Philip’s march. However, by 
the advice of Demofthenes, they invited the Thebans to 
join them againft the common enemy of Greece. Philip 
endeavoured as much as poffible to prevent this confede¬ 
racy from taking place; but all his efforts proved ineffec¬ 
tual. The Athenians raifed an army, which marched im¬ 
mediately to Eleufis, where they were joined by the The¬ 
bans. The confederates made the beft appearance that 
had ever been feen in Greece, and the troops were exceed¬ 
ingly good ; but unfortunately the generals were men of 
110 conduct or fkill in the military art. An engagement 
enfued at Cheronaea, in which Philip was victorious ; and 
this victory determined the fate of Greece. From this 
time we muft reckon Philip fupreme lord of all the Gre¬ 
cian ftates. The firll ufe he made of his afcendency was to 
convoke a general affembly, wherein he was recognized 
generaliffimo, and with full powers appointed their leader 
againft the Perfians. Having, by virtue of his authority, 
fettled a general peace among the ftates, and appointed 
the quota that each of them fliould furniffi for the war, 
he difmiffed them ; and, returning to Macedon, began to 
make great preparations for this new expedition. His 
pretence for making war on the Perfians at this time was 
the affiftance given by that nation to the city of Perin¬ 
thus, as already mentioned. 
In the mean time, however, a confpiracy was formed 
againft the king’s life, the circumftances and caufes of 
which are very much unknown. Certain it is, however, 
that it took effeCt, as the king was exhibiting certain 
fliows in honour of his daughter’s marriage with the king 
of Epirus. Philip, having given a public audience to the 
ambafladors of Greece, went next day in ftate to the 
theatre. All the feats were early taken up; and the ffiows 
began with a fplendid proceffion, wherein the images of 
the twelve fuperior deities of Greece were carried, as alfo 
the image of Philip, habited in like manner, as if he now 
made the thirteenth, at which the people ffiouted aloud. 
Then came the king alone, in a white robe, crowned, with 
.his guards at a confiderable diftance, that the Greeks 
might fee he placed his fafety only in his confidence of 
the loyalty of his fubjefts. Paufanias, the aflaffin, how¬ 
ever, had fixed himfelf clofe by the door of the theatre j 
and, obferving that all things fell out as he expefted, took 
his opportunity when the king drew near him; and, plung¬ 
ing his fword in his left fide, laid him dead at his feet. 
He then fled as fait as he was able towards the place 
where his horfes were; and would have elcaped, had not 
the twig of a vine caught his flioe and thrown him down. 
This gave time to thofe who purfued him to come up with 
him ; but, inltead of fecuring him, in order to extort a 
difeovery of his accomplices, they put an end to his life. 
No fooner did the news of Philip’s death reach Athens, 
than, as if all danger had been part, the inhabitants fhowed 
the 
