The victorious Thebans, headed by Epaminondas, and joined by many of the Grecian states, ravaged the Lace demonian territories to the very suburbs of the capital; and oh their return reinstated the Messenians, whom the Spartans had driven from their country. The Lacedemo nians, alarmed not merely for their supremacy but their safety, secured assistance from Athens, from Syracuse, and even from Persia, while the Thebans were hard pressed by a war in Thessaly, against Alexander, tyrant of Pherx. Pelopidas, however, having been dispatched to the Persian court, succeeded in recommending himself to the esteem of the monarch, and in turning his friendship to a state which had never been at war with Persia. Thebes,intoxicat -ed with her rising power, which she owed chiefly to the abi lities of her leaders, obstinate in maintaining her authority over the cities of Bceotia, which was perhaps necessary for her resistance to Lacedemon, and aiming to become the arbitress of Greece, which her sudden elevation provoked many of the states to regard as unpardonable presumption, may be considered as at this period the cause of the con tinuation of hostilities among the Greeks. Sparta, how ever, was equally obstinate in refusing to acknowledge the independence of the \lesseniatis, and war was prolonged for some time with little effect, chiefly between the confe derates of the two principal powers. The Thebans, hav ing at length terminated the war with Thessaly, with the loss of their able general Pelopidas, were at liberty to take part more effectually in the transactions of Peloponnesus. A civil war having broken out in Arcadia between the cities of MantinTa and Tegea, the Thebans supported the cause of the latter, while the Athenians and Lacedemonians declar ed for the former. The very existence of Sparta was threatened by the bold and enterprising measures of Epa minondas, who had nearly taken the city by surprise ; but, frustrated in his plan by the activity of Agesilaus, he re turned and gave battle to the Lacedemonians and their al lies at Mantirma, where he was mortally wounded in the moment of victory, and where with him the power of the state expired. A general pacification succeed ed, upon the basis of the former treaties prescribed by Persia, that every city should be independent ; but the L•, cedemonians still persisting in their wish to reduce the emancipated Messenians, were excluded from the treaty, and remained nominally at war with the confederates of Thebes. Exasperated by the friendly dispositions which the Persian court had manifested to the Thebans, and per haps expecting to acquire some pecuniary resources for the recovery of their power in Greece, they sent an army to aid the insurgents in Egypt. After the death of Age silaus, on his return from Africa, little occurs in the his tory of Greece deserving of notice, till the appearance of Philip of Macedon. A great change had taken place in Grecian politics. There was now no leading state, either of the aristocratical or democratical interests ; and, though every city exercised a jealous watchfulness to prevent any overbearing superiority in another, there were no exten sive confederacies or hostilities ; but lassitude, indecision, and divisions, pervaded the nation, and paved the way for the universal subjugation of their liberties by the Macedonian monarchy. See AGESILAUS, EPAMINONDAS, &c.
In consequence of the blow given to the Spartan power in the battle of Mantinxa, and the decline of Thebes after the loss of Epaminondas, Athens remained the most pro minent and respected of the Grecian republics. In want, however, of any salutary check from a powerful rival, its government became extravagant and irregular in the most extraordinary degree ; the inconsiderate voice of the mul titude deciding every measure, frequently ratifying at night what they had rejected in the morning, and ready to follow every varying scheme of every flattering orator. The citizens also, sinking into unbounded luxury, declin ed all military service, and resorting to the aid of mer cenaries, engaged in hostilities chiefly for the purpose of collecting plunder, or of extorting tribute. Every maraud ing expedition was approved, provided the leaders brought home a sufficiency of treasure to provide amusements for toe people, and to bribe the orators to silence. The offi cial men, iu short, inadequately rewarded by their regular salaries, learned, as is almost uniformly the case, to re compense themselves ; and the people, either become ne cessitous by their idle attendance on political matters, or injudiciously supported by the public funds as an encou ragement to population, actually -depended for their sub sistence upon the sacrifices, feasts, and spoils, connected with their military expeditions. While Athens was in this situation, strangely feeble in the whole constitution of its government and population, yet by means of its naval force still the principal republic in Greece, a rival to its power arose in a quarter, which had hitherto attracted lit tle attention, and had even been regarded by the Grecian states as undeserving of their notice. Though the kings of Macedonia pretended to be the descendants of Hercules, the Greeks considered them as no part of their nation, but always treated them as barbarians. This kingdom had existed more than four hundred years, but had generally stood in need of protection from Athens or from Sparta ; and had never risen to a capacity of partaking in the emi nence of these republics. But it now furnished an ex ample, similar to that of Thebes, of the power of one dis tinguished individual to accomplish, in favourable circum stances, the most important revolutions. It was in The bes, indeed, that the new leader of the Macedonians had received his best instructions in the arts of policy and war. Philip had been taken to that city as a hostage when he was only ten years of age, and had been carefully educated under the eye of Epaminondas, assisted by the celebrated Pythagorean philosopher Lysis. At twenty-four years of age he ascended the throne of Macedon, and gave early indication of his talents for government. At the period
of his accession, he found himself at war with the Athe nians, who supported one of his competitors for the king dom. Having defeated his adversary, who was slain in the action, he instantly liberated, and loaded with favours, all the soldiers of Athens whom he had taken prisoners.
aving discovered, that the Athenians were intent upon the recovery of Amphipolis, which they claimed as one of their colonies, but which he had seized as the key of his dominions on that frontier, he was equally reluctant to put it in their power, or to conic to a rupture for which he was not prepared. With his usual consummate policy, there fore, he declared it in the mean time a free city, and left the inhabitants to maintain theirown independence. A peace and alliance were ratified between the Macedonian prince and the city of Athens ; but their agreement was of short duration. A contest speedily commenced, which led to the subversion of Grecian freedom by the arts and arms of Philip ; but which owed its origin as much to the unprin cipled aggressions of the Athenian democracy, as to the ambitious views of the Macedonian monarch. While in full alliance and co-operation with Philip against the Olyn thians, they suddenly indicated their hostility to his in terests, by detaching the town of Pydna from his kingdom, and making a direct attempt to possess themselves of Am phipolis. Failing in their design, it was soon after occupi ed by Philip, and rendered a strong barrier between his dominions and those of the Grecian states. Before this time had commenced "the Sacred War," undertaken by the Beeotians, Locrians, Thessalians, &c. in order to punish the Phocians, who had ploughed a field sacred to Apollo at Delphos, and had refused to discharge the fine which the council of the Amphictyons had sentenced them to pay, as au atonement for the sacrilegious deed. They were sup ported by the Lacedemonians, Athenians, &c. and Philip, well pleased to leave the Grecian states to exhaust their strength against each other, had employed himself in the meantime in extending his power in Thrace, and in at taching Thessaly to his interests, by delivering its cities from the oppressive sway of the tyrants of Pherx. Ir ritated, however, by the defection of Olynthus from the Macedonian to the Athenian alliance, lie laid siege to that city ; and, having gained possession of the place by bribing a party of its inhabitants, he razed its walls to the ground, and sold the people for slaves. The Sacred War, which was still carried on by both parties with the most sanguinary retaliations, next afforded him a fair op portunity of bringing his power into full contact with the Grecian states. Professing, to adjust, as arbitrator, the matter in dispute, promising to the Phocians his protec tion against the fury of their enemies, and soothing the Athenians by the reports of his friends, that he was se cretly intending to humble Thebes rather than Phocis, he marched an army into Greece; gained quiet possession of the Phocian cities ; secured to that people, as he had pro mised, their personal safety ; but procured, or at least sanctioned, a decree of the Amphictyonic Assembly, an nihilating their political existence as a nation, and expell ing them from the number of the Grecian states repre sented in the council. He was himself elected in their place as a member of the Assembly ; invested with the double vote which they had enjoyed ; and usually deno minated in their future operations the Amphictyonic gene ral. The Athenians refused to acknowledge his election ; and manifested, in all their measures, an ambition even more unprincipled and indefensible than that of the Mace donian monarch. Guided rather by the inflammatory elo quence of Demosthenes, than by the pacific counsels of Phocion, they plunged at length into a destructive contest with their powerful rival and neighbour. A second sacred war again drew Philip into the midst of Greece. The Lo erians of Amphissa having encroached upon the consecra ted ground of Delphos, and having refused to obey the decrees of the Amphictyonic council, the Macedonian mo narch was invited, as their general, to vindicate their au thority by force of arms. Many of the Grecian states were now alarmed, and not without reason, by the for wardness of Philip to interfere in their politics, and by the reluctance which he slimed to withdraw his army, after the punishment of the Amphissians. Demosthenes hastened to Thebes, where he succeeded in routing the utmost enthusiasm for the liberties of Greece, and per suaded the Thebans to adopt the immediate resolution of uniting with the Athenians, to resist the dangerous pro gress of the Macedonian influence. In vain did Phocion recommend, and Philip request, the Athenians to lay aside their measures for instant hostilities. They excluded the former from the command of their army, and marched without delay to join their Theban allies against the enemy. The two armies, consisting of about 30,000 on each side, came to a general engagement at Cheronea. The battle was long doubtful. Alexander, who was only seventeen years of age, at the head of a chosen body of noble Macedonians, cut down the Sacred Band of Thebes; and the Athenians, for a time successful, but urging their advantage with imprudent impetuosity, were overwhelm ed by the Macedonian phalanx under Philip. The van quished were treated with a degree of clemency and gene rosity, of which there had been few examples in Grecian warfare. Philip hastened to stop the slaughter of the fly ing Greeks, and dismissed the Athenian prisoners without ransom, and voluntarily renewed his former treaty with that republic. To the Thebans he readily granted peace; but stationed a Macedonian garrison in their citadel. By this decisive victory, he secured the most entire ascend ancy in Greece ; and, on that side, there was little farther left for his ambition to desire.