ic
baths. He went about barefoot, and never wrapped himself up if he could
help it, so that it was a saying, "Phocion has got his cloak on; it is a
hard winter." He was a great soldier, and, for the time, drove back the
Macedonians from Euboea. But very few Athenians had the spirit of
Phocion or Demosthenes. They had grown idle, and Philip was bribing all
who would take his money among the other Greeks to let his power and
influence spread, until at last he set forth to invade Greece. The
Thebans and Athenians joined together to stop him, and met him at
Chaeronea, in Boeotia; but neither city could produce a real general, and
though at first the Athenians gained some advantage, they did not make a
proper use of it, so that Philip cried out, "The Athenians do not know
how to conquer," and, making another attack, routed them entirely. Poor
Demosthenes, who had never been in a battle before, and could only fight
with his tongue, fled in such a fright that when a bramble caught his
tunic, he screamed out, "Oh, spare my life!" The battle of Chaeronea was
a most terrible overthrow, and neither Athens nor Thebes ever recovered
it. Macedon entirely gained the chief power over Greece, and Philip was
the chief man in it, though Demosthenes never ceased to try to stir up
opposition to him. Philip was a very able man, and had a good deal of
nobleness in his nature. Once, after a feast, he had to hear a trial,
and gave sentence in haste. "I appeal," said the woman who had lost.
"Appeal? and to whom?" said the king. "I appeal from Philip drunk to
Philip sober." He was greatly struck, heard the case over again the next
day, and found that he had been wrong and the woman right.

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CHAP. XXVII.--THE YOUTH OF ALEXANDER. B.C. 356-334.

Philip of Macedon married Olympias, the daughter of the king of Epirus,
who traced his descent up to Achilles. She was beautiful, but fierce and
high-spirited; and the first time Philip saw her she was keeping the
feast of Bacchus, and was dancing fearlessly among great serpents, which
twisted about among the maidens' vine-wreathed staves, their baskets of
figs, and even the ivy crowns on their heads. Her wild beauty charmed
him, and he asked her in marriage as soon as he had gained the throne.
The son of this marriage, Alexander, was born at Pella in 356. On the
same day a great battle was won by Parmenio, Philip's chief gener