e Thebans, and entirely overthrew them;
so that when peace was made, Sparta was the only city that refused to own
the superior might of Macedon, and the Council of the States chose Philip
as commander of the Greeks in the grand expedition he was going to
undertake against Persia.

But Philip had eastern vices. He was tired of Olympias' pride and
wilfulness, and took another wife, whom he raised to the position of
queen; and at the banquet a half-tipsy kinsman of this woman insulted
Alexander, who threw a cup at the man. Philip started up to chastise his
son, but, between rage and wine, fell down, while Alexander said, "See, a
man preparing to cross from Europe to Asia cannot step safely from one
couch to another!"

Then he took his mother to her native home, and stayed away till his
father sent for him, but kept him in a kind of disgrace, until at the
wedding feast of Alexander's sister Cleopatra with the king of Epirus,
just as Philip came forward in a white garment, a man darted forward and
thrust a sword through his body, then fled so fast that he would have
escaped if his foot had not been caught in some vine stocks, so that the
guards cut him to pieces.

Alexander was proclaimed king, at only twenty years old; and Demosthenes
was so delighted at the death of the enemy of Athens, that he wreathed
his head with a garland in token of joy, little guessing that Philip's
murder had only placed a far greater man on the throne. The first thing
Alexander did was to go to Corinth, and get himself chosen in his
father's stead captain-general of the Greeks. Only the Spartans refused,
saying it was their custom to lead, and not to follow; while the
Athenians pretended to submit, meaning to take the first opportunity of
breaking off the yoke. Before Alexander could march, however, to Persia,
he had to leave all safe behind him; so he turned northwards to subdue
the wild tribes in Thrace. He was gone four months, and the Greeks heard
nothing of him, so that the Thebans thought he must be lost, and
proclaimed that they were free from the power of Macedon.

Their punishment was terrible. Alexander came back in haste, fought them
in their own town, hunted them from street to street, killed or made
slaves of all who had not been friends of his father, pulled down all the
houses, and divided the lands between the other Boeotian cities. This
was for the sake of making an example of terror; but he afterwards
regretted this a