g temperament of his furious mother, Olympias. His
education was good, and he was instructed by his Greek tutors in the
learning common to Grecian princes. His taste inclined him to poetry and
literature, rather than to science and philosophy. At thirteen he was
intrusted to the care of the great Aristotle, and remained under his
teaching three years. At sixteen he was left regent of the Macedonian
kingdom, whose capital was Pella, while his father was absent in the siege
of Byzantium. At eighteen he commanded one of the wings of the army at the
battle of Chaeronea. His prospects were uncertain up to the very day when
Philip was assassinated, on account of family dissensions, and the wrath
of his father, whom he had displeased. But he was proclaimed king on the
death of Philip, B.C., 336 and celebrated his funeral with great
magnificence, and slew many of his murderers. The death of Philip had
excited aspirations of freedom in the Grecian States, but there was no
combination to throw off the Macedonian yoke. Alexander well understood
the discontent of Greece, and his first object was to bring it to abject
submission. With the army of his father he marched from State to State,
compelling submission, and punishing with unscrupulous cruelty all who
resisted. After displaying his forces in various portions of the
Peloponnesus, he repaired to Corinth and convened the deputies from the
Grecian cities, and was chosen to the headship of Greece, as his father,
Philip, had been. He was appointed the keeper of the peace of Greece. Each
Hellenic city was declared free, and in each the existing institutions
were recognized, but no new despot was to be established, and each city
was forbidden to send armed vessels to the harbor of any other, or build
vessels, or engage seamen there. Such was the melancholy degradation of
the Grecian world. Its freedom was extinguished, and there was no hope of
escaping the despotism of Macedonia, but by invoking aid from the Persian
king. Had he been wise, he would have subsidized the Greeks with a part of
his vast treasures, and raised a force in Greece able to cope with
Alexander. But he was doomed, and the Macedonian king was left free to
complete the conquest of all the States. He first marched across Mount
Haemus, and subdued the Illyrians, Paeonians, and Thracians. He even crossed
the Danube, and defeated the Gaetae.

(M732) Just as he had completed the conquest of the barbarians north of
Macedo