arly times, and had acquired
a reputation for supernatural powers by the fame of their exploits,
exaggerated in descending by tradition in superstitious times. The
ignorant multitude accordingly, in those days, looked up to a living
king with almost the same reverence and homage which they felt for
their deified heroes; and these deified heroes furnished them with all
the ideas they had of God. Making a monarch a god, therefore, was no
very extravagant flattery.

After the procession of the statues passed along, there came bodies of
troops, with trumpets sounding and banners flying. The officers rode
on horses elegantly caparisoned, and prancing proudly. These troops
escorted princes, embassadors, generals, and great officers of state,
all gorgeously decked in their robes, and wearing their badges and
insignia.

At length King Philip himself appeared in the procession. He had
arranged to have a large space left, in the middle of which he was to
walk. This was done in order to make his position the more
conspicuous, and to mark more strongly his own high distinction above
all the other potentates present on the occasion. Guards preceded and
followed him, though at considerable distance, as has been already
said. He was himself clothed with white robes, and his head was
adorned with a splendid crown.

The procession was moving toward a great theater, where certain games
and spectacles were to be exhibited. The statues of the gods were to
be taken into the theater, and placed in conspicuous positions there,
in the view of the assembly, and then the procession itself was to
follow. All the statues had entered except that of Philip, which was
just at the door, and Philip himself was advancing in the midst of the
space left for him, up the avenue by which the theater was approached,
when an occurrence took place by which the whole character of the
scene, the destiny of Alexander, and the fate of fifty nations, was
suddenly and totally changed. It was this. An officer of the guards,
who had his position in the procession near the king, was seen
advancing impetuously toward him, through the space which separated
him from the rest, and, before the spectators had time even to wonder
what he was going to do, he stabbed him to the heart. Philip fell down
in the street and died.

A scene of indescribable tumult and confusion ensued. The murderer was
immediately cut to pieces by the other guards. They found, however,
before he