ase would allow. He doubtless also had an
instinctive feeling that the moral effect itself of so dreadful a
retribution as he was about to inflict upon the devoted city would be
very much increased by forbearance and generosity, and by extreme
regard for the security and protection of those who had shown
themselves his friends.

After all these exceptions had been made, and the persons to whom
they applied had been dismissed, the rest of the population were sold
into slavery, and then the city was utterly and entirely destroyed.
The number thus sold was about thirty thousand, and six thousand had
been killed in the assault and storming of the city. Thus Thebes was
made a ruin and a desolation, and it remained so, a monument of
Alexander's terrible energy and decision, for twenty years.

The effect of the destruction of Thebes upon the other cities and
states of Greece was what might have been expected. It came upon them
like a thunder-bolt. Although Thebes was the only city which had
openly revolted, there had been strong symptoms of disaffection in
many other places. Demosthenes, who had been silent while Alexander
was present in Greece, during his first visit there, had again been
endeavoring to arouse opposition to Macedonian ascendency, and to
concentrate and bring out into action the influences which were
hostile to Alexander. He said in his speeches that Alexander was a
mere boy, and that it was disgraceful for such cities as Athens,
Sparta, and Thebes to submit to his sway. Alexander had heard of these
things, and, as he was coming down into Greece, through the Straits
of Thermopylae, before the destruction of Thebes, he said, "They say I
am a boy. I am coming to teach them that I am a man."

He did teach them that he was a man. His unexpected appearance, when
they imagined him entangled among the mountains and wilds of unknown
regions in the north; his sudden investiture of Thebes; the assault;
the calm deliberations in respect to the destiny of the city, and the
slow, cautious, discriminating, but inexorable energy with which the
decision was carried into effect, all coming in such rapid succession,
impressed the Grecian commonwealth with the conviction that the
personage they had to deal with was no boy in character, whatever
might be his years. All symptoms of disaffection against the rule of
Alexander instantly disappeared, and did not soon revive again.

Nor was this effect due entirely to the terror in