during this quarrel; but in
the course of the war, Polysperchon came into their city, said that
Phocion and many other great citizens were siding with Cassander, and
condemned them to die by drinking poison brewed from the hemlock plant.

It seems, however, that there was not enough poison ready to kill them
all, so the jailer made Phocion give him some money to buy more. The
noble old man, forced to do as he was bidden, gave the necessary amount,
saying, "It seems that one cannot even die for nothing in Athens."

As he was the last really noted politician in the city, he has been
called the "Last of the Athenians." No one ever dared to uphold the
city's power after his death, or tried to help it win back its old
freedom.

As soon as Perdiccas was dead, Roxana and her son were brought to
Macedon, where they were finally placed under the protection of
Polysperchon. When Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great, saw his
infant son, she was so anxious to secure the throne for him alone, that
she slew the idiot king Arridaeus and all his family.

Under pretext of avenging this crime, Cassander captured and slew
Olympias; and then, having won Macedon and Greece from Polysperchon, and
seeing that there was no one left to protect Roxana and the child king,
he put both mother and son in prison, where they were killed by his
order shortly after.

Thus, twelve years after Alexander's death, all his family were dead,
and his vast kingdom was a prey to quarreling, which broke it up into
several states.

CVII. THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES.

When Perdiccas died, An-tig'o-nus ("the one-eyed") was named his
successor, and became governor of all the Eastern province. He no sooner
heard that Cassander had murdered Alexander's family, than he marched
westward, intending to avenge the crime.

On his way, Antigonus passed through Syria, the land governed by
Se-leu'cus, and asked that ruler how he had spent the money of the
kingdom. Seleucus, who had a bad conscience, instead of answering, ran
away to Egypt, where he became a friend of Ptolemy.

Then, fearing that they would not be able to fight against Antigonus
successfully, these two generals persuaded Cassander, ruler of Macedon,
and Ly-sim'a-chus, ruler of Thrace, to join them.

For several years the war was kept up between the four allies on one
side, and Antigonus and his son De-me'tri-us on the other. The field of
battle was principally in Asia Minor. The fighting c