hat
the capture of Potidaea was accompanied with three other fortunate
events in the life of Philip, namely, the prize gained by his chariot
at the Olympic games, a victory of his general Parmenio over the
Illyrians, and the birth of his son Alexander. These events happened
in B.C. 356.

Philip now crossed the Strymon, on the left bank of which lay Pangaeus,
a range of mountains abounding in gold-mines. He conquered the
district, and founded there a new town called Philippi, on the site of
the ancient Thracian town of Crenides. By improved methods of working
the mines he made them yield an annual revenue of 1000 talents, nearly
250,000l.

Meanwhile Athens was engaged in a war with her allies, which has been
called the SOCIAL WAR; and which was, perhaps, the reason why she was
obliged to look quietly on whilst Philip was thus aggrandizing himself
at her expense. This war broke out in B.C. 357. The chief causes of
it seem to have been the contributions levied upon the allies by the
Athenian generals. The war lasted three years; and as Artaxerxes, the
Persian king, threatened to support the allies with a fleet of 300
ships, the Athenians were obliged to consent to a disadvantageous
peace, which secured the independence of the more important allies
(B.C. 355).

Another war, which had been raging during the same time, tended still
further to exhaust the Grecian states, and thus pave the way for
Philip's progress to the supremacy. This was the SACRED WAR, which
broke out between Thebes and Phocis in the same year as the Social War
(B.C. 357). An ill-feeling had long subsisted between those two
countries. The Thebans now availed themselves of the influence which
they possessed in the Amphictyonic council to take vengeance upon the
Phocians and accordingly induced this body to impose a heavy fine upon
the latter people, because they had cultivated a portion of the
Cirrhaean plain, which had been consecrated to the Delphian god, and
was to lie waste for ever. The Phocians pleaded that the payment of the
fine would ruin them; but instead of listening to their remonstrances,
the Amphictyons doubled the amount, and threatened, in case of their
continued refusal to reduce them to the condition of serfs. Thus
driven to desperation, the Phocians resolved to complete the sacrilege
with which they had been branded, by seizing the very temple of Delphi
itself. The leader and counsellor of this enterprise was Philomelus,
wh