aces of Helen and Eriphyle were given to dissolute women, and a
woman flute-player received a silver cup and a golden wreath from the
temple hoard.

All this gave Philip of Macedonia the desired pretence. He marched
against the Phocians, who held Thermopylae, while keeping his Athenian
enemies quiet by lies and bribes. The leader of the Phocian garrison,
finding that no aid came from the Athenian fleet, surrendered to
Philip, and that astute monarch won what he had long schemed for, the
Pass of Thermopylae, the Key of Greece.

The Sacred War was at an end, and with it virtually the independence of
Greece. Phocis was in the hands of Philip, who professed more than ever
to be the defender and guardian of Apollo. All the towns in Phocis were
broken up into villages, and the inhabitants were ordered to be fined
ten talents annually till they had paid back all they had stolen from
the temple. Philip gave back the temple to the Delphians, and was
himself voted into membership in the Amphictyonic assembly in place of
the discarded Phocians. And all this took place while a treaty of peace
tied the hands of the Greeks. The Sacred War had served as a splendid
pretext to carry out the ambitious plans of the Macedonian king.

We have now a long story to tell in a few words. Another people, the
Locrians, had also made an invasion on Delphian territory. The
Amphictyonic Council called on Philip to punish them, He at once marched
southward, but, instead of meddling with the Locrians, seized and
fortified a town in Phocis. At once Athens, full of alarm, declared war,
and Philip was as quick to declare war in return. Both sides sought the
support of Thebes, and Athens gained it. In August, 338 B.C., the
Grecian and Macedonian armies met and fought a decisive battle near
Chaeronea, a Boeotian town. In this great contest Alexander the Great
took part.

It was a hotly-contested fight, but in the end Philip triumphed, and
Greece was lost. Thebes was forced to yield. Athens, to regain the
prisoners held by Philip, acknowledged him to be the head of Greece. All
the other states did the same except Sparta, which defied him. He
ravaged Laconia, but left the city untouched.

Two years afterwards Philip, lord and master of Greece, was assassinated
at the marriage feast of his daughter. His son Alexander succeeded him.
Here seemed an opportunity for Greece to regain her freedom. This
untried young man could surely not retain what his able fat