This was an important step towards the accomplishment of his ambitious projects, which, in addition to the superintendency of the Pythian games, transferred to him from the Corinthians, enabled him, henceforward, to govern both the general councils and the oracles of Greece.

Upon this system of cautious and well-dissembled policy, Philip continued to act, during his reign, continually invading the rights and possessions of neighboring states, yet, at the same time, justifying his aggressions with so much plausibility of, reasoning, and such apparent equity, that it was scarcely possible to condemn the measures, however unjust in themselves.

All the more powerful republics were either deceived by his fair professions, or corrupted by his gold. The Spartans, though fully sensible of the danger which threatened Greece, were too degenerate, or too much exhausted, to make an effort in behalf of their expiring liberties, The Athenians, immersed in luxury and vice, perpetually amused with their theatrical entertainments and splendid shows, were little inclined to oppose the ambitious views of Philip, though they were best able to attempt it with vigor. A temporary and successful effort was indeed made by the brave and patriotic Phocion, to counteract the designs of Philip on the flourishing island of Eubea, to which that prince attached so much importance as to call it the fetters of Greece. The intrigues of the king of Macedon in that colony were detected, and his legions vanquished, by the prudence and valor of that illustrious Athenian; but, having attained this object, the senate and people of Athens again resigned themselves to indolent security and criminal pleasures.

Among the means employed by Philip to deceive the Athenians, the most successful was bribery. He thus acquired numerous partisans within the walls, and even in the senate of Athens. All the orators, except the celebrated Demosthenes, were in the Macedonian interest. Well convinced of the influence, which they possessed over the popular assemblies of Athens, Philip had spared no expense nor exertions to secure these demagogues, who led the public opinion, and governed its decisions. Demades, a sordid but eloquent orator, Eubulus, a venal flatterer of the vices of the common people, and even the energetic and sublime Eschines himself, were bought by Macedonian. gold. Demosthenes, alone, remained inflexible. Neither

flatteries, nor censures, proffered wealth nor honors, could seduce his incorruptible mind. With the most determined courage, he sounded the trumpet of alarm, and poured forth his philippics, at every fresh aggression of the king of Macedon. Nor did he rest, till, by the force of his eloquence, bearing down all opposition, he stirred up his infatuated country to make an essay, at least, towards stemming the torrent of ambition.

The attempt of the combined armies of Athens and Thebes at Cheronea was vigorous, but unsuccessful; chiefly on account of the want of skill in their commanders, all of B. C. whom were notoriously unfit for their station.

338.

Had

their conduct at Cheronea, in which Philip triumphed over the liberties of Greece, equalled either the patriotic hopes of Demosthenes, or the valor of the troops employed in it; had Phocion been appointed to the command, who had already vanquished, in Eubea and Thrace, the legions of Philip; or had the heedless impetuosity of the Athenians permitted them to estimate more accurately the strength of the enemy, the result would probably have been widely different, and the ambitious projects of Philip had been completely frustrated. But, unhappily for Greece, her heroic bands were committed, on this occasion, to the unskilful Lysicles, the voluptuous Chares, and the perfidious Theagenes, who fell into the snare which Philip had laid for them, and were defeated with great loss. Lysicles was afterwards tried and condemned for his failure, on which occasion one of the judges thus addressed him: “You, Lysicles, were general of the army; a thousand citizens were slain; two thousand taken prisoners; a trophy has been erected to the dishonor of this city; and all Greece is enslaved. You had the command when all these things happened; and yet you dare to live, and view the light of the sun, and blush not to appear publicly in the forum; you, Lysicles, who are born the monument of your country's shame!" The conqueror treated his vanquished foes with great clemency, and dismissed many of the prisoners without ransom. This victory was quickly followed by a treaty of peace between Athens and Macedon, which left the Thebans at the mercy of the latter, and virtually betrayed the whole Grecian empire into the hands of Philip.

Every obstacle being now removed, a general convention of the Amphictyonic states was summoned, in which Philip solicited and obtained the honor, to which he had long

aspired, and which he was now able to demand-the appointment of generalissimo of Greece, in the projected invasion of Persia, Here a new theatre of glory seemed to open before him; an almost boundless prospect was unfoldedwhen he was suddenly arrested, in the midst of his course, by an invincible adversary. At a public entertainment, given in honor of the nuptials of his daughter Cleopatra, he was assassinated by Pausanias, an obscure Macedonian, whose motives for perpetrating the deed were never developed. This event took place in the forty-seventh year of his age, and twenty-fourth of his reign]

Philip had been very unhappy in his family; had once, at a public feast, drawn his sword in a rage, and rushed upon his son to kill him. But Alexander, by a quick motion of his body, evaded the blow aimed at his life. It was believed by many that he was privy to the assassination of his father.

B C.

336.

Thus fell Philip, in the vigor of his life; his favorite schemes being as yet accomplished but in part. When we view his actions, achievements and character, we can entertain little doubt, that he was the ablest statesman beyond the Augustan age.

The Greeks, degenerated from the glory of their ancestors, found their chief resource against the arms and policy of Philip, in the sublime and powerful eloquence of Demosthenes. The muses, partial to this delightful land of their nativity, having long before this done what they could in. forming the father of poets, now made their last efforts in forming an orator never to be excelled. But, alas! in vain were the powers of rhetoric displayed. The strongest reasons and the sublimest descriptions, the most solemn warnings, the most animated addresses, were antidotes too .feeble to recover a nation forever lost to virtue. They were arms and bulwarks far too weak to resist a powerful conqueror. Yet they often seemed to resuscitate the dying flame of liberty, and co-operating with other impediments to the consummation of Philip's ambition, that prince left his main enterprise to be effected by his son.

[In Demosthenes, eloquence shone forth with higher splendor than, perhaps, in any other that ever bore the name of an orator. His first attempts were unsuccessful. He was heard with hissing, instead of applause. But his (strong ambition to excel in the art of speaking prompted him to unwearied perseverance in surmounting all the