Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/310

 '284 HISTORY OF GREECE. ly of cities, but of fixed residences. 1 The men of substaiiiv were armed with breastplates and made god cavalry ; but the infantry were a rabble destitute of order, 2 armed with wicker shields a/id rusty swords, and contending at disadvantage, though constantly kept on the alert, to repel the inroads of their Illyrian or Thra cian neighbors. Among some Macedonian tribes, the man who had never slain an enemy was marked by a degrading badge. 3 These were the men whom Philip on becoming king found under his rule ; not good soldiers, but excellent recruits to be formed into soldiers. Poverty, endurance, and bodies inured to toil, were the natural attributes, well appreciated by ancient politicians, of a military population destined to make conquests. Such had been the native Persians, at their first outburst under Cyrus the Great ; such were even the Greeks at the invasion of Xerxes, when the Spartan King Demaratus reckoned poverty both as an inmate of Greece, and as a guarantee of Grecian courage. 4 1 This poor condition of the Macedonian population at the accession of Philip, is set forth in the striking speech made thirty-six years afterwards by Alexander the Great (in 323 B. c., a few months before his death) t* his soldiers, satiated with conquest and plunder, but discontented with his ?n creasing insolence and Orientalism. Arrian, Exp. Alex. vii. 9. Q&unrof jup irapaha3uv v/tdf n'kavitraq nal unopovf, kv 6i(p-&epai( rovf 7roAAot)f viiovraq uvii TU bprj irpofiara Kara oAtyo, Kal irepl TOVTUV KaKuf fj.ax.o(ievov^ 'WAvpiotf KOI Tpt/?a/.AoZf /cat rolf 6ftopotf Gppft, xka^v&aq fiev ifuv UVTI TUV iitydepuv ^opelv eJw/ce, narriyaye 6e it TUV opuv if TU iredia, etc. Other points are added in the version given by Quintus Curtius of the same speech (x. 10) "En tandem! Illyriorum paulo ante et Persarum tribntariis, Asia et tot gentium spolia fastidio snnt. Modo sub Philippo seminndis, amicula ex purpura sordent : auram et argentum ocnli ferre non possnnt ; lignea enim vasa desiderant, et ex cratibus scuta et rubiginem gladiorum." ry: so also Xenophon, in the Spartan expedition against Olynthus (Hellen v. 2, 40). That the infantry were of little military efficiency, we see from the judg- ment of Brasidas Thucyd. iv. .Sfe compare also ii. 100. See O. Muller's short tract on the Macedonians, annexed to his History of the Dorians, s. 33. 3 Aristot. Polit. vii. 2, 6. 4 Herodot. vii. 102. TJ? 'EAAucJi VEVITI n'ev alei /core am<Tpo6'i l<m, ct About the Persians, Herodot. i. 71 ; Arrian, v. 4, 13.
 * Thucydides (ii. 100) recognizes the goodness of the Macedonian caval-