Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/63

 IIUMORS IN AlEXANDER'S ABSENCK. |{J admired throughout Greece as alike adventurous, skilful, and heroic, was the model present to the imagination of the Thehan exiles, to be copied if any tolerable opportunity occurred. Such was the feeling in Greece, during the long absence of Alexander on his march into Thrace and Illyria ; a period of four or five months, ending at August 335 b. c. Not only was Alexander thus long absent, but he sent home no reports of his proceedings. Couriers were likely enough to be intercepted among the mountains and robbers of Thrace ; and even if they reached Pella, their despatches were not publicly read, as such communications would have been read to the Athenian assembly. Accordingly we are not surprised to hear that rumors ai-ose of his having been defeated and slain. Among these reports, both multiplied and confident, one was even certified by a liar who pretended to have just arrived from Thrace, to have been an eye-witness of the fact, and to have been himself wounded in the action against the Triballi, where Alexander had perished.* This welcome news, not fabricated, but too hastily credited, by Demosthenes and Lykurgus,^ was announced to the Athenian assembly. In spite of doubts expressed by Demades and Pho- kion, it was believed not only by the Athenians and the Theban exiles there present, but also by the Arcadians, Eleians, ^tolians and other Greeks. For a considerable time, through the absence ' Aniun, i. 7, 3. Kal yap Kal no/.vg 6 Xoyog (of the death of Alexander) Kat irapu tco7.7mv t(^oi-a, utc te xp^^'ov un^v oi'/c oAr/ov nat uri ovth/i'ca uy- yeTiia reap' ahrov ucpiKTO, etc. yof ruj fiev ?.6y(j TrapararTofievoi Tovg MaKeS6i>ac evlkuv kv Tpi)3uAXot(, fith vov 6' ohx oparov em tov i3ri/iaroc VEKpov rbv 'AAtiavdpov rrpoi&TjKaf ifil 6e: OTvyvbv Kal TZEpi/i.v~ov ^(paaKOV elvai fxrj avvevdoKovvra, etc. Justin, xi. 2. "Demosthenem oratorem, qui Maeedonum deletas omncs cum rege copias a Triballis affirmaverit, producto in concionem auctore, qui in eo praelio, in quo rex ceciderit, se quoque vulneratum diceret." Compare Tacitus, Histor. i. 34. " Vix dum cgresso Pisone, occisum in oastris Otlionem, vagus primum et incertus rumor, mox, ut in magnis meu- daciis, interfuisse se quidam, et vidlsse affirmahant, credula fam^ inter gau- dentes et incuriosos Obvius in palatio Julius Atticus, speculator, cra- entum gladium ostentans, occisum a se Otlionem exclamavit." It is stated that Alexander was really wounded in the head by a stone, ia the action with the Illyrians (Plutarch, Fortun. Alex. p. 327).
 * Demades Trept -^f 6cj6eKaETiac, ad fin. i/ulica Ajj^oadh'Tjc koI Ai^Kovp-