Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/266

 2l6 Outlines of Eiwopcan History betrayed his northern origin. But as a hostage at Thebes he had learned to maneuver an army under the eye of no less a master than Epaminondas, the conqueror of the Spartans, and his keen intelligence made him both a skillful commander and an able statesman. He completely transformed the Macedonians, organized them chiefly on Greek methods into an unconquer- able army, and steadily expanded the territory of his kingdom eastward and northward until it reached the Danube and the Hellespont. As he absorbed the Greek cit- ies of the northern yEgean, he of course collided with the interests of the southern Greek states like Athens, where Demosthenes (Fig. 98) was now delivering those fa- mous orations against Philip and the Macedonian policy, which have become traditional among us as " Philippics." -^ After a long series of hostilities Philip defeated the Greek forces in a final batUe at Chseronea (338 B.C.), and firmly established his position as head of a league of all the Greek states except Sparta, which still held out against him. He had begun operations in Asia Minor for the freedom of the Greek cities there, when two years after the batde of Chseronea he was stabbed by conspirators during the revelries at the w^edding of his daughter. The power passed into the hands of his son Alexander, a youth of only twenty years. Fortunately Philip also left behind 1 At the same time there was a sentiment in Greece, even in Athens, which favored PhiUp's imperial plans, and saw in him the uniter and savior of Greece. This sentiment found a voice in Isocrates, the Athenian pamphleteer, now an aged man, who had so long chided the Greeks for lack of unity in opposing Persia (see p. 211). Fig. 98. Portrait Bust OF Demosthenes