Page:The Anabasis of Alexander.djvu/31

Rh about twenty years of age, marched into Peloponnesus as soon as he had secured the regal power. There he assembled all the Greeks who were within the limits of Peloponnesus, and asked from them the supreme command of the expedition against the Persians, an office which they had already conferred upon Philip. He received the honour which he asked from all except the Lacedaemonians, who replied that it was an hereditary custom of theirs, not to follow others but to lead them. The Athenians also attempted to bring about some political change; but they were so alarmed at the very approach of Alexander, that they conceded to him even more ample public honours than those which had been bestowed upon Philip. He then returned into Macedonia and busied himself in preparing for the expedition into Asia. However, at the approach of spring (b.c. 335), he marched towards Thrace, into the lands of the Triballians and Illyrians, because he ascertained that these nations were meditating a change of policy; and at the same time, as they were lying ton his frontier, he thought it inexpedient, when he was about to start on a campaign so far away from bis own land, to leave them behind him