Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/243

* GKEECE. 211 GREECE. ami lend them his aid, an invitation he was only too ready to accept. Entering Thcssaly, he went as tar south as 'rhcrniopylic. but was there met !>y an Athenian foicc and [jrcvented from jjroceed- iiig farther. Keturning to Thrace, and continuing his conquests in that direction, lie in is.c. 347 took the Chalcidian tom of Olyntluis, and .soon after the whole t'halcidian peninsula fell into liis hands. Though opposed by a party at Athens, led by the orator Demosthenes, he advanced al- most unchecked, accomplishing as much by brib- ery and deception as by force of arms. He re- ceived at the hands of the Amphictyons the two votes in their assembly to which the Phocians hail been entitled, but of which they had been de- ])rived. and also a share in the presidency of the Pythian Games. Being once more invited into (Greece, this time by the Amphictyons to take part against the Locrians, he advanced into Boeo- lia. and was met by the Boeotians and .t.henians at ChaMonea B.C. 3S8 : this battle was a victory for Philip and the death-knell of Grecian inde- pendence. A congress of Greek States, held at Corinth in the next year, recognized ilacedonian supremacy in Greece, and appointed Philip com- mander-in-chief of the Greek forces. Philip im- mediately began preparations for invading Per- sia, but was assassinated in B.C. 33G. and his son, -Vlexander. twenty years of age. succeeded him. At the death of Philip a general rising against the power of JIacedonia was threatened, but it was quickly sup])ressed by the energy of the new King. Having made an example of Thebes, which he razed to the ground, he set out in B.C. 334 on his famous invasion of Persia. The conquests of Alexander in the East extended Grecian in- fluence and Grecian civilization and language throughout a great part of Asia. He founded .iexandria, which, under the Greek dvmasty of the Ptolemies, soon rose to be the greatest centre of civilization in the world. Alexander died at Bal)ylon in B.C. 323. and his empire was divided among his generals. Among those who shared in tliis partition of power were Perdiccas. Antipater, Crateras, Antlgonus. Eumenes, Ptolemy Lagi, Ly- -imachus, Polysperchon, Cassander. Seleucus, and Demetrius Poliorcetes. Of the [states established by the successors of Alexander, the so-called Dia- ilochi, the most important were the Greek King- dom of Egypt ( the realm of the Ptolemies ) and the Kingdom of Syria (the realm of the Seleuci- die). Later the Kingdom of Pontus rose to great power tinder the Greek dynasty. An efTort was made by Greece to throw- off the yoke of Jlace- donia. and the war. called the Lamian War. was ended by the victory of Antipater. Regent of Jla- ccdonia. at Crannon in B.C. 322. In the wars of the sncce.ssors of Alexander, Greece was often the battlefield of the contending forces. Two attempts were made in this period at federation. The Achs'an League was formed about n.v. 280, and included Athens and other cities of Xorthern (ireece, and Corinth, as well as much of the Peloponnesus. The abilities and patriotism of Aratus and Philopcemen (the latter styled the ' last of the Greeks ') shed lustre upon this con- federacy, which for many years maintained the cause of Grecian independence against foreign con- querors. The -Etolian T,eagtie was formed in Cen- tral Greece, but was less famous than the .ch!pan. Tn B.C. Ifl7 Philip V. of Macedon was defeated a I CvnocephaliP by the Pomans. and in B.C. 100 the freedom of Greece was proclaimed by the victorious general Klamininusat Corinth. In B.C. HIX. by the battle of P.-dna. and in n.c. 140, with the destruction of Corinth by the Itoman general ilummius. Greece passed completely into the liands of the Komans, who made of it a |)rovince, under the name of Achaia. KoRKKiN Rule. From the completion of the K'oman conquest by the capture of Corinth in B.C. 14(i until the outbreak of the iMithradatic wars in B.C. 88 Greece enjoyed a .just and wise adminis- tration under the Komans. and the country pros- pered. The nationalist revolt which followed the first successes of .Mithradales against the Komans changed these conditions. Athens was sacked by the forces of Sulla in B.C. 80, and Thebes was re- duced in the following year. The hand of Rome fell heavily u])on the rebellious cities, and that decline began from which the country never re- covered. I'nder the emperors Greece enjoyed re- newed tranquillity, its supremacy in thought a.nd« letters was recognized, and there was a partial return to pros])erity. The Emperor Hadrian and Atticus Herodes ( q.v. ), the friend of the Anto- nine emperors, did much to restore the sjjendor of the ancient civilization. In the middle of the third century A.u. this condition was disturbed by the Ciothic hordes, which overran the peninsula, captured Athens, and laid waste the cities of .rgos. Corinth, and Sparta. Christianity, after the third century, spread rapidly in Greece in spite of the opposition it had to meet from the ])hilosophers of Athens, which to the end re- mained the centre of )>agan culture. When the world-empire founded by the Romans fell to pieces before the attacks of the northern bar- barians, the eastern half, which embraced all that was Greek, continued its existence as the Byzan- tine or Greek Empire. But this Greek Empire, with its seat at Constantinople, which outlived the Western Empire by a thousand vcars. until it was extinguished bv the Turks in 14.j3. was the mixed Oriental Greece, not that classic Hellas that had been the bulwark of the Western world. (See Byz.XTixE Empire.) The life of the true Greece was obscured for several centuries, only appearing as the peninsula became an object of conquest or an arenii of strife. Before the final division of the Roman Empire, the rulers of Rome attempted to Romanize the East by intro- ducing into the language of the period a min- gling of Latin and (ireek. known as Romaic; but they failed to overcome the strong race character- istics of the people. From the sixth to the eighth century. Slavic peoples from the north crowded into the Balkan Peninsula, occupying almost ex- clusivelv the ancient Peloponnesus. The invaders were merged to some extent with the ancient race, and remained in occupancy of Illyria and Thrace, producing a mixture of nationalities which constitutes at the i>rescnt day one f)f the chief elements of confusion in the puzzling prob- lems of the Balkan Peninsula. The ambition of the Frankish leaders of the Fourth Crusade and the greed of Venice interrupted the continuity of Bvzantine rule, establishing the short-lived Latin Empire of the East (1204-1201). and dividing the Hellenic Peninsula into a number of feudal fiefs, of which the Duchy of Athens was the most prominent and the longest lived. Held for a cen- tury (120.5-1.308) by the Frankish House of De la Roche, then for a few years by (hat of Brienne. the duchy became after the conquest by the Catalan Grand Company (q.v.), in 1311, an