IV. death of CHAP. of a single day. At length it became necessary to kill the horses for food; the elephants fed on saw-dust; the Greeks and Macedonians died of hunger; the Barbarians eat the dead bodies."7 Having failed in an attempt to escape by night, in a brigantine supplied by Polysperchon, Olympias avoided by surrender the famine fast approaching herself and her illustrious kinswomen. Life was the only boon for which she stipulated; but with this condition, her own dangerous character, and the fickle temper of the MacedoTrial and nians, rendered it unsafe to comply. She was, Olympias. agreeably to the legal forms of her country, publicly arraigned; and not appearing to plead, was condemned capitally. Cassander wished her to confirm the decision by voluntary flight; but on pretence of irregularity in the proceedings, she demanded a new trial. This demand was answered by a body of two hundred men, selected from the army as fit instruments for murder. The majesty of her aspect is said to have disarmed the assassins; but her fate was at hand from her personal adversaries, kinsmen to her late victims, and stern avengers of their blood. She suffered death with the same unconcern with which she would have inflicted it78: a woman of unconquerable spirit, of boundless ambition, and of inhuman cruelty. Aristo nous in In the fate of Olympias was involved that of 77 Diodorus, 1. xix. s. 49. 78 Conf. Pausanias, Baotic. c. 7. Diodor. I. xix. s. 51. & Polyænus, 1. iv. c. 2. IV. her fate. B. C. 316. Aristonous, a man of the highest rank among CHAP. Alexander's captains, since, at the time of his master's death, he held a place, as we have volved in before seen, both among the life-guards and Olymp. the equestrian companions. He had remained in exvi. 1. Europe as the likeliest person, failing Antipater, to be raised to the protectorship; but, to the great misfortune of the empire, Polysperchon had been preferred to him. He now commanded in Amphipolis; and at the desire of Olympias, reluctantly capitulated with Cassander on condition of personal safety. But Aristonous was quickly sacrificed to reasons of state; he was a man doubly dangerous by his dignity and his loyalty. 79 marries Thessalo The capture of Pydna put into Cassander's Cassander power, among other illustrious prisoners, Alex- Philip's ander Ægus, with his mother Roxana; Deida- daughter mia, neice to Olympias, being daughter to nica. Æacidas, king of Epirus; and Thessalonica, the youngest daughter of Philip of Macedon. The young Alexander and Roxana were shut up in the strong castle of Amphipolis. Deidamia proved an useful hostage for the fidelity of the Epirots; and Thessalonica was made subservient by Cassander to his views of greatness. Descended on one side from the kings of Macedon, and on the other from the illustrious Jason of Thessaly, Thessalonica might have spurned the hand of a man naturally the servant of such families; but her pride durst not decline the 79 Diodorus, 1. xix. s. 50. CHAP. proffered nuptials. They were celebrated with IV. a pomp surpassing that of the obsequies of Builds Cassandria. Arrhidæus and Euridicé; who were interred, however, with royal honours at Egae, as legitimate wearers of a crown, which rightfully devolved, by their inhuman murder, on Cassander and Thessalonica. To mark his accession to power, Cassander founded a new city called by his name, on the isthmus of Pallené; a situation uniting peculiar B. C. 316. advantages in point both of war and of com Olymp. cxvi. 1. Restores merce. Cassandria arose from the ruins of Potidea; and being endowed with a fertile territory, adorned by a double harbour, and strongly fortified by sea and land, speedily attained, under the fostering hand of its founder, a magnitude proportional to its rank, as the new Macedonian capital. 80 Yet, as the founder of Cassandria, this fortunate usurper gained less glory, than he shortly afterwards acquired as the restorer of Thebes. In an expedition, undertaken for destroying Polysperchon's adherents in the Peloponnesus, whom he expelled from all their possessions, except Corinth and Sicyon, Cassander passed through the ancient city of Cadmus, so famous in the history, and still more in the fables of Greece. He viewed its desolation with real or well-affected concern, and embraced the resolution of rebuilding its walls, and collecting its wandering citizens within them. Such a 50 Diodor. 1. xix. s. 52. IV. generous purpose inspired the Athenians and CHAP. neighbouring states with an emulation of beneficence. Even the Greeks of Asia, Italy, Sicily, and Cyrené, vied with each other in contributions towards restoring the pristine splendour of Thebes; and the renovation of this ancient capital, whose ruin had been invidiously ascribed to the son of Philip, helped to consolidate the power and renown of the supplanter of his family. 81 81 Conf. Pausanias, 1. xi. c. 7. & Diodor. l. xix. s. 53, 54. V. CHAP. V. State of the Empire.-Fancied Theocracy in the Throne of Alexander.-Machinations of the Rebellious Satraps. -Defeated by Eumenes.- He marches into the upper Provinces.-Peculiar Circumstances of their Governors at that Moment.-War between Antigonus and Eumenes. Their mutual Stratagems, and Battles. Defection of the Argyraspides. — Eumenes's Captivity and Death. CHAP. THE death of Antipater, the only one of Alexander's successors long practised in government, the empire dissolved the whole vigour of the regency. at the time In Egypt and Cyrené, Ptolemy confirmed his State of of Anti pater's death. Olymp. CXV. 2. B. C. 319. separate sovereignty. On the banks of the Euphrates, Seleucus was meditating designs equally independent and still more lofty. Lysimachus laboriously reared his barbarous monarchy of Thrace; the civil commotions in Greece conspired with the domestic dissensions in the royal family of Macedon to throw these countries into the hands of Cassander; while Lesser Asia exhibited a various and deep drama, ennobled at once by the powers of the performers and the splendid prize of victory. The prize was the golden throne of Lydian Croesus: the combatants were Antigonus and Eumenes ; Antigonus the most energetic, and Eumenes the most dexterous of all the Macedonian captains. |