ALEXANDER THE GREAT AS HERCULES, ONE OF THE GOLD MEDALLIONS OF TARSUS. The reverse is the same as the medallion on page 4, which see. The obverse shows Alexander as a descendant of Hercules, wearing the lion's scalp. The Hercules figuring on the silver coins of Alexander as his ancestor is of the same type as this Tarsus medallion and the Tyrian Hercules (see previous page). In many specimens the resemblance to Alexander is marked; and the " Alexandre d'argent," so to speak, of Ptolemy, on which Alexander's head wears an elephant's scalp, is good evidence, in default of trustworthy literary tradition, that Alexander's contemporaries regarded the lion's scalp profile of his own coins as the king's profile; in fact, the Sidon sarcophagus confirms the ancient tradition that Macedonian kings wore the lion's scalp as a badge of their house and office. The lion's-scalp profile of the gold medallion of Tarsus would seem to confirm the portrait theory in regard to the silver coins. Magical virtues were ascribed to Alexander's portrait in the days of the Roman emperors. The presence of the medallion of Alexander Severus with the Philip (see page 24) and Alexander medallions would seem to indicate that the Roman emperor had given them, in reward for services, to the person in whose grave they were found at Tarsus. These invaluable medallions would appear to be older than the reign of Severus, but the script shows them to be later than Alexander himself. thizers who had been banished, made them the authorities might direct. The walls were the government, and condemned to death leaders who had been responsible for the city's action in forming the alliance with Athens. Toward Athens, on the other hand, he showed a mildness of temper that seems to have been to the Athenians as great a surprise as it was agreeable. The first dismay at the tidings of the battle had been followed by a resolute determination to defend the city to the utmost. It was the resolution of desperation. The women and children were brought from the country districts within the shelter of the walls. Frontier guards were posted. An army of home defense was organized. Money was raised. Demosthenes was sent abroad to secure supplies of corn, in prospect of a siege. The proposition-a repaired, and new fortifications constructed. The energy of the work is echoed in the words of Lycurgus: "In those hours no age held itself aloof from the service of the state. It was a time when the earth contributed its trees, the dead their tombs, the temples their stores of dedicated armor. Some toiled in restoring the walls; some dug in the trenches; some were building palisades. There was no one idle in the city." 1 The Athenians were, however, entirely astray regarding Philip's purposes. He did not purpose to spend months and years in besieging a city whose cordial coöperation, and not whose destruction, he ultimately sought. Through the orator Demades, who happened to be among the captives, he found 1 Oration against Leocrates, sec. 44. a convenient way of intimating to the Athenians their mistake. The result was an embassy to Philip, composed of Demades, Phocion, and Eschines, all representatives of the Tory-Macedonian party. This Demades was the one who had rebuked the king as, in his drunken revel of triumph on the night of the battle, he lowered himself to jeer his captives. "King, fate hath assigned thee the rôle of Agamemnon, but thou doest the deeds of Thersites." Philip received the ambassadors graciously. He agreed to release the Athenian. captives without ransom, and to send to Athens the bodies of the dead, to be buried in their native soil. The terms of peace were proposed by a commission which he sent later to Athens, consisting of no less important persons than the son Alexander and the favorite general and counselor Antipater. This commission arranged with the Athenians the following terms: Athens was to remain, so far as its internal affairs were concerned, entirely autonomous and free. No Macedonian army was to enter its territory, no Macedonian ship to enter its harbors. It was to be an ally of Philip. The parish of Oropus, on the northeastern boundary of Attica, which it had always claimed, but which of late had belonged to Thebes, was to be added to its territory. On the other hand, it relinquished its monopoly of protecting commerce in the Ægean, and retained of its island possessions only Samos and Delos, Lemnos and Imbros. Its naval hegemony and Egean empire were thus at an end. Furthermore, the clause which stated, in diplomatic phraseology, that "if the Athenians wish, it shall be permitted them to participate in the general peace and in the National Council which the king proposes to create," thinly veiled the plain fact that the state was to be henceforth a member of a confederacy led and governed by Philip. These terms were accepted by the Athenians, in the reaction from their first fright, with little short of enthusiasm. The treaty was also most satisfactory from the Macedonian point of view. It must, indeed, be regarded as fair to both parties, for it expressed reasonably the actual facts of the situation. Alexander's first diplomatic work had been an eminent success. It gave a presage of the success which was, throughout his career, to attend his efforts in procuring accord and coöperation between diverse nationalities. But it was more than a presage: its success was based upon a principle which reappears as conditioning his later dealings with conquered peoples. By generosity in little and relatively unessential things, he made willing subjects and achieved his great essential purposes. We are not informed precisely what part Alexander bore in framing the terms of the peace, but we are inclined, from their character, to infer that it was no unimportant part. In the events of this period we seem to mark a transition from the canny cleverness of Philip to the imperial generosity of Alexander. Toward the end of the year (338) the Hellenic Congress, assembled at Corinth, gave shape and formal organization to the new empire. Interstate peace and freedom of commerce constituted its basis. Each state was freely to conduct its own local government, and to pay no tribute. Existing forms of government in the several states were to remain undisturbed. No Greek, even as a mercenary, was to bear arms against Philip. For executing the purposes of the compact was created a National Council (synedrion), to be held at Corinth. The Amphictyonic Council was appointed to serve as the supreme judicial tribunal of the league. The quota of troops and ships to be furnished by each state for the army and navy of the league was definitely fixed, and Philip was made commander-in-chief of the whole, with the special and immediate purpose of conducting against the Persians a war of reprisal for the desecrated sanctuaries of Hellenic gods. Macedonian garrisons occupied the two great strategic points, Chalcis and the citadel of Corinth, besides Ambracia and Thebes. All the states of Greece proper, except Sparta, participated in the compact. Sparta's refusal was mere helpless stubbornness. Girt about by strong states controlling all the passes into the Eurotas valley, and robbed of all her strength, she no longer weighed in interstate affairs. Philip's work, so far as international history is concerned, was now virtually complete. He had, with a political sagacity such as the world has rarely seen, combined the perversely individualistic elements of old Greece into a new coöperative body, and thereby created the pou sto from which Alexander was to move the world. In the year following the battle there. arose a bitter family quarrel, which seriously disturbed the hitherto kindly relations of Philip and his son, and for a time threatened the peace of the kingdom. It originated in jealousies consequent upon Philip's new ventures in wedlock as well as love. "The dis temper of the harem," as Plutarch puts it, "communicated itself to the kingdom." We hardly require Plutarch's explanation that Olympias, Alexander's mother, was a "jealous, high-strung woman" to account for what followed; but it really would appear, from the account of Philip's attachments which we have in the extant fragments of Satyrus's "Life of Philip," that Olympias tolerated it all until it came to his proposed marriage with Cleopatra, "of whom he was passionately enamoured." It may be suspected that it was something more than the dynamics of Philip's ardor toward his new acquisition that stirred Olympias's wrath. Cleopatra was a Macedonian princess, niece of the influential Attalus, and there was a chauvinistic spirit abroad that threatened to unsettle Alexander's claim to the succession in the interest of a possible heir of pure Macedonian blood. Here was explosive material in abundance; only a spark was needed. At the wedding-banquet, Attalus, heated with wine, had in his toast to the new pair called on all good Macedonians to pray that the union might be blessed with the birth of a genuine successor to the throne-this in allusion to the Macedonian origin of Cleo patra, in contrast to Olympias's Molottan birth. That was more than Alexander could be asked to tolerate. Hurling his beaker at Attalus's head, "You scoundrel," he cried, "what do you think I am? Am I a bastard?" Philip rose from his couch to interpose, and sprang against his son with drawn sword. But his cups and his fury were too much for him. He slipped and fell. Then came Alexander's fearful taunt: "Here, gentlemen, is a man who has been preparing to cross from Europe into Asia; but he has upset in crossing from one couch to another." Immediately after this occurrence, Olympias, accompanied by her son, left the country, and withdrew to her brother, the King of Epirus. From there Alexander went into Illyria, with the probable purpose of securing support against Philip, should he need it. Sympathy with Alexander was widespread also in Macedon, especially among the younger men of the court and the army. While things were in this sorry state, Demaratus, the Corinthian statesman, came to visit Philip at Pella, and to the king's first inquiry, whether the Greeks were living in amity and accord, answered as a friend and straightforwardly: "It ill becomes thee, Philip, to have solicitude about the Greeks, when thou hast involved thine own house in this great dissension, and filled it with evils." Philip profited by the rebuke. Demaratus was commissioned to act the part of mediator. A reconciliation was effected, and Alexander returned to Pella. The causes of trouble had not, however, been removed. Olympias remained still in Epirus, implacable in her resentment of Philip's indignities, and hating with a hatred worthy of a woman both high-strung and strong-minded. She sought to move her brother to take up arms and avenge her insults. She kept her son's suspicions alert. He must not tamely submit to being displaced in the succession by the son of one of the new favorites. It was a woman's jealousy. SILVER COIN OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT, SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN STRUCK DURING HIS LIFETIME. OBVERSE: HEAD OF HERCULES. REVERSE ZEUS HOLDING THE EAGLE, SEATED. THE ORI GINAL IS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. We have no indication that Philip had any real intention of displacing Alexander. It is hardly thinkable that he had. We have, however, abundant evidence that he was sus SILVER TETRADRACHM OF LYSIMACHUS (KING OF THRACE, B. C. 306-281). OBVERSE: HEAD OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT WITH HORN OF AMMON, AS THE DEIFIED SON OF THE GOD. THE PROFILE IS SUPPOSED TO BE TAKEN FROM THE STATUE-PORTRAIT BY LYSIPPUS OR THE GEM-PORTRAIT BY PYRGOTELES. REVERSE: PALLAS HOLDING VICTORY. THE ORIGINAL IS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. of Europe before he had allayed the discontent of the Epirotes consequent upon his treatment of Olympias. This he undertook to do by arranging a marriage between his daughter, Alexander's own sister, and her uncle, the King of Epirus. The wedding was appointed for August of the same year (336). It was to be held at Ægæ, the earlier capital of Macedonia, and the ancestral home of its kings. It was made the occasion of a gorgeous popular fête. Feasts, sports, and dramatic exhibitions were added to the more formal observances of receiving the guests and glorifying the king. Family feuds were ostensibly buried. Olympias returned from Epirus. Invitations were sent everywhere PHILIP II, FATHER OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT, ONE OF THE GOLD MEDALLIONS OF TARSUS. OBVERSE: THE HEAD OF PHILIP II. REVERSE: VICTORY IN A QUADRIGA. The reader is also referred to the note to the medallion on page 19, and to the medallion on page 4. |