This was the most brilliant time of Greek oratory, which reached its
perfection in the contest between Æschines, who advocated the cause of
Macedonia, and Demosthenes, who opposed the designs of Philip. It was
also a period of great mental activity in the region of scientific
inquiry and speculative thought. Plato, whose birth fell in the
preceding century, founded the Academic school, which took its name from
the groves of Academus in the vicinity of Athens, where the philosopher
was accustomed to lecture. Aristotle (called the Stagyrite, from his
birthplace, Stagyra, in Macedonia) was the instructor of Alexander the
Great, and founded, at the Lyceum in Athens, what is known as the
Peripatetic school, from his habit of walking about while conversing
with his disciples.
After the battle of Chæronea, Philip, having made Greece subject to his
power, planned to unite all the forces of that country in an aggressive
war against the great power of Persia, but was murdered in 336 B. C.
V. MACEDONIAN PERIOD AND EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT.--This period
extends from the supremacy of Philip, gained by the battle of
Chæronea, to the capture of Corinth, 146 B. C. By the disastrous
defeat at Chæronea the genuine fire of the Grecian spirit was
extinguished, and the subsequent history exhibits little else than
the steps by which the country was reduced to a dependent province.
Alexander, who succeeded his father Philip, as king of Macedon, and
autocrat of Greece, cast an imperishable glory on the first years of
this period by his extensive conquests reaching from the Hellespont
to the Granicus, to Issus, to Tyre, to the Nile, to the desert of
Libya, to the Euphrates, and the Indus. For twenty years after
Alexander’s death the vast empire he had formed was agitated by the
quarrels among his generals. By the battle of Ipsus in Phrygia, B.
C. 301, these contests were terminated, and the empire was then
divided into practically four kingdoms. To the first of these the
Grecian states belonged. Patriotic individuals sought to arouse
their countrymen to cast off the Macedonian yoke; but jealousy
between the states and the universal corruption of morals rendered
their exertions fruitless. All that is really memorable in the
affairs of Greeks at this later time, is found in the history of the
Achæan league.
After the assassination of Philip, the task of subjugating the Persian
Empire was left for his son Alexander, who subsequently proved himself
one of the greatest commanders of any age. Alexander’s exploits were all
performed in the short rule of thirteen years (336-323 B. C.). Coming to
the throne of Macedon at the age of twenty, he put down rebellion in his
own kingdom, marched into Greece and overawed Thebes, which had been
intriguing against him, and in a congress of Greek states at Corinth he
was appointed to command the great expedition against Persia.