eager to march into Asia against Per'diccas, was forced to grant them peace on favorable conditions.

As soon as Ptolemy had been informed of the murder of Perdiccas, he came to the royal army with a large supply of wine and provisions. His kindness and courteous manners so won upon these turbulent soldiers, that they unanimously offered him the regency; but he had the prudence to decline so dangerous an office. On his refusal, the feeble Arrhida'us and the traitor Py'thon were appointed to the regency, just as the news arrived of the recent victory of Eúmenes. This intelligence filled the royal army with indignation. Crat'erus had been always a favorite with the soldiers; Eúmenes was despised on account of his former unwarlike occupation. They hastily passed a vote proclaiming Eúmenes and his adherents public enemies, and denouncing all who afforded them support or protection. The advance of an army to give effect to these decrees was delayed by a new revolution. Eurid'ice, the wife of Arrhida'us, a woman of great ambition and considerable talent for intrigue, wrested the regency from her feeble husband and Py'thon, but was stripped of power on the arrival of Antip'ater, who reproached the Macedonians for submitting to the government of a woman; and being ably supported by Antig'onus and Seleúcus, obtained for himself the office of regent.

No sooner had Antip'ater been invested with supreme power, than he sent Arrhida'us and Eurid'ice prisoners to Pel'la, and intrusted the conduct of the war against Eúmenes to the crafty and ambitious Antig'onus. Cassan'der, the son of Antip'ater, joined the expedition with a thousand horse, and, being himself a selfish and cunning statesmen, he soon penetrated the secret plans of Antig'onus, and vainly warned the regent of his dangerous designs. A quarrel soon took place between the worthy colleagues; and Cassan'der returned to Europe, where he was about to commence a career as bold and bloody as that of Antig'onus in Asia. Eúmenes was unable to cope with the forces sent against him; having been defeated in the open field, he took shelter in Nóra, a Cappadocian city, and maintained a vigorous defence, rejecting the many tempting offers by which Antig'onus endeavored to win him to the support of his designs (B. c. 318). The death of Antip'ater produced a new revolution in the empire; and Eúmenes in the meantime escaped from Nóra, accompanied by his principal friends, on fleet horses that had been trained for this especial service.

Antipater, at his death, bequeathed the regency to Polysper'chon, excluding his son Cassan'der from power on account of his criminal intrigues with the wicked and ambitious Eurid'ice. Though a brave general, Polysper'chon had not the qualifications of a statesman: he provoked the powerful resentment of Antig'onus by entering into a close alliance with Eúmenes; and he permitted Cassan'der to strengthen himself in southern Greece, where he seized the strong fortress of Munyc'hia. His next measures were of still more questionable policy: he recalled Olym'pias, the mother of Alexander, whom Antip'ater had banished on account of her turbulent disposition; and he proclaimed his intention of restoring democracy in the Grecian states. The latter edict was received with the utmost enthusiasm at Athens; an urgent embassy was sent to the regent, requesting him to send an army to

protect the city from Cassan'der and his partisans. Polysper'chon sent his son Alexander with a considerable force into Attica; and no sooner were news of his approach received, than the restoration of democracy was voted by a tumultuous assembly, and a decree passed for proceeding against all aristocrats, as capital enemies of the state (B. c. 317). Several illustrious individuals, and among others the virtuous Phocion fell victims to this burst of popular violence, which the regent made no effort to check or control.

Cassan'der, however, remained master of the ports of Athens, and was thus enabled to fit out a considerable fleet, which he sent to the Thracian Bos'phorus, under the command of his friend Nicánor, to second the enterprises of Antig'onus. Nicanor was at first defeated by the royal navy; but being reinforced, he renewed the engagement, and captured all the enemies' ships except the admiral's galley. The news of this victory rendered the power of Antigonus paramount in lower Asia, and gave Cassan'der possession of Athens. The Athenians, however, suffered no injury from the change, the government of their city having been intrusted to Demétrius Phaléreus, who ruled them with justice and moderation during ten years.

Polysper'chon, unable to drive Cassan'der from Attica, entered the Peloponnésus to punish the Arcadians, and engaged in a fruitless siege of Megalopolis. In the meantime Olym'pias, to whom he had confided the government of Macedon, seized Arrhidæ'us and Eurid'ice, whom she caused to be murdered in prison. Cassan'der hasted, at the head of his all forces, to avenge the death of his mistress: Olym'pias, unable to meet him in the field, fled to Pyd'na; but the city was forced to surrender after a brief defence, and Olym'pias was immediately put to death. Among the captives were Roxána the widow, Alexander 'gus, the posthumous son, and Thessaloníca, the youngest daughter of Alexander the Great. Cassan'der sought and obtained the hand of the latter princess, and thus consoled himself for the loss of his beloved Eurid'ice. By this marriage he acquired such influence, that Polysper'chon did not venture to return home, but continued in the Peloponnésus, where he retained for some time a shadow of authority over the few Macedonians who still clung to the family of Alexander.

In Asia, Eúmenes maintained the royal cause against Antigʻonus, though deserted by all the satraps, and harassed by the mutinous disposition of his troops, especially the Argyras'pides, a body of guards that Alexander had raised to attend his own person, and presented with the silver shields from which they derived their name. After a long struggle, both armies joined in a decisive engagement; the Argyras'pides broke the hostile infantry, but learning that their baggage had in the meantime been captured by the light troops of the enemy, they mutinied in the very moment of victory, and delivered their leader, bound with his own sash, into the hands of his merciless enemy (B. C. 315). The faithful Eúmenes was put to death by the traitorous Antigʻonus; but he punished the Argyras'pides for their treachery; justly dreading their turbulence, he sent them in small detachments against the barbarians; and thus sacrificed in detail the veterans that had overthrown the Persian empire.

Antig'onus, immediately after his victory, began openly to aim at the

sovereignty of the entire Macedonian empire. The weight of his power was first directed against the satraps whose rebellious conduct had enabled him to triumph over Eúmenes. Peuces'tes of Persia was banished, Python of Media put to death, and Seleuc'us of Bab'ylon could only escape a similar fate by a precipitate flight into Egypt. The Macedonian governors in the west, instigated by Seleuc'us, formed a league for mutual defence, and sent an embassy to Antig'onus, who answered their proposals with menace and insult. But at the same time he prepared to wage a more effectual war than one of words: while his armies overran Syria and Asia Minor, he roused the southern Greeks, the Ætolians, and Epirotes, to attack Cassan'der in Macedon. He bribed the mountaineers and northern barbarians to attack Lysim'achus in Thrace, while his son Demétrius, afterward named Poliorcé. tes, or the conqueror of cities, marched against the Egyptian Ptolemy.

The first important operations of the war took place in southern Syria. Ptolemy overthrew Demétrius near Gáza, and in consequence of his victory, became master of Palestine and Phoenicia. But the Egyptians were defeated in their turn at the commencement of the next campaign; their recent acquisitions were lost as rapidly as they had been gained; and Demétrius would have invaded their country with great prospect of success, had he not been involved in an unwise contest with the Arabs.

We have already mentioned that the excavated city of Petra was the great depôt of the caravan-trade between the southern countries of Asia and northern Africa. Athenæ'us, a general in the army of Antig'onus, was sent to seize its rich stores: he surprised the inhabitants by a rapid march and unexpected attack, and was returning laden with plunder to join the main army; but the Nabathæ'an Arabs, enraged by their loss, hastily collected their forces, and urging their dromedaries through the desert, overtook Athenæ'us near Gáza, where they not only recovered the spoil, but almost annihilated his army. Demétrius eagerly hasted to avenge this loss, but he was baffled by the fastnesses of Arabia Petræ'a; and when he returned into Syria, he received intelligence that directed all his attention to the state of upper Asia.

After Ptolemy's victory at Gáza, Seleuc'us, with a small but gallant band of attendants, boldly threw himself into his ancient satrapy of Bab'ylon, and was received with so much enthusiasm, that he obtained possession of all his former power without striking a blow. The Persian and Median satraps appointed by Antig'onus hastened to destroy the dangerous enemy that had thus suddenly arisen; but they were totally routed after a brief but ineffectual struggle (B. c. 312). This battle, from which a new dynasty may be dated, forms an important epoch in Grecian history, called the era of the Seleucidæ.

Alarmed by these occurrences, Antig'onus hastened to conclude a peace with his other opponents; and a treaty was ratified which was pregnant with the elements of future war. Cassan'der agreed to restore the freedom of the Grecian cities, without the slightest intention of performing his promise. Ptolemy consented that Antig'onus should retain his present possessions, while he was preparing a fleet to seize the Asiatic islands, previous to invading Syria; Lysim'achus was resolved to annex the northern provinces of Asia Minor to his satrapy

of Thrace; and all agreed to acknowledge the son of Alexander for their sovereign, though a resolution had been already formed for his destruction. Alarmed by the murmurs of the Macedonians, Cassan'der caused Roxána, Alexander Æ'gus, and Her'cules (the last survivor of the great conqueror), to be assassinated; and soon after consigned the princess Cleopátra to the same fate, dreading that she might bestow her hand on some of the rival satraps.

It was not long before Antig'onus discovered that he had been deceived in the recent treaty by Cassan'der and Ptolemy. He sent his son Demétrius into Greece, under the pretence of restoring the liberty of the states; and Athens, still enamored of the memory of its freedom, opened its gates to the young prince (B. c. 308). Thence he sailed to Cy'prus, and gained a decisive victory over the Egyptian fleet that came to protect the island. He was baffled, however, in an attempt to invade Egypt; and when he went thence to besiege Rhodes, he was recalled to Greece by the prayers of the Athenians, who were exposed to imminent danger from the power of Cassan'der.

The success of Demétrius induced his father to nominate him captain-general of Greece-an injudicious measure, which led to the formation of a new confederacy against Antig'onus. Cassan'der renewed his attacks on southern Greece; Ptolemy entered Syria; Lysim'achus, with an army of veterans, invaded Thrace; while Seleúcus marched westward with the numerous forces of upper Asia, including four hundred and eighty elephants. The junction of Lysim'achus and Seleúcus in Phrygia necessarily brought on a decisive engagement, which Antig'onus, reinforced by his gallant son Demétrius, showed no anxiety to avoid (B. c. 301). The battle that decided the fate of an empire was fought at Ip'sus in Phrygia: it ended in the defeat and death of Antigʻonus, and the destruction of the power that he had raised. The consequences of this victory were, a new partition of the provinces, and the erection of the satrapies into independent kingdoms. Seleúcus became monarch of upper Asia; Ptolemy added Syria and Palestine to Egypt; Lysimachus obtained the northern provinces of Asia Minor as an appendage to his kingdom of Thrace; and the services of Cassan'der were rewarded, not only with the sovereignty of Macedon and Greece, but also of the rich province of Cilícia. Thus, in the course of a single generation, the mighty empire of Alexander had risen to unparalleled greatness, and fallen into hopeless ruin; while not a single descendant of the illustrious founder was spared to transmit his name to posterity. The most enduring memorial of his policy was the city of Alexandria, founded during his Egyptian campaign, which became one of the greatest commercial marts of antiquity, and is still at the head of the trade between Europe and the Levant.

CHAPTER XII.

HISTORY OF THE STATES THAT AROSE FROM THE DISMEMBERMENT OF

THE MACEDONIAN EMPIRE.

SECTION I.-The History of Macedon and Greece from the Battle of Ipsus to the Roman Conquest.

FROM B. C. 301 TO B. c. 146.

AFTER the fatal battle of Ip'sus, Demétrius fled to Greece, hoping to obtain a refuge from the Athenians, whom he had essentially served in the days of his prosperity; but the harbors and gates of the city were closed against him. Having obtained, however, the restoration of the ships and money he had deposited there, he established himself in the Peloponnésus, and commenced a desultory naval war against Lysim'achus. Seleucus, who now transferred to Lysimachus the jealousy of which the fallen fortunes of Demétrius could no longer be an object, sought an alliance with his ancient enemy, and married Stratonice, the daughter of Demétrius, and this union was equally advantageous to both parties.

Cassan'der did not long survive the establishment of his power: on his death (B. c. 296), he left Macedónia to his three sons, of whom Philip speedily followed his father to the grave. The survivors quarrelled about the division of their inheritance. Antípater murdered his mother Thessaloníca, on account of the favor she showed to his brother Alexander. The vengeance of his brother being, however, supported by the general feeling of the Macedonians, he fled to the court of his father-in-law Lysim'achus, where he died prematurely. Dreading the resentment of the Thracian monarch, Alexander sought the aid of Pyr'rhus, king of Epírus, and Demétrius Poliorcétes, who both entered Macedon, in the hope of gaining some advantage. The ambition of Demétrius soon provoked the jealousy of the son of Cassan'der, he grew jealous of his ally, and attempted to remove so formidable a competitor by stratagem; but he was counterplotted and slain. The vacant throne was seized by Demétrius, who possessed, in addition to Macedon, Thessaly, a great portion of southern Greece, with the provinces of Attica and Meg'aris, to which after a fierce resistance, he added Bœótia. He might have enjoyed this extensive realm in tranquillity, but his restless ambition led him to form plans for the recovery of his father's power in Asia.

Seleúcus and Ptolemy, in great alarm at the sudden appearance of a