Alexander : a history of the origin and growth of the art of war from ...

ALEXANDER'S MOTHER. 127year he took oonsiclci-able money, and showed a clear conceptionof the role of conqueror. Out of a petty country of uncertainboundaries, Philip created a kingdom extending- fromthe Euxine to the Adriatic. He was constantly at war withAthens. Not the least of his merits is the debt literatureowes to his restless pertinacity and greed of power in thePhilippics of Demosthenes.Philip married Olympias, daughter of the king of the Molossi.Olympias was of the royal house of Epirus, whichclaimed descent from Achilles, while Philip traced his lineageto Hercules. Philip had met Olymj^ias at the Samothracianmysteries. She was a woman of a high-strung nature, superstitious,semi-barbarous in her cast of mind, and is said tohave been fond of tame snakes and of magic incantations.She became later in life repulsive to Pliilip. The night beforeher marriage It is related that she dreamed that the lightningfell upon her and kindled in her a mighty fire, whichbroke forth and consumed everything within reach. Despitethe unintelligent nature of her character, Olympias alwaysretained a large measure of influence over her son.Three lucky things happened to be reported to Philip, whowas at the siege of Potldsea, upon the same day : that Alexanderwas born ; that Parmenio had beaten the lUyrlans ;that his horses had won the chariot race at the 01}Tnpicgames. As it happened, the temple of Diana of Ephesuswas burned on that day also.It was of Philip's marriage with Olympias that was bornAlexander, the third Macedonian king of his name (July,B. c. 356). He was precocious in physique and In Intellect,and had so early advanced In manliness that, when he was butsixteen years old, and Philip had left him at Pella, the capital,as regent while he was absent besieging Byzantium, Alexandernot only conducted the business of the state discreetly,