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

XVII.THEBES. B. C. 335.The Persian monarch had foreseen the threatening danger to his kingdomfrom restless Alexander. He began to distribute money among the anti-Macedoniansof Greece.The rumor of the death of Alexander before Pelium determinedThebes to revolt and eject the Macedonian garrison from the Cadmaea.Athens and other cities promised active aid. So soon as Pelium was takenAlexander marched rapidly southward. In two weeks he covered three hundredmiles over a mountain road, and appeared suddenly before Thebes. Hewas anxious to save the city, but the misguided Thebans pronounced their owndoom.The town was stormed, sacked and razed to the ground, and the Thebanterritory added to that of its neighbors, late its vassals. Athens begged off.In one year this young king of twenty had firmly seated himself on his throne,had made himself master of Greece, had utterly defeated the Danube barbarians,had reduced the lUyrians to obedience and had welded the shackles onHellas.He was now ready for Persia.The king of Persia, foreseeing grave danger to himseKand his kingdom from this youthful but vigorous monarch,who on his side made small secret of his intentions, in additionto sending Memnon the Rhodian, his most able general,to Asia Minor to oppose the IVIacedonians there, began to distributemoney in Greece to induce the cities to take up armsagainst Macedon and their new autocrat. The long absenceof Alexander on his Illyrian expedition and the lack offrom him had given rise to rumors that he and hisnewsarmy hadbeen destroyed by the barbarians. A man, in fact, is said tohave reached Athens, — at allevents Demosthenes producedsuch an one, — who pretended to show a wound received beforePelium, and who stated that he saw Alexander receivehis death-blow. The man may have had a fair basis for hisstory.