Chapter II: The Successors of Alexander

DIVISIONS OF THE EMPIRE.--Alexander left no legitimate children. The child of Roxana, _Alexander the Younger_, was born after his father's death. The empire naturally fell to his principal generals, of whom _Perdiccas_, having command of the great army of Asia, had the chief power. He was obliged to content his military colleagues, which he did by giving to them provinces. The principal regents, or guardians, were soon reduced to three,--_Antipater_ and _Craterus_ in Europe, and _Perdiccas_. The government was carried on in the name of Roxana's son, and of _Arrhidaeus_, the half-brother of Alexander. But _Perdiccas_ soon found that each general was disposed to be in fact a king in his own dominion. He formed the plan of seizing the empire for himself. This combined the satraps against him. Perdiccas was supported by his friend _Eumenes_, but had against him _Antipater_ and _Craterus_, the other regents, and the powerful governors, _Ptolemy Lagi_ in Egypt, and _Antigonus_ in Phrygia, Lycia, and Pamphilia (322 B.C.). There followed a series of wars lasting for twenty-two years, involving numerous changes of sovereignty, and fresh partitions of territory. The rebellious satraps triumphed over the royalists, whose aim was to keep the empire intact for the family of Alexander. The ambition of _Antigonus_ to make himself the sole ruler, led to a league against him (315 B.C.). In a treaty of peace, _Cassander_, the son of Antipater, was to retain the government of Macedonia. By him _Roxana_ and the young _Alexander_ were put to death. In a second war against Antigonus, in which, as before, he was supported by his son, _Demetrius Poliorcetes_, they were completely defeated in the battle of _Ipsus_, in Phrygia (301 B.C.). Antigonus was slain: Demetrius fled to Greece. The result of this protracted contest was, that the Macedonian empire was broken into three principal states,--Macedonia under the _Antigonidae_, the descendants of Antigonus; Egypt under the _Ptolemies_; Syria under the _Seleucidae_. Besides these, there were the smaller kingdoms of _Pergamon_ and of _Bithynia_. Other states broke off from the Syrian realm of the Seleucidae.

I. THE KINGDOM OF THE PTOLEMIES.

PTOLEMY LAGI (323-285 B.C.).--When _Alexander_ transferred the seat of power in Egypt from Memphis to _Alexandria_, he accomplished results which he could not at all foresee. The Greek element became predominant in Egyptian affairs. A great stimulus was given to commerce and to foreign intercourse. The Egyptians themselves entered zealously into industrial pursuits. _Ptolemy Lagi_ (Soter), the first of the new sovereigns, was wise enough to guard his own territory, and even to establish his rule in _Palestine_, _Phoenicia_, and _Coele-Syria_, but to avoid extensive schemes of conquest. Cyrenaica, on the west of Egypt, and the intermediate Lybian tribes, he subdued. Ptolemy was an absolute monarch, but he retained prominent features in the old Egyptian administrative system, gave offices to Egyptians, and protected their religion. The most important civil stations and all military offices were reserved for Graeco-Macedonians: Alexandria was a Greek city. From the beginning he fostered learning and science. He set to work to collect a great library in a building connected with his palace. He founded the _Museum_, which was a college of professors. It attracted a great body of students, and became the university of the eastern world. Under the patronage of _Ptolemy_, mathematicians, poets, and critics of high repute flourished. Among the structures raised by him were the lighthouse of vast height on the island of _Pharos_, which was connected with the shore by a mole, or causeway, a mile in length; the _Soma_, or mausoleum, containing the body of _Alexander_; the _Temple of Serapis_, completed by his son; and the _Hippodrome_.

PTOLEMY PHILADELPHIA.--_Ptolemy II_., surnamed _Philadelphus_ (285-247 B.C.), with less talent for war than his father, did much to encourage commerce, and was especially active in his patronage of learning. In this last province he did a greater work than his father. He greatly enlarged the library. He drew learned men to his court from all directions. In his time the Hebrew scriptures were translated into Greek, in the version called the _Septuagint_. Under his auspices _Manetho_ composed his _History of Egypt_.

PTOLEMY EUERGETES.--_Ptolemy III_. (247-222 B.C.), surnamed _Euergetes_ (the benefactor), was the most enterprising and aggressive of this line of monarchs. Most of his conquests were not permanent, but some of them were. He was a patron of art and of literature. He raised Egypt to the highest pitch of prosperity that she ever enjoyed. The first three Ptolemies whose reigns had covered a century, were followed by a series of incompetent and depraved kings, nine in number.

Ptolemy IV. (Philopator) (222-205 B.C.) was a weak and dissolute
prince. In war with _Antiochus III_. (the Great) of Syria, he
saved his kingdom; but his own subjects were rebellious and
disaffected. _Ptolemy VI_. (Philometor) (181-148 B.C.) was a
boy at his accession. His guardians engaged in war with Syria, which
would have conquered Egypt but for the interposition of the Romans
in his behalf (170 B.C.).

II. MACEDON AND GREECE.

When Alexander was in the far East, the Spartan king, _Agis III_. (330 B.C.), headed a revolt against _Antipater_; but Agis was vanquished and slain. The death of Alexander kindled the hope of regaining liberty among patriotic Greeks. Athens, under _Demosthenes_ and _Hyperides_, led the way. A large confederacy was formed. _Leosthenes_, the Greek commander, defeated Antipater, and shut him up within the walls of _Lamia_ (in Thessaly). But the Greeks were finally beaten at _Crannon_. Favorable terms were granted to their cities, except Athens and Aetolia. Twenty-one thousand citizens were deported from Athens to Thrace, Italy, and other places. The nine thousand richest citizens, with _Phocion_ at their head, the anti-democratic party, had all power left in their hands. Demosthenes, Hyperides, and other democratic leaders, were proscribed. _Demosthenes_ took refuge in the temple of Neptune, on the little island of _Calaurea_. Finding himself pursued by _Archias_, the officer of Antipater, he took poison, which he had kept by him in a quill, and died. Thus closed the life of an intrepid statesman who had served the cause of liberty and of his country through the direst perils and trials with unfaltering constancy. The democracy again acquired power temporarily, and _Phocion_ was condemned to death.

_Cassander_, excluded from the Macedonian throne by his father,
Antipater, supplanted _Polysperchon_, the regent (316 B.C.). He
placed _Demetrius_ of _Phaleron_ in power at Athens over a
democracy with restricted prerogatives. He was driven out by
_Demetrius Poliorcetes_, who was helped by Athens to possess
himself of Macedonia and of the most of Greece, but was compelled
(287 B.C.) to give up his throne, which, however, was gained by his
son, _Antigonus Gonatas_ (277 B.C.).

THE ACHAEAN LEAGUE.--In 279 B.C., there occurred an irruption of the Gauls into Greece, "one of those vast waves of migration which from time to time sweep over the world." The Macedonian king, _Ptolemy Ceraunus_, was defeated by them in a great battle, captured, and put to death. It was two years before these marauders were driven out, and Macedonia acquired a settled government. This episode in history favored the growth of two leagues--the _Achaean League_ and the _Aetolian League_. In these leagues the several cities gave up to the central council much more power than Greek cities had been in the habit of granting in former unions. The Achaean League was at first made up of ten Achaean cities. About 240 B.C. _Aratus_ of Sicyon, who had brought _Sicyon_ into the league, delivered _Corinth_ from the Macedonians. To free Greek cities from subjection to them, was long a great object of the league. _Peloponnesus_, except Sparta, with _Athens_ and _Aegina_, joined it.

THE AETOLIAN LEAGUE: WAR OF THE LEAGUES.--The rough Aetolians north of the Corinthian Gulf, semi-barbarous in their mode of life, formed another league, and got command of _Phocis_, _Locris_, and _Boeotia_. A praiseworthy attempt at reform was made in Sparta by the king, _Agis IV_. (240 B.C.), who was opposed by the rich, and put to death. _Cleomenes_, his successor, who had the same spirit as Agis, engaged in conflict with the Achaean League, which then called in Macedonian help (223 B.C.). It had to give up to Macedon the Corinthian citadel. _Sparta_ was overthrown. Soon a war between the two leagues broke out, when the Achaeans again called on the Macedonians for aid. These conflicts were followed by the interference of the Romans.

THE EVIL OF FACTION.--The bane of Greece, from the beginning to the end of its history, was the suicidal spirit of disunion. Her power was splintered at many crises, when, if united, it might have saved the land from foreign tyranny. Her resources were drained, generation after generation, by needless local contests. She owed her downfall to the desolating influence of faction.

III. THE SYRIAN KINGDOM.

_Seleucus I_. (Nicator) (312-280 B.C.) was the founder of the Syrian kingdom. From Babylon he extended his dominion to the _Black Sea_, to the _Jaxartes_, and even to the _Ganges_, so far as to make the Indian prince, _Sandracottus_, acknowledge him as suzerain. From Babylon he removed his capital to _Antioch_ on the Orontes, which he founded,--a city destined to be the rival of Alexandria among the cities of the East. The effect of this removal, however, was to loosen his hold upon the Eastern provinces of his empire. _Seleucia_, on the west bank of the Tigris, he likewise founded, which became a great commercial city, but was outstripped later by the Parthian city opposite, _Ctesiphon_. The provinces beyond the Euphrates he committed to his son, _Antiochus_. With him (Antiochus I.) begins the decline of the empire through the influence of Oriental luxury and vice. Under him Syria lost the eastern part of Asia Minor through the invading Gauls, who converted northern Phrygia into _Galatia_, while north-western Lydia became the kingdom of _Pergamon_. _Antiochus II_. (261-246 B.C.) could not hold the provinces in subjection. The Parthian and Bactrian kingdoms began under his reign. _Antiochus III_. (the Great) (223-1876.0.) checked the Parthians and Bactrians, and expelled the Egyptians from Asia, but prepared for the downfall of the Syrian Empire by provoking the hostility of the Romans.

BACTRIA, PARTHIA, PERGAMON, GALATIA.--_Bactria_, after it broke
off from Syria, was under Greek princes until, having been weakened
by the Parthians, it was conquered by the Scythians (134 B.C.). The
_Parthians_ issued, as marauders, from the north border of
_Iran_ (256 B.C.), under the _Arsacidae_. They gradually
acquired civilization from contact with Greek culture, especially
after they established the trading-city of _Ctesiphon_. About
200 B.C. the rulers of _Pontus_ made the Greek city of
_Sinope_ their residence, and attained to a high degree of
strength under _Mithridates VI_. (the Great). _Pergamon_
became a flourishing state under the Greek rule of _Attalus
I_. (241 B.C.). It was famed for its wealth and its
trade. _Eumenes II_. (197-159 B.C.) founded the library at
Pergamon. For him parchment was improved, if not invented, the
Egyptians having forbidden the exportation of
papyrus. _Galatia_ was so named from the swarm of Gallic
invaders (about 279 B.C.), who, after incursions in the East, which
were continued for forty years, settled there, and by degrees
yielded to the influences of Greek culture.

PALESTINE: THE MACCABEES: THE IDUMAEAN PRINCES.--_Palestine_ fared comparatively well in the times when the _Ptolemies_ had control. Not so after it fell under the permanent sway of _Syria_. The Jews were surrounded and invaded by Gentilism. On three sides, there were Greek cities. The perils to which their religion was exposed by the heathen without, and by a lukewarm party within, made earnest Jews, the bulk of the people, more inflexible in their adherence to their law and customs. The party of the _Pharisees_ grew out of the intensity of the loyal and patriotic feeling which was engendered in the periods following the exile. The synagogues, centers of worship and of instruction scattered over the land, acted as a bulwark against the intrusion of heathen doctrine and heathen practices. The resistance to these dreaded evils came to a head when the Syrian ruler, _Antiochus Epiphanes_, embittered by his failures in conflict with Egypt, resolved to break down religious barriers among his subjects, and, for this end, to exterminate Jewish worship. In 168 B.C. he set up an altar to Jupiter in the temple at _Jerusalem_, and even compelled Jewish priests to immolate swine. Then the revolt broke out in which the family of Maccabees were the heroic leaders. _Judas Maccabees_ recovered the temple, but fell in battle (160. B.C.). Under his brother _Simon_, victory was achieved, and the independence of the nation secured. The chief power remained in the hands of this family, the _Asmonaean_ princes, until their degeneracy paved the way for Roman intervention under _Pompeius_. His adviser was the _Idumeaean_, _Antipater_, a Jewish proselyte, whose son _Herod_ was made king (39 B.C.).

PHILOSOPHY: THE STOICS AND THE EPICUREANS.--In the Greek world the progress of investigation and reflection tended to produce disbelief in the old mythological system. Social confusion and degeneracy tended to undermine all religious faith. _Pyrrho_ (about 330 B.C.) brought forward the skeptical doctrine, that the highest wisdom is to doubt every thing. _Euhemrus_ (315 B.C.) interpreted the whole mythology as an exaggeration, by imagination and invention, of historical events which form its slender nucleus. With the loss of liberty and the downfall of the Greek states, philosophy became, so to speak, more _cosmopolitan_. It no longer exalted, in the same narrow spirit, the _Greek_ above the _barbarian_. It looked at mankind more as one community. This was a feature of the first of the two principal sects, the _Stoics_, of whom _Zeno_ (about 330 B.C.), and Chrysippus (280-207 B.C.) were the founders. They taught that _virtue_ is the _only good_; that is consists _in living according to nature_; that reason should be dominant, and tranquillity of spirit be maintained by the complete subjugation of feeling. The emotions are to be kept down by the force of and iron will. This is the Stoic _apathy_. The world is wisely ordered: whatever is, is right; yet the cause of all things is not personal. Mankind form on great community, "one city." The _Epicureans_, the second of the prominent sects,--so called from _Epicurus_, their founder (342-370 B.C.),--made _pleasure_ the chief good, which is to be secured by _prudence_, or such a regulation of our desires as will yield, on the whole, the largest fruit of happiness. They believed that the gods exist, but _denied Providence_.

CULTURE.--In the Greek cities which were founded by the Macedonians, the political life and independence which Greece had enjoued did not exist. The "Hellenistic" literature and culture, as it is called, which followed, lacked the spontaneous energy and original spirit of the old time. The civilization was that of people not exclusively Greek in blood. _Alexandria_ was its chief seat. Poetry languished. It was _prose_--and prose in the form of _learned inquiries, criticism_, and _science_--that flourished. The path was the same as that marked out by Aristotle. _Theocritus_, born in Syracuse, or Cos, under _Ptolemy I._ (about 320 B.C.), had distinction as a pastoral or bucolic poet. _Euclid_, under _Ptolemy Soter_, systemized geometry. _Archimedes_, who died in 212 B.C., is said to have invented the screw, and was skillful in mechanics. _Eratosthenes_ founded descriptive astronomy and scientific chronology. "The Alexandrian age busied itself with literary or scientific research, and with setting in order what the Greek mind had done in its creative time." After Greece became subject to Rome (146 B.C.) the _Graeco Roman period_ in Greek literature begins. The Greek historian _Polybius_ stands on the border between the Alexandrian age and this next era. He was born about 210 B.C., and died about 128 B.C.

LITERATURE.--Works mentioned on p. 16: Histories of Greece by GROTE
(12 vols.) (democratic in his sympathies), E. CURTIUS (5 vols.),
THIRLWALL (8 vols.), W. Smith (1 vol.), G. W. Cox. Busolt,
_Griechische Geschichte_; Fyffe, _History of Greece_
(primer); Duncker, _History of Greece_ [separately published];
Abbott (2 vols.); Holm (4 vols.); Bury; Oman.

On special periods: The writings of the ancient authors,--Herodotus
(Rawlinson's translation, 4 vols.), Xenophon, THUCYDIDES (Jowett's
translation, 2 vols.), Polybius, Plutarch's _Lives_. Schäfer,
_Demosthenes und seine Zeit_ (3 vols.); DROYSEN, _Geschichte
des Hellenismus_ (3 vols.); E. A. FREEMAN, _History of Federal
Government_ (vol. i.); FINLAY, _History of Greece from the
Conquest of the Romans_ (7 vols.); G. W. Cox, _History of
Greece from the Earliest Period to the End of the Persian War_ (2
vols.), and _Lives of Greek Statesmen_ (1 vol.); Freeman,
_History of Sicily_ (4 vols.).

On special topics: BOECKH, _The Public Economy of Athens_;
Coulanges, _The Ancient City_, etc.: Gõll, _Kulturbilder aus
Hellas und Rom_ (3 vols.); Guhl and Koner, _The Life of the
Greeks and Romans_, etc.; Green, _Greece and Greek
Antiquities_ (primer); J. P. Mahaffy, _Social Life in
Greece_, also _Rambles in Greece, Old Greek Education_, and
_History of Greek Literature_ (2 vols.); Becker,
_Charicles_ (a story illustrative of Greek life); F. A. Paley,
_Greek Wit_ (2 vols.); Church, _Stories from Homer_;
Black, _The Wise Men of Greece_; Neares, _Greek Anthology_
[in Ancient Classics for English Readers], _Chief Ancient
Philosophies_ [Stoicism, etc.] (1 vol., 1880); Müller and
Donaldson, _History of the Literature of Ancient Greece_ (3
vols.); Mure, _A Critical History of the Language and Literature
of Ancient Greece_ (5 vols.); Jebb, _Attic Orators_ (2
vols.); Symonds, _The Greek Poets_ (2 vols.); G. F. Schömann,
_The Antiquities of Greece_; Gladstone, _Studies on the
Homeric Age_ and _Homer_; Lübke, _Outlines of the History
of Art_; FERGUSSON, _History of Architecture_; D'Anvers,
_Elementary History of Art_; Botsford, _Development of the
Athenian Constitution_; W. W. Fowler, _The City-State of the
Greeks and Romans_; Gilbert, _Constitutional Antiquities of
Sparta and Athens_; Greenidge, _Handbook of Greek
Constitutional History_; H. N. Fowler, _History of Greek
Literature_; Marshall, _Short History of Greek Philosophy_;
Gardner, _Handbook of Greek Sculpture_; Tarbell, History of
Greek Art_; Tozer, _Primer of Classical Geography_; Kiepert,
_Atlas Antiquus_; Cunningham, _Western Civilization_
(vol. 1); Smith (Wayte & Marindin), _Dictionary of Greek and Roman
Antiquities_ (2 vols., 1890); Seyffert (Nettleship and Sandys),
_Dictionary of Classical Antiquities_.

MACEDONIAN ROYAL HOUSES

A.--House of Alexander the Great.

(1) AMYNTAS II. | +--(4) PHILIP, _m._ | 1, Olympias; | | | +--ALEXANDER THE GREAT, _m._ | 1, Roxana; | | | +--(7) ALEXANDER. | | 2, Concubines. | | | +--Hercules. | | 2, Cleopatra; | | 3, Concubines. | | | +--(6) PHILIP ARRHIDAEUS, _m._ Eurydicé. | | | +--Thessalonica, _m._ Cassander. | | | +--Cynané _m._ Amyntas. | +--(2) ALEXANDER II. | +--(3) PERDICCAS III. | +--Amyntas, _m._ Cynané | +--Eurydicé, _m._ Philip Arrhidaeus.

B.--House of Antipater.

ANTIPATER. | +--(8) CASSANDER, _m._ Thessalonica. | | | +--(9) PHILIP II. | | | +--(10) ANTIPATER II. | | | +--(11) ALEXANDER. | | +--Philip. | +--Eurydicé, _m._ Ptolemy Lagi, | +--Phila, _m._ | 1, Craterus; | 2, Demetrius Poliorcetes. | +--Nicaea, _m._ Perdiccas.

C.--House of Antigonus.

Antigonus I. | | +--(12) DEMETRIUS I (Poliorcetes), _m._ | Phila, daughter of Antipater. | | | +--(13) Antigonus II (Gonatas), _m._ | | Phila, daughter of Seleucus Nicator. | | | | | +--(14) Demetrius II, _m._ | | 1, Stratonice; | | | | | +--(16) PHILIP III. | | | | | | | +--(17) PERSEUS, _m._ | | | | Laodicé, daughter of Seleucus Philopator. | | | | | | | +--Demetrius | | | | | +--Apama. | | | | 2, Phthia. | | | +--Craterus. | | | | | +--Alexander | | | +--Demetrius the Handsome. | | | | | +--Antigonus III (Doson), _m._ | | | Phthia, widow of Demetrius II | | | | | +--Echecrates, | | | | | +--Antigonus. | | | +--Stratonice, _m._ | | 1, Seleucus Nicator; | | 2, Antiochus Theus. | | | +--Phila. | +--Philip.

[From Rawlinson's _Manual of Ancient History_.]