destroyed.--The manner of doing it.--Alexander's moderation and
forbearance.--Family of Pindar spared.--The number saved.--Efforts
of Demosthenes.--The boy proves to be a man.--All disaffection
subdued.--Moral effect of the destruction of Thebes.--Alexander
returns to Macedon.--Celebrates his victories.

The country which was formerly occupied by Macedon and the other
states of Greece is now Turkey in Europe. In the northern part of it
is a vast chain of mountains called now the Balkan. In Alexander's day
it was Mount Haemus. This chain forms a broad belt of lofty and
uninhabitable land, and extends from the Black Sea to the Adriatic.

A branch of this mountain range, called Rhodope, extends southwardly
from about the middle of its length, as may be seen by the map.
Rhodope separated Macedonia from a large and powerful country, which
was occupied by a somewhat rude but warlike race of men. This country
was Thrace. Thrace was one great fertile basin or valley, sloping
toward the center in every direction, so that all the streams from the
mountains, increased by the rains which fell over the whole surface of
the ground, flowed together into one river, which meandered through
the center of the valley, and flowed out at last into the Aegean Sea.
The name of this river was the Hebrus. All this may be seen
distinctly upon the map.

[Illustration: MAP OF MACEDON AND GREECE.]

The Balkan, or Mount Haemus, as it was then called, formed the great
northern frontier of Macedon and Thrace. From the summits of the
range, looking northward, the eye surveyed a vast extent of land,
constituting one of the most extensive and fertile valleys on the
globe. It was the valley of the Danube. It was inhabited, in those
days, by rude tribes whom the Greeks and Romans always designated as
barbarians. They were, at any rate, wild and warlike, and, as they had
not the art of writing, they have left us no records of their
institutions or their history. We know nothing of them, or of the
other half-civilized nations that occupied the central parts of Europe
in those days, except what their inveterate and perpetual enemies have
thought fit to tell us. According to their story, these countries were
filled with nations and tribes of a wild and half-savage character,
who could be kept in check only by the most vigorous exertion of
military power.

Soon after Alexander's return into Macedon, he learned that there were
symptoms of revolt among the