d Amyntas, which were designed to
engage the Greek cities of Asia in the expedition. But before quitting
Macedonia, Philip determined to provide for the safety of his dominions
by celebrating the marriage of his daughter with Alexander of Epirus.
It was solemnized at AEgae, the ancient capital of Macedonia, with much
pomp, including banquets, and musical and theatrical entertainments.
The day after the nuptials was dedicated to theatrical entertainments.
The festival was opened with a procession of the images of the twelve
Olympian deities, with which was associated that of Philip himself.
The monarch took part in the procession, dressed in white robes, and
crowned with a chaplet. Whilst thus proceeding through the city, a
youth suddenly rushed out of the crowd, and, drawing a long sword which
he had concealed under his clothes, plunged it into Philip's side, who
fell dead upon the spot. The assassin was pursued by some of the royal
guards, and, having stumbled in his flight, was despatched before he
could reach the place where horses had been provided for his escape.
His name was Pausanias. He was a youth of noble birth, and we are told
that his motive for taking Philip's life was that the king had refused
to punish an outrage which Attalus had committed against him.

Thus fell Philip of Macedon in the twenty-fourth year of his reign and
forty-seventh of his age (B.C. 336). When we reflect upon his
achievements, and how, partly by policy and partly by arms, he
converted his originally poor and distracted kingdom into the mistress
of Greece, we must acknowledge him to have been an extraordinary, if
not a great man, in the better sense of that term. His views and his
ambition were certainly as large as those of his son Alexander, but he
was prevented by a premature death from carrying them out; nor would
Alexander himself have been able to perform his great achievements had
not Philip handed down to him all the means and instruments which they
required.

CHAPTER XX.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT, B.C. 336-323.

Alexander, at the time of his father's death, was in his twentieth
year, having been born in B.C. 356. His early education was entrusted
to Leonidas, a kinsman of his mother, a man of severe and parsimonious
character, who trained him with Spartan simplicity and hardihood;
whilst Lysimachus, a sort of under-governor, early inspired the young
prince with ambitious notions, by teaching him to love and emulate t