nspiration
said to the brothers, pointing to the light on the floor: "I will give
you that; that is your wages." Upon this, the two elder brothers stood
speechless; but the younger, who held a knife in his hand, said: "Very
well; we accept it." And having traced with his knife a circle on the
floor surrounding the rays, he stooped down thrice, feigning each time
to take up the sunshine and place it in the folds of his garment and to
distribute it to his brothers; after which, they all went away. One of
those who sat by called the attention of the king to this conduct on the
part of the young man, and the manner in which he accepted what was
offered him; and the king, becoming anxious and angry, sent horsemen to
follow the brothers and slay them. Now in that country is a river, to
which the descendants of these Argives offer sacrifice as to a god. This
river, after the fugitives had crossed it, became suddenly so swollen
that the horsemen dared not follow. The brothers arrived in another part
of Macedon and established themselves near the lake called the Gardens
of Midas, and, when they had subjugated the country in those parts, they
went thence to conquer the rest of Macedon.

Herodotus states that Perdiccas I. founded the reigning dynasty in
Macedon, and he mentions as his successors Argaeus, Philip, Eropus,
Alcetas, and Amyntas I., whose son, Alexander "the Philheliene," the
Greeks permitted to take part in the Olympic games. This Alexander on
one occasion visited dire punishment upon a party of Persian envoys who
at a banquet forgot the respect due to the ladies at the court of
Macedon; he caused them to be assassinated by a company of young men
whom he had disguised in women's attire. When the Persians sent to
require the punishment of the guilty, Alexander won over the envoy by
giving him his sister in marriage.

This Alexander, who became king in the year 500 before the Christian
era, begins the series of those Macedonian kings who felt the need of
Hellenizing their people, and his reign accordingly marks a turning
point in the history of Macedon. Perdiccas II., Archelaus I., and
Amyntas II. were his successors, who continued this policy; but this
forced civilization by no means reached the mass of the people, and,
while it refined the nobility and the court and paved the way for the
Macedonian inroads into Greece, it also introduced luxury and
corruption. Amyntas II. left three sons, Alexander II., Perdiccas III