United States or Cameroon ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Above all he feared Antipater and his sons, one of whom, Iolas, was his chief cup-bearer, while the other, Kassander, had but recently arrived from Greece, and as he had been trained in the Greek fashion, and had never seen any Oriental customs before, he burst into a loud, insolent laugh, when he saw some of the natives doing homage to Alexander.
He now began to revolve great designs, casting his eyes especially upon the territory of his neighbours; and he was soon enabled to interfere in the affairs of Macedonia on the following grounds. The elder of the sons of Kassander put his mother, Thessalonika, to death, and drove his younger brother Alexander into exile. This prince now applied both to Demetrius and to Pyrrhus for aid.
Clough follows Flathe, and says that 'the waggons were sunk in the ditch, here and there along it. Plutarch's description is most unfortunately brief. We do not know to what extent Sparta had been fortified during its wars with Kassander and Demetrius, or whether the ditch which was dug on this occasion covered the only gap in the walls.
Kassander, however, instantly began to plot against Polysperchon, and taking time by the forelock, sent Nikanor in haste to supersede Menyllus, before the news of the death of Antipater became publicly known, with orders to make himself master of Munychia.
As soon as Kassander saw Demades arrive in Macedonia he had him arrested, and first led his son close to him and then stabbed him, so that his robe was covered with his son's blood, and then, after bitterly upbraiding him with his ingratitude and treason, killed him also.
XXXII. Meanwhile Polysperchon, who was now regent of the Macedonian empire, and had put down Kassander, sent a letter to the Athenians to the effect that "the king restored the democracy at Athens, and bade the Athenians govern themselves according to the customs of their fathers."
When Kassander answered, that it looked very like a false accusation for a man to journey far from the place where his proofs lay, Alexander said with a laugh, "This is how Aristotle teaches his disciples to argue on either side of the question; but if any of you be proved to have wronged these men ever so little, you shall smart for it."
Shortly after, when his enemies demanded that he should be given up, and Kassander even offered two hundred talents, Glaukias refused to betray him, and when he was twelve years of age he marched into Epirus with an army and restored him to the throne.
The Athenians now betook themselves to Demades, who eagerly promised his services, and, together with his son, started for Macedonia, to which country it seems as if he was brought by the direct agency of the gods at a time when Antipater was on a sick bed, and Kassander, who was now at the head of affairs, had discovered a letter addressed by Demades to Antigonus in Asia, inviting him to cross over into Greece and Macedonia, and free them from their dependence on an old and rotten warp -by which expression he meant to sneer at Antipater.
Alexander was very angry, and seizing him by the hair with both hands, beat his head against the wall. Another time he stopped Kassander, when he was about to say something to some men who were accusing his father, Antipater. "Do you imagine" said he, "that these men would have journeyed so far merely in order to accuse a man falsely, if they had not been wronged by him?"
Word Of The Day