LEXANDER was
but twenty years old when his father was murdered, and succeeded to a kingdom
beset on all sides with great dangers, and rancorous enemies. For not only the
barbarous nations that bordered on Macedonia, were impatient of being governed
by any but their own native princes; but Philip likewise, though he had been
victorious over the Greeks, yet, as the time had not been sufficient for him
to complete his conquest and accustom them to his sway, had simply left all
things in a general disorder and confusion. It seemed to the Macedonians a
very critical time; and some would have persuaded Alexander to give up all
thought of retaining the Greeks in subjection by force of arms, and rather
to apply himself to win back by gentle means the allegiance of the tribes who
were designing revolt, and try the effect of indulgence in arresting the first
motions towards revolution. But he rejected this counsel as weak and timorous,
and looked upon it to be more prudence to secure himself by resolution and
magnanimity, than, by seeming to buckle to any, to encourage all to trample on
him. In pursuit of this opinion, he reduced the barbarians to tranquility, and
put an end to all fear of war from them, by a rapid expedition into their
country as far as the river Danube, where he gave Syrmus, king of the
Triballians, an entire overthrow. And hearing the Thebans were in revolt, and
the Athenians in correspondence with them, he immediately marched through the
pass of Thermopylae, saying that to Demosthenes who had called him a child
while he was in Illyria and in the country of the Triballians, and a youth
when he was in Thessaly, he would appear a man before the walls of Athens.
Plutarch: ALEXANDER
LEXANDER was but twenty years old when his father was murdered, and succeeded to a kingdom beset on all sides with great dangers, and rancorous enemies. For not only the barbarous nations that bordered on Macedonia, were impatient of being governed by any but their own native princes; but Philip likewise, though he had been victorious over the Greeks, yet, as the time had not been sufficient for him to complete his conquest and accustom them to his sway, had simply left all things in a general disorder and confusion. It seemed to the Macedonians a very critical time; and some would have persuaded Alexander to give up all thought of retaining the Greeks in subjection by force of arms, and rather to apply himself to win back by gentle means the allegiance of the tribes who were designing revolt, and try the effect of indulgence in arresting the first motions towards revolution. But he rejected this counsel as weak and timorous, and looked upon it to be more prudence to secure himself by resolution and magnanimity, than, by seeming to buckle to any, to encourage all to trample on him. In pursuit of this opinion, he reduced the barbarians to tranquility, and put an end to all fear of war from them, by a rapid expedition into their country as far as the river Danube, where he gave Syrmus, king of the Triballians, an entire overthrow. And hearing the Thebans were in revolt, and the Athenians in correspondence with them, he immediately marched through the pass of Thermopylae, saying that to Demosthenes who had called him a child while he was in Illyria and in the country of the Triballians, and a youth when he was in Thessaly, he would appear a man before the walls of Athens.
