The affair of the youth Pausanias and the involvement of Olympias or possibly Alexander in the murder of Philip are clouded at best. The problem of subjugating Greece and the barbarians still looms for the new king Alexander and he opts for resolution and magnanimity not indulgence. He overthrew Syrmus,king of the Triballians by these measures, not showing weakness. The sacking and razing of Thebes is but another instance of the multifaceted manner and nature of the youthful king.His rationale of terrorizing the Thebans and all Greece to submission is a rationale commonly used by the ancients in warfare, a stock the youthful king availed himself of. Alexander dealt wisely with the Athenians ,the vanquished of war and with Timoclea a matron of honor violated by lust as a "casualty" of war. Her mien and gait were recognized by Alexander who freed her and her children, she the sister of ("I am," said she, "the sister of Theagenes, who fought the battle of Chaeronea with your father Philip, and fell there in command for the liberty of Greece." ) He received the Athenians mercifully and forgave them their past confederation with Thebes ( out of sorrow for Thebes, they ommitted celebrating 'the mysteries') Note Plutarch's comments of his handling of Athens: Whether it were, like the lion, that his passion was now satisfied, or that after an example of extreme cruelty, he had a mind to appear merciful, it happened well for the Athenians; for he not only forgave them all past offenses, but bade them to look to their affairs with vigilance, remembering that if he should miscarry, they were likely to be the arbiters of Greece. He himself in the aftermath repented of his severity with Thebes as is alluded to below.
Not long after this, Pausanias, having had an outrage
done to him at the
instance of Attalus and Cleopatra, when he found he could
get no reparation for
his disgrace at Philip's hands, watched his
opportunity and murdered him. The
guilt of which fact was laid for the most
part upon Olympias, who was said to
have encouraged and exasperated the
enraged youth to revenge; and some sort of
suspicion attached even to
Alexander himself, who, it was said, when Pausanias
came and complained to
him of the injury he had received, repeated the verse out
of Euripides's
Medea: --
On husband, and on father, and on bride.
However,
he took
care to find out and punish the accomplices of the conspiracy severely,
and
was very angry with Olympias for treating Cleopatra inhumanly in his
absence.
Alexander 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
Grecians, 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 Grecians 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.
When he came
to Thebes, to show
how willing he was to accept of their repentance for what was
past, he only
demanded of them Phoenix and Prothytes, the authors of the
rebellion, and
proclaimed a general pardon to those who would come over to him.
But when
the Thebans merely retorted by demanding Philotas and Antipater to be
delivered into their hands, and by a proclamation on their part, invited all
who
would assert the liberty of Greece to come over to them, he presently
applied
himself to make them feel the last extremities of war. The Thebans
indeed
defended themselves with a zeal and courage beyond their strength,
being much
outnumbered by their enemies. But when the Macedonian garrison
sallied out upon
them from the citadel, they were so hemmed in on all sides,
that the greater
part of them fell in the battle; the city itself being
taken by storm, was
sacked and razed, Alexander's hope being that so severe
an example might terrify
the rest of Greece into obedience, and also in
order to gratify the hostility of
his confederates, the Phocians and
Plataeans. So that, except the priests, and
some few who had heretofore been
the friends and connections of the Macedonians,
the family of the poet
Pindar, and those who were known to have opposed the
public vote for the
war, all the rest, to the number of thirty thousand, were
publicly sold for
slaves; and it is computed that upwards of six thousand were
put to the
sword. Among the other calamities that befell the city, it happened
that
some Thracian soldiers having broken into the house of a matron of high
character and repute, named Timoclea, their captain, after he had used
violence
with her, to satisfy his avarice as well as lust, asked her, if she
knew of any
money concealed; to which she readily answered she did, and bade
him follow her
into a garden, where she showed him a well, into which, she
told him, upon the
taking of the city she had thrown what she had of most
value. The greedy
Thracian presently stooping down to view the place where
he thought the treasure
lay, she came behind him, and pushed him into the
well, and then flung great
stones in upon him, till she had killed him.
After which, when the soldiers led
her away bound to Alexander, her very
mien and gait showed her to be a woman of
dignity, and of a mind no less
elevated, not betraying the least sign of fear or
astonishment. And when the
king asked her who she was, "I am," said she, "the
sister of Theagenes, who
fought the battle of Chaeronea with your father Philip,
and fell there in
command for the liberty of Greece." Alexander was so
surprised, both at what
she had done, and what she said, that he could not
choose but give her and
her children their freedom to go whither they
pleased.
After this he
received the Athenians into favor, although they had
shown themselves so
much concerned at the calamity of Thebes that out of sorrow
they omitted the
celebration of the Mysteries, and entertained those who escaped
with all
possible humanity. Whether it were, like the lion, that his passion was
now
satisfied, or that after an example of extreme cruelty, he had a mind to
appear merciful, it happened well for the Athenians; for he not only forgave
them all past offenses, but bade them to look to their affairs with
vigilance,
remembering that if he should miscarry, they were likely to be
the arbiters of
Greece. Certain it is, too, that in after-time he often
repented of his severity
to the Thebans, and his remorse had such influence
on his temper as to make him
ever after less rigorous to all others. He
imputed also the murder of Clitus,
which he committed in his wine, and the
unwillingness of the Macedonians to
follow him against the Indians, by which
his enterprise and glory was left
imperfect, to the wrath and vengeance of
Bacchus, the protector of Thebes. And
it was observed that whatsoever any
Theban, who had the good fortune to survive
this victory, asked of him, he
was sure to grant without the least
difficulty.
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