292 HISTORICAL TALES.

metals were melted and converted into money; of
the baser metals arms were made. Onomarchus
went farther than Philomelus; he not only paid his
troops with the treasure, but bribed the leaders of
Grecian states, and thus gained powerful friends.
He was soon successfully at war, drove back his
foes, and pressed his conquests till he had captured
Thermopyle and invaded Thessaly.

Here the Phocians came into contact with a foe
dangerous to themselves and to all Greece. This foe
was the celebrated Philip of Macedonia, a famous
soldier who was to play a leading part in the subse-
quent game. He had long been paving the way to
the conquest of Greece, and the Sacred War gave
him just the opportunity he wanted.

Macedonia lay north of Greece. Its people were
not Greeks, nor like Greeks in their customs. They
lived in the country, not in cities, and had little or
none of the culture of Greece. But they were the
stuff from which good soldiers are made. Hitherto
this country had been hardly thought of as an ele-
ment in the Grecian problem. Its kings were des-
pots who had been kept busy with their foes at home.
But now aking had arisen of wider views and larger
mould. Philip had spent his youth in Thebes, where
he had learned the art of war under Epaminondas.
On coming to the throne he quickly proved himself a
great soldier and a keen and cunning politician. By
dint of war and trickery he rapidly spread his domin-
ions until all his home foes were subdued, Macedonia
was greatly extended, and Thessaly, the most north-
ern state of Greece, was overrun.