294 HISTORICAL TALES.

the Athenian fleet, surrendered to Philip, and that
astute monarch won what he had long schemed for,
the Pass of Thermopyle, the Key of Greece.

The Sacred War was at an end, and with it
virtually the independence of Greece. Phocis was
in the hands of Philip, who professed more than
ever to be the defender and guardian of Apollo,
All the towns in Phocis were broken up into vil-
lages, and the inhabitants were ordered to be fined
ten talents annually till they had paid back all they
had stolen from the temple. Philip gave back the
temple to the Delphians, and was himself voted into
membership in the Amphictyonic assembly in place
of the discarded Phocians, And all this took place
while a treaty of peace tied the hands of the Greeks.
The Sacred War had served as a splendid pretext to
carry out the ambitious plans of the Macedonian king.

We have now a long story to tell in a few words.
Another people, the Locrians, had also made an in-
vasion on Delphian territory. The Amphictyonic
Council called on Philip to punish them. He at
once marched southward, but, instead of meddling
with the Locrians, seized and fortified a town in
Phocis. At once Athens, full of alarm, declared war,
and Philip was as quick to declare war in return.
Both sides sought the support of Thebes, and Athens
gained it. In August, 338 bB.c, the Grecian and
Macedonian armies met and fought a decisive battle
near Cheronea, a Beotian town. In this great con-
test Alexander the Great took part.

It was a hotly-contested fight, but in the end
Philip triumphed, and Greece was lost. Thebes was