THE SACRED WAR. 295

forced to yield. Athens, to regain the prisoners
held by Philip, acknowledged him to be the head
of Greece. All the other states did the same except
Sparta, which defied him. He ravaged Laconia, but
left the city untouched.

Two years afterwards Philip, lord and master of
Greece, was assassinated at the marriage feast of
his daughter. His son Alexander succeeded him.
Here seemed an opportunity for Greece to regain
her freedom. This untried young man could surely
not retain what his able father had won. Demos-
thenes, the celebrated orator, stirred up Athens
to revolt. Thebes sprang to arms and attacked the
Macedonian garrison in the citadel.

They did not know the man with whom they had
to deal, Alexander came upon Thebes like an ava-
lanche, took it by assault, and sold into slavery all
the inhabitants not slain in the assault. The city
was razed to the ground. This terrible example dis-
mayed the rest of Greece. Submission—with the
exception of that of Sparta—was universal. The
independence of Greece was at an end. More than
two thousand years were to pass before that country
would again be free.