335—Thebes rebelled against Alexander, and he took and destroyed that ancient city.
334—Alexander carried out the project of his father and invaded the Persian empire. The battle of the Granicus, his first great victory, took place this year.
333—Darius, the Persian king, was again thoroughly defeated in the battle of Issus. Damascus, in Syria, was taken and Tyre besieged by Alexander.
332—Tyre was taken and finally destroyed, and Alexandria, at the mouth of the Nile, founded.
331—A final battle at Arbela, in Assyria, overthrew the Persian Empire. Darius escaped, but was murdered by Bessus, one of his officers. Four years were spent by the Greeks in subduing the wild tribes on the eastern border of the Empire, and settling the government of these vast conquests.
327—Alexander invaded India and was constantly triumphant till his soldiers refused to go farther from home. They had grown tired of conquering, and Alexander reluctantly returned to Babylon to consolidate his government.
323—Alexander died of a fever, the result of excessive drinking. He left no heir, and his generals divided his empire.
322—The Samnites obtained a temporary success by surprising a Roman army in a narrow defile of the mountains called the Candine Forks, and subjected it to a humiliating capitulation. The Romans never bowed before misfortune or defeat. They prosecuted the war with invincible resolution until the Samnite power was wholly broken, a contest, in all, of about 50 years, which was soon followed by the complete subjugation of the whole peninsula.
3. In this year died the two greatest Grecians, Demosthenes, the orator, by suicide; and Aristotle, by old age. On the death of Alexander, Demosthenes aroused the Athenians to make a stand for their liberties. Few of the Grecian states joined them and they were totally defeated by Antipater, the governor appointed by Alexander. Demosthenes avoided punishment by taking poison. The Achaian League, about forty years after, maintained the liberties of Greece for fifty years or more, which then fell before the invincible Romans. For many years all the eastern world was in confusion from the struggles of competitors for the Empire of Alexander. Ptolemy established himself soon and firmly in Egypt, and Seleucus, after various