Again, it was a tyrant of Syracuse, Dionysius, who drew together the Grecian strength, together with that of the native Sicilians, but it was not until half the Greek cities on the island had been lost and their civilisation destroyed. It is evident that Dionysius was a ruler of very much more than common ability. These tyrants who seized the power in so many of the Greek states, both at home and in the colonies, did not generally sit on their thrones very securely or very long, but Dionysius reigned for no less than thirty-eight years. He employed a large number of mercenary troops, both Greeks and others; he had Sparta as an ally, and he sustained four invasions of the Carthaginians. He made alliances with some of the states on the Italian mainland, and made war on others, till he became master of much of the southern region of Italy. But it was for a time only, and the power of Syracuse was never firmly established on any part of the mainland.
After the death of Dionysius there was continual fighting, for and around Sicily, between the Carthaginians on the one side and the Sicilian Greeks, with various and often-changing alliances, on the other. At one moment we see the Sicilians actually carrying the war into Africa, while at the very same moment the Carthaginians are attacking the Sicilians in Sicily itself!
And so the story goes, a story of continual contests, with continually changing results, down to 300 B.C. and later, and gradually we begin to hear more and more of a certain small, and at first quite insignificant, state in Italy, namely, Rome, taking part in the contest. It is a part that becomes greater and greater as time goes on till it fills almost every chapter and page.
But now that we have traced the story of what was happening in and about Sicily, and Carthage, and Italy, down to this date of about 300 B.C., we have to turn back again, first to Greece itself and then to the eastern side of the Mediterranean, for tremendous events have been going on there during the last half-century of this period.
We left it, you will remember, with the Persians repulsed, no longer a serious danger to Greece, yet the Greeks themselves unable, because of their own jealousies and divisions, to make any large conquests in Asia Minor. A new power, of over-mastering strength, suddenly appears in that eastern portion of our picture—the power of Macedon.
CHAPTER XI
MACEDON
The country of Macedon, as you will see on the Greek map, lies northward of Greece. It was inhabited by tribes of the Slavs, or Slavonic people, who lived the agricultural and pastoral life, tilling the soil and having flocks and herds. About 100 years after the battle of Salamis, a baby was born of the royal house of Macedonia. He was given the name of Philip. His childhood was spent at Thebes, in Greece, where he had been sent, or had been taken, as a hostage. When he came to the throne of Macedon he seems at once to have begun to strengthen the army, and to improve its organisation. He had acquired his ideas of what an army should be, as we may suppose, while he was being educated at Thebes. The Macedonian army was formed much on the model of the Greek army, but there were certain differences, and every one of the differences seems to have been an improvement.
There was a phalanx, after the model of the Greek phalanx, and therein was the great strength of the infantry. But the phalanx of the Macedonians was not quite so closely packed (there was more space between one soldier and the next) as the Greek phalanx, and it was able to adopt this more open formation by means of giving to each soldier a longer spear or pike than the Greek soldier had. Thus the Macedonian phalanx was able to move more quickly than the Greek, and also could cover more ground with the same number of men.