Sources. We have no historian who wrote, particularly, on Macedonia, before the time of Alexander. The facts relative to the earlier history previous to Philip are collected from Diodorus, Justin, Thucydides, and Arrian; from Diodorus more especially. In consequence of the loss of the other historians, Diodorus is the chief authority for the history of Philip; the speeches of Demosthenes and Aeschines must likewise be consulted, but not made use of without caution and judicious historical criticism. With respect to Alexander the Great, as so many writers on his reign have been destroyed by time, Arrian must now be considered as the chief authority, on account of the care he has shown in the selection of his authorities, conjointly with the seventeenth book of Diodorus. Plutarch's biography contains several valuable additional facts; and even the superficial Curtius might furnish us with abundance of information, did his accounts offer higher claims to our credit. 1. An Hellenic colony from Argos, headed by the Temenidae, a branch of the Heraclidae, settled in Emathia, and laid the feeble foundation of the Macedonian empire, which was in time to rise to such power. Not only did the settlers keep their footing in the country, in spite of the aboriginal inhabitants; but their princes gradually extended their territory, by subjecting or expelling several of the neighbouring tribes. Their earlier history, not excepting even the names of their kings, is buried in obscurity till the time of the Persian invasions. The three first Macedonian kings, Caranus said to have ruled twenty-eight years, Coenus twenty-three, Tyrmas forty-five, were unknown to Herodotus, who names as founder of the Macedonian monarchy, Perdiccas, 729-678. Of this prince and his successors Argaeus, _d._ 640, Philip I. _d._ 602, Aeropus, _d._ 576, and Alcetas, _d._ 547, nothing more is known than that they waged war, with various success against the neighbouring Pierians and Illyrians, who had their own kings. 2. When the Persians commenced their incursions into Europe, Macedonia, by its situation, must have been one of the first countries they ravaged. Accordingly, as early as the reign of Darius Hystaspis, the Macedonian kings were tributary to the Persians; and were indebted for their deliverance from that yoke, not to their own valour, but to the victories of the Greeks. The battle of Plataeae restored independence to the Macedonian kingdom, although that independence was not formally acknowledged by the Persians. Immediately after the Scythian campaign, 513, Amyntas (_d._ 498,) became tributary to the Persians; his son and successor, Alexander, (_d._ 454,) was in the same state of subjection, and was even compelled to join the expedition of Xerxes.