69. Q. What steps did he take in the spring of 336 B. C. to begin hostilities against the Persians? A. He sent to Asia a portion of the Macedonian army, under Parmenio and Attalus, to begin hostilities at once until he assumed command of the expedition. 70. Q. What was the result of a quarrel that occurred about this time between Philip and one of his wives, Olympias, the mother of Alexander? A. Olympias went to her brother, the King of Epirus, and Alexander soon followed her, and expressed strong resentment at the treatment of his mother. 71. Q. In what way did Philip seek to reconcile the parties to this quarrel, and at the same time ally himself to the King of Epirus? A. By giving the King of Epirus his daughter by Olympias, Kleopatra, in marriage. 72. Q. How were the nuptials celebrated? A. With many splendid and costly entertainments. 73. Q. During the festivities how did Philip come to his death? A. As he was walking toward the door of the theater he was suddenly assassinated by Pausanias, one of the body-guard of the king. 74. Q. At what age did Philip die, and how long was his reign? A. He died at the age of forty-seven, after a reign of twenty-three years. 75. Q. Who succeeded him to the throne? A. His son, Alexander the Great. 76. Q. When was Alexander born? A. In July, 356 B. C. 77. Q. What is said of Alexander and the Iliad? A. One of the first books that he read was the Iliad, to which he became devotedly attached, and a copy of which, corrected, as it is said, by Aristotle, he carried with him in his military campaigns. 78. Q. What was the effect of the reception of the news of the death of Philip at Athens and elsewhere? A. There was an outbreak, caused especially by Demosthenes, who represented his death as holding forth new hopes of freedom to the city. There was also much disturbance in other Hellenic cities. 79. Q. When Alexander was informed of this crisis of affairs what steps did he take? A. He hastened to Hellas with a considerable army, reaching there within two months of the death of his father. 80. Q. What action was taken by a common council of the Greeks that Alexander assembled at Corinth? A. The council gave him, as it had done to Philip two years before, the hegemony of the expedition against Asia. The Lacedæmonians alone stood aloof, refusing all concurrence. 81. Q. After his return to Macedonia, where did Alexander next go to secure his domains? A. Into Thrace and bordering regions where he subdued the tribes and brought them under his subjection. 82. Q. In the meantime what Hellenic city revolted from the rule of Alexander? A. Thebes. 83. Q. What followed Alexander’s immediate march from the north to Thebes? A. The city was taken after a desperate resistance, six thousand of the inhabitants slain, thirty thousand sold into slavery, and the houses leveled to the ground.