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, {154} and also could cover more ground with the same number of men. Now as to the cavalry. The Greeks, as we saw, were not nearly so well off as the Persians for horses. They had not the unlimited extent of horse-raising country that the Persians had in the lands towards the east. But the Macedonians, on the contrary, were almost as well off in this way as the Persians themselves. Away back in Thrace and Scythia they had these unlimited extents, so their cavalry became a very strong force. And the same lands which provided them with horses provided them with soldiers also. Philip began to use his great strength of arms by making himself master of the countries on all sides of the kingdom of Macedon, to which he had succeeded. There were many Greek colonies or small cities along the coast of Macedonia itself. These he took possession of with little trouble. Certain of the Greeks at home began to be alarmed by the growth of this power in the north. You may have heard of some famous orations called "Philippics," delivered by the great orator Demosthenes, at Athens. Their name comes from this very Philip of Macedon, because it was in the hope of rousing the Athenians to take strong measures, and to unite with other states to oppose his power, that they were made.