Μακεδόνες δὲ ἁπάντων ἦρχον, ὧν ὑπ᾽ ἐκείνῳ κτησάμενοι πόλεων καὶ ἐθνῶν ἔτυχον. ἆρ᾽ οὖν ἔτι χρὴ διὰ μειζόνων τεκμηρίων δηλοῦν, [D] ὡς ἔνδοξος μὲν ἡ Μακεδονία καὶ μεγάλη τὸ πρόσθεν γένοιτο; ταύτης δὲ αὐτῆς τὸ κράτιστον ἡ πόλις ἐκείνη, ἣν ἀνέστησαν, πεσόντων, οἶμαι, Θετταλῶν, τῆς κατ᾽ ἐκείνων ἐπώνυμον νίκης. καὶ περὶ μὲν τούτων οὐδὲν ἔτι δέομαι μακρότερα λέγειν. (Now though I have much that is highly honourable to say about her native land,(505) I think it well to omit part, because of its antiquity. For it seems to be not far removed from myth. For instance, the sort of story that is told about the Muses, that they actually came from Pieria(506) and that it was not from Helicon that they came to Olympus, when summoned to their father’s side. This then, and all else of the same sort, since it is better suited to a fable than to my narrative, must be omitted. But perhaps it is not out of the way nor alien from my present theme to tell some of the facts that are not familiar to all. They say(507) that Macedonia was colonised by the descendants of Heracles, the sons of Temenus, who had been awarded Argos as their portion, then quarrelled, and to make an end of their strife and jealousy led out a colony. Then they seized Macedonia, and leaving a prosperous family behind them, they succeeded to the throne, king after king, as though the privilege were an inheritance. Now to praise all these would be neither truthful, nor in my opinion easy. But though many of them were brave men and left behind them very glorious monuments of the Hellenic character, Philip and his son surpassed in valour all who of old ruled over Macedonia and Thrace, yes and I should say all who governed the Lydians as well, or the Medes and Persians and Assyrians, except only the son of Cambyses,(508) who transferred the sovereignty from the Medes to the Persians. For Philip was the first to try to increase the power of the Macedonians, and when he had subdued the greater part of Europe, he made the sea his frontier limit on the east and south, and on the north I think the Danube, and on the west the people of Oricus,(509) And after him, his son, who was bred up at the feet of the wise Stagyrite,(510) so far excelled all the rest in greatness of soul, and besides, surpassed his own father in generalship and courage and the other virtues, that he thought that life for him was not worth living unless he could subdue all men and all nations. And so he traversed the whole of Asia, conquering as he went, and he was the first of men(511) to adore the rising sun; but as he was setting out for Europe in order to gain control of the remainder and so become master of the whole earth and sea, he paid the debt of nature in Babylon. Then Macedonians became the rulers of all the cities and nations that they had acquired under his leadership. And now is it still necessary to show by stronger proofs that Macedonia was famous and great of old? And the most important place in