The Federalist Papers - Alexander Hamilton [329]
p. 119. after thebattle of Leuctra, the Thebans had their turn of domination: In 371 BC, the Thebans, under the leadership of Epaminondas, decisively defeated the Spartans at Leuctra and thereby gained a brief ascendancy over the city-states of Greece.
p. 119. After the conclusion of the war withXerxes…: Xerxes (c. 519–465 BC) was king of Persia (from 486 BC), an ancient empire centered in what is today Iran but at times extending as far east as the Indus river valley and as far west as Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and Asia Minor (modern Turkey). Like his father, Darius I, Xerxes attempted unsuccessfully to suppress the Greek city-states and join them to the Persian empire. In pursuit of this goal, he raised an enormous army, built a pontoon bridge across the Hellespont, and marched into Greece in 480 BC. Delayed by the Spartans at the mountain pass of Thermopylae, the Persians finally overran the position and continued their march to Athens. By this time, Themistocles had persuaded the Athenians to stake their fortunes on the navy and to flee their city for the nearby island of Salamis. The Persian army occupied the abandoned city, but at the naval battle of Salamis (480 BC) the Persian fleet suffered a decisive defeat. Xerxes crossed back into Asia leaving only a remnant of his army under Mardonius that was destroyed at Platea the following year (479). In 465, Xerxes was assassinated by one of his officers.
p. 119. Had the Greeks, saysthe Abbé Millot, been as wise as they were courageous…: Claude Francois Xavier, L’Abbé de Millot, (1726–1785), was a French historian. He was the author of Elements of Universal History and Political and Military Notes toward the History of Louis XIV (1777).
p. 120. The Phocianshaving plowed up some consecrated ground…: The Phocians were inhabitants of a region of central Greece in the vicinity of Mt. Parnassus. By the sixth century BC, the communities of Phocis had developed a strong federated government with a uniform coinage and a federal army. The nearby presence of the important Oracle at Delphi made Phocis the focus of the first three Sacred Wars.
p. 120. TheThebans…undertook to maintain the authority of the Amphictyons…: The Thebans were inhabitants of Thebes, a city of ancient Greece in the territory of Boeotia. Thebes had a longstanding rivalry with Athens, its neighbor to the southeast. Although Thebes allied itself with Sparta during the Peloponnesian war, it came to resent Spartan domination, and at the battle of Leuctra (371 BC) won a great victory against the Spartans. Turning then, with Athens, to face the threat from Philip II of Macedon, Thebes suffered defeat at Chaeronea (338 BC), and utter destruction at the hands of Alexander two years later.
p. 120. The latter, being the weaker party, invited the assistance ofPhilip of Macedon…: Philip II (382–336 BC) ruled the ancient kingdom of Macedon (from 359), which was located at the top of the Balkan Peninsula of southern Europe. From the beginning of his reign, Philip took advantage of Greek disunity to enlarge Macedonian territory. Eventually, Philip’s policies (and Demosthenes’s speeches against Philip) energized Athens to confront Macedonian imperialism directly. Despite initial success, however, Athens and her allies suffered decisive defeat at Chaeronea in 338 BC (the culmination of the Fourth Sacred War), and Philip became the de facto ruler of Greece. Two years later, while Philip was planning a joint Greek-Macedonian invasion of Persia, a member of his bodyguard assassinated him. Philip’s son, Alexander, continued the project of conquest his father had begun.
p. 120. she would never have worn the chains ofMacedon…: Macedon was an ancient kingdom, located in the Balkan Peninsula of southern Europe, that rose briefly to the status of a world power under the leadership of the fourth century BC conqueror, Alexander the Great. Today, the region is divided among Greece, Bulgaria, and