So she delivered Aridæus to some barbarous Thracians, who took away his life by cruel torments: to Eurydice she sent a sword, a halter, and a cup of poison, willing her to choose the instrument of her own death, who, praying that the like presents might one day be sent to Olympias, yielded her neck to the halter, having spent her last curses not in vain. Nicanor the brother of Cassander, and a hundred the chief of his friends, did Olympias then choose out, all whom she commanded to be slain. His brother Iolaus, that was already dead and buried, she accused of poison given to Alexander; and thereupon caused his tomb to be thrown down, and his bones to be scattered abroad. The Macedonians, wondering at this fury, began to condemn themselves, and the folly of Polysperchon, who had, quite contrary to Antipater's charge given on his deathbed, called this outrageous woman to the government of the empire.

SECT. XX.

How Cassander was revenged upon Olympias.

§. I.

The great expedition of Cassander. Olympias shuts herself into Pydna, where Cassander besiegeth her. Eacides, king of Epirus, coming to succour Olympias, is forsaken, and banished by his own subjects.

CASSANDER at that time lay before Tegea, in Peloponnesus, whither, when all these ill tidings were brought to him, he never stayed to take the city, nor to give order for the state of things in that country, (though Alexander the son of Polysperchon were there with an army,) but compounding with them of Tegea, he willed his associates to look to themselves as well as they could till his return, and so in all haste he took his journey toward Macedon, carried headlong with the greedy desire of just revenge. The Ætolians had taken the straits of Thermopylæ in favour of the queen and Polysperchon, to hinder his passage; but he, not willing to misspend any time in dealing with them, got together as many ships as he could, great and small, with which he transported his army into Thessaly. There he divided his

companies, appointing some under Callas, a subtle captain, to hold Polysperchon busied, who then lay encamped near to Perbæbia; with the rest he marched directly against Olympias. She, having once prevailed by the respect given to her dignity, took more care now to appear majestical, than to make herself strong. To this end she made a solemn progress to Pydna, a sea-town, and well fenced, having in her company all the flower of the court, especially the great ladies, among whom was Roxana, and her young son Alexander, heir to the great Alexander by his grandmother's designment ; who, during his minority, kept the sovereign power in her own hands. But all this pomp served to little use against the violence of the enemy, that soon presented himself before the walls; only it fed the besieged with a vain hope of succour, that would from all parts arrive to rescue persons of their quality. And hereof there soon appeared fair likelihood, which as soon vanished, and went away in smoke.

For Eacides king of Epirus made great haste to bring succour to Olympias, his cousin, with whom Deodamia his daughter was also shut up. Nevertheless, his subjects werè nothing forward in this expedition; but finding certain passages taken in the way by Cassander's men, they called upon him to retire, and quit the enterprise. The king's importunity, urging them to proceed, and the obstinate refusal of the army, brake out at length into such terms, that when he had raged in vain against the multitude, his authority, with which he thought to have prevailed upon them, was by them taken from him, and he compelled to forsake his kingdom, and to wander up and down in foreign countries, a banished man; his people joining with the enemy, against whom he had led them forth to war.

Pydna in the mean time was closed up straitly both by sea and land, so that neither any could issue out of the city, nor any relief be conveyed into it: but it held out as long as any food was left, no memorable service being done there, whilst great actions were managed abroad.

§. 2.

A continuation of Olympias's story. Polysperchon defeated. Extreme famine in Pydna. Olympias yields to Cassander.

NOW, though order of time require it, that we should rehearse the doings of Eumenes and Antigonus in this place, leaving Olympias yet a while to the hour of her destiny, which grows the faster upon her, because she may discern it coming; yet that we may not be compelled to interrupt the course of our narration, by inserting her tragedy in the midst of things not manifestly coherent with it, we will here (as elsewhere we have done, and elsewhere must) continue to an end one history, that we may not be therewith distracted when we shall come to the relation of another. All the hope of the besieged, remaining in Polysperchon, was in like manner disappointed as their former trust had been, which was reposed in the succours of the Epirot. For Callas, who was sent against him, found the means to corrupt the greatest part of his army with money, leaving him within a little while so slenderly accompanied, that he was fit for no other business of war than a swift retreat. When famine had so far prevailed in the city that the horses were killed as a precious food, many men feeding on the dead carcasses of their fellows, and sawdust being given to the elephants for provender, some of the soldiers, obtaining the queen's leave, (who could not deny it,) others, without asking leave, yielded themselves to the enemy, and were by him gently relieved, and sent abroad into the country. The news of the queen's affairs, dispersed by these men, did so affright her well-willers, that such as had reserved themselves to the event, came in apace, and submitted them to Cassander. At length, when the mortality was so great in the town, that the living were even poisoned with the noisome scent of the dead, Olympias bethought herself of stealing away by sea in a galley that she had; wherein her success was as bad as in the rest. For God had appointed this town, by her chosen as a place of refuge, to be unto her as a house of torment, and a gaol, out of which she should not be delivered,

but unto an evil death. Being therefore utterly broken with miseries, which daily afflicted her and the other ladies, unaccustomed to so wretched a kind of life, she offered composition; and with much labour hardly obtained of Cassander (who, having fetched her galley out of the haven, accounted himself as good as master of her body) a grant of her own life. Immediately upon her apprehension, Pella, the chief city of the kingdom, was yielded to Cassander. Amphipolis did stand out; for Aristonus, to whom Olympias had given charge of such forces as were left abroad in the country, taking courage from the success of some petty services wherein he had prevailed, began to promise himself great unlikelihoods. But Olympias, to win Cassander's favour, very earnestly required him upon his faith to her, that he should give it up. He did so, and presently after was killed by his private enemies, that were set on by Cassander, who partly hated him upon old respects, partly doubted him, as a man likely to seek innovation.

§. 3.

The death of Olympias, and her condition.

WHEN Olympias had now heard sorrowful tidings of all her friends, she herself was called into question, and accused in an assembly of the Macedonians for the murders (they were so styled in her affliction, which in time of prosperity she called justice) by her committed. There was she (being not heard, nor called to speak) condemned to die. The suit was commenced and prosecuted against her by the kindred of those whom she had slain. But it was at Cassander's instigation; who (to hasten the execution) sent her word that he would furnish her with a ship and other necessaries to save herself by flight: which when she refused, saying that she would plead for herself, and tell her own tale, he dissembled no longer, but sent unto her such men as hated her most, who took away her miserable life. She was daughter and sister unto two kings of Epirus, wife and mother unto two the mightiest kings of that or many

other ages, a stout lady, and of unreprovable chastity; but her ambition was boundless, her hatred unappeasable, and her fury in revenge most unwomanly. Her perverse conditions made her husband seek other wives and concubines, which caused her to hate both him and them. She was thought privy to her husband's death, after which, very cruelly, she slew his late wife Cleopatra, having first murdered one of her two children in her arms, and with a beastly fury broield the other alive in fire in a copper basin. For these things her son Alexander (otherwise loving her well) forbade her to meddle in the government of Macedon. But God, more severe unto cruel tyrants than only to hinder them of their wills, permitted her to live, and fulfil the rest of her wickedness; (which was his justice upon the adulteries of Philip, and the oppression done by him and others;) after all which he rewarded her malice by returning upon her own head.

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§. 4.

Cassander celebrates the funeral of Aridæus and Eurydice, and seeks to make himself king of Macedon.

AFTER her death, Cassander gave honourable burial to Aridæus and Eurydice among their progenitors, kings of Macedon. And looking further into his own possibilities of greatness, he married the lady Thessalonica, whom he had taken at Pydna, being the daughter of king Philip by another of his wives, that by her he might have some title to the crown. For the same end he committed Roxana and her young son to close prison, removing thereby some part of his impediment. And the better to increase his fame, and purchase love, he built a city called by his own name Cassandria, that soon grew to be very great and powerful. He reedified likewise Thebes in Greece, and restored it unto the old inhabitants, after it had lain twenty years waste, being utterly rased by Alexander. By these means, especially by the restoration of Thebes, whereunto all Greece voluntarily contributed, he grew so strong, that few remained enemies unto him, and they with much labour hardly could resist him. Leaving him therefore daily pre