Afterwards Philip used his victory most bloodily against the Thebans and Lacedaemonians: for of the leading men of the cities he beheaded some with the axe, drove others into exile, and deprived all of their property.
1 Postea Philippus cruentissimam uictoriam in Thebanos et Lacedaemonios exercuit: siquidem principes ciuitatum alios securi percussit, alios in exilium egit, omnes bonis priuauit.
Those who had long ago been driven out by their fellow citizens he restored to their fatherland: of these exiles he set three hundred over them as judges and governors, so that, nursing their old grievance with their new power, they would not allow the unhappily oppressed peoples to breathe again in hope of liberty.
2 pulsos dudum a ciuibus in patriam restituit: ex quibus trecentos exules iudices rectoresque praefecit, qui ut antiquum dolorem noua potestate curarent, pressos infeliciter populos in spem libertatis respirare non sinerent.
Besides this, having held a great levy of soldiers from all Greece in support of his royal arrangements, he equipped two hundred thousand foot and fifteen thousand horse, apart from the army of the Macedonians and a countless barbarian host of peoples, to send on a Persian expedition into Asia.
3 praeterea magno dilectu militum in subsidium regiae dispositionis ex tota Graecia habito, ducenta milia peditum et quindecim milia equitum absque exercitu Macedonum et infinita gentium barbaria Persicae expeditioni in Asiam missurus instruxit.
He chose three generals, namely Parmenion, Amyntas and Attalus, to be sent ahead against the Persians. And while the forces mentioned above were being gathered from Greece, he decided to celebrate the wedding of Alexander — who was the brother of his wife Olympias and was afterwards struck down by the Sabines in Lucania, and whom he had made king of Epirus as the price of the debauchery he had practised upon him — by joining his daughter Cleopatra to him in marriage.1
4 tres duces, hoc est Parmenionem Amyntam et Attalum, praemittendos in Persas legit. et dum suprascriptae copiae de Graecia congregantur, Alexandri - qui erat Olympiadis uxoris suae frater et post a Sabinis in Lucania prostratus est -, quem Epiri regem ob mercedem stupri in eum perpetrati constituerat, nuptias in copulando ei filiam suam Cleopatram celebrare decreuit.
1Sabines: at 3.11.1 Orosius names the Samnites; Alexander of Epirus in fact fell fighting the Lucanians and Bruttians (3.18.3).
On the day before he was killed, being asked what end was most to be wished for by a man, he is said to have replied that the best was the one that could befall a brave man, reigning in peace after the glories of his deeds of valour, suddenly and swiftly by an unexpected blade, without struggle of the body or disgrace of the mind: and this soon befell him.
5 qui cum pridie quam occideretur interrogatus fuisset, quis finis homini magis esset optandus, respondisse fertur, eum esse optimum, qui uiro forti post uirtutum suarum glorias in pace regnanti sine conflictatione corporis et dedecore animi subitus et celer inopinato ferro potuisset accidere: quod ipsi mox obtigit.
Nor could the angry gods, whom he had always held of little account and whose altars, temples and images he had overturned, prevent him from obtaining what seemed to him the choicest of deaths.
6 nec ab iratis dis, quos parui semper penderat quorumque aras templa et simulacra subuerterat, quin electissimam ut ipsi uidebatur mortem adipisceretur, potuit inpediri.
For on the day of the wedding, as he was making his way to the magnificently prepared games between the two Alexanders, his son and his son-in-law, he was trapped in a narrow passage without his guards by Pausanias, a noble Macedonian youth, and killed.
7 nam die nuptiarum cum ad ludos magnifice apparatos inter duos Alexandros filium generumque contenderet, a Pausania nobili Macedonum adulescente in angustiis sine custodibus circumuentus occisus est.
Let them now assert these things and extol them with many words, as if they were the praises of brave men and fortunate deeds — men for whom the bitterest calamities of others turn into sweet tales — provided, however, that they themselves never bewail in a sadder telling the injuries by which they are at times afflicted.
8 Adserant nunc multisque haec uocibus efferant quasi uirorum fortium laudes et facta felicia, quibus amarissimae aliorum calamitates in dulces fabulas cedunt, si tamen numquam ipsi iniurias, quibus aliquando uexantur, relatu tristiore deplorant.
But if they wish others, on hearing their own complaints, to be as much affected as they themselves felt in suffering, let them first compare, not past with present, but deeds with deeds, and judge both from hearsay, as arbiters of other people’s affairs.
9 si uero de propriis querimoniis tantum alios audientes adfici uolunt, quantum ipsi perpetiendo senserunt, prius ipsi non praesentibus praeterita sed gestis gesta conparent et utraque ex auditu uelut alienorum arbitri iudicent.
For twenty-five years the treachery, ferocity and domination of a single king drove on the burning of cities, the destruction of wars, the subjugation of provinces, the slaughter of men, the plundering of wealth, the seizure of cattle, the sale of the dead and the captivity of the living.
10 per uiginti et quinque annos incendia ciuitatum, excidia bellorum, subiectiones prouinciarum, caedes hominum, opum rapinas, praedas pecorum, mortuorum uenditiones captiuitatesque uiuorum unius regis fraus ferocia et dominatus agitauit.