in Asia Minor was cause for celebration. And Aristotle from afar had to know that, by remaining in Macedonia and openly praising Hermias, he had more or less completely mortgaged his future in the Greek-speaking world to the fate of his imperial patrons.
Aristotle in these months supposedly composed several dialogues meant for the edification of Alexander, including one on monarchy and another on colonies. Plutarch claims that Alexander inherited a love for books from his new tutor and cites as evidence a story told by Onesicritus, a court historian who chronicled the king’s later campaigns in Asia: “He regarded and referred to the Iliad as a handbook on warfare, and carried about with him Aristotle’s recension of the text, which he … always kept under his pillow along with a dagger.” For many years, according to Plutarch, Alexander thus “admired Aristotle and felt just as much affection for him as for his father, as he himself used to say, on the grounds that while his father gave him life, Aristotle gave him the gift of putting that life to good use.”
In 340, before Philip left Macedonia for a campaign against Byzantium, he named sixteen-year-old Alexander regent of Macedonia, to govern in the king’s absence. No longer needed as a tutor, Aristotle supposedly repaired to Chalcidice, where, according to some ancient sources, he supervised the rebuilding and resettlement of Stagira, for which he also drafted a new constitution.
One thing is clear: for the rest of Aristotle’s life, wherever he went, he remained in close contact with Macedonian patrons. In one ancient biography, we read that Aristotle “was so valued by Philip and [his wife] Olympias that they set up a statue of him with themselves; and the philosopher, being such a considerable part of the kingdom, through his philosophy used his power as an instrument for benefaction, doing good both to individuals and to entire cities and to all men at one and the same time. For the benefits he bestowed on individuals are revealed in the letters which he wrote on various subjects to the royal couple.”
In these years, Aristotle also developed an even closer friendship with Antipater, one of Philip’s most trusted associates, who had taken a personal interest in Alexander’s education. Antipater served as Macedonia’s ambassador to Athens in 346 and 338, and after Alexander succeeded Philip as king, he came to function as an imperial viceroy for Europe. Aristotle’s ties to Antipater strengthened as time went by, and they apparently corresponded regularly (though no one can be certain if the letters that survive are genuine). That they were indeed close friends is confirmed by the particulars of Aristotle’s will, which names Antipater as his executor.
Philip was relentless in his efforts to widen the scope of the Macedonian empire. By besieging Byzantium (where present-day Istanbul is situated), he aimed to gain control of the Bosphorus and the Hellespont. Since Athens fed its population with grain shipped through the waters connecting the Euxene (the present-day Black Sea) to the Aegean, Philip’s actions posed a direct threat to the city. Athens responded by dispatching a military force to Byzantium, which helped that city break Philip’s siege.
Turning his attention back to the Greek mainland, Philip next marched south. In 338, with Alexander at his side, Philip’s forces defeated the combined armies of Thebes and Athens at Chaeronea. Moderating his previous scorched-earth policy, Philip merely garrisoned Thebes and demanded that Athens capitulate by affirming formally the king’s leadership of what he now characterized as a pan-Hellenic campaign against Darius of Persia. A congress of Greek city-states was duly convened in Corinth, to create the so-called League of Corinth and to put the military forces of various city-states at the king’s disposal.
Two years later, the king was dead, killed by one of his bodyguards—and Alexander became the new king. He was twenty years old.
Sensing a chance to throw off the Macedonian yoke, Athens and Thebes rose in revolt. Alexander and his soldiers marched promptly to Thebes, where they crushed the army defending the city, then raped women, looted property, and razed every building, selling most of the former residents into slavery—a savage reminder of the sort of rough justice meted out to the empire’s enemies.
When news of this catastrophe reached Athens, the city promptly capitulated—and Alexander, in a display of sovereign mercy as capricious as the slaughter that preceded it, showed clemency. Shortly afterward, almost all the other Greek city-states duly reconvened in Corinth, in order to swear fealty to Alexander.
In 335, under