VII.] BATTLE OF THE GRANICUS. 125 suddenly arrested by his assassination in 336 B.C. His successor, Alexander, who was at that time twenty years of age, was as yet but little known, though the part which he played in the battle of Chaeroneia had proved that he was a dashing soldier ; but in the course of the two years that followed he gave ample evidence both of his capacity and of his overpowering force of character, by subjugating the wild tribes in the neighbourhood of Macedonia, and by crushing with merci- less determination the attempts of the Greek cities to regain their independence. He was thus in a position in the mt „_ , . . , . , • , , j The Project spnng of 334 B.C. to renew the project which had renewed by been interrupted by the death of Philip ; and to the Alexander- execution of this he brought, not only a military ability superior even to that of his predecessor, but an intellect imbued with an eager love of knowledge and scientific enquiry through the in- fluence of his instructor Aristotle. The Persian king Darius, meanwhile, had made no prepara- tions for resisting the threatened attack, and the invader was allowed to transport his army across the Hellespont unopposed. The circumstances of the commencement of the campaign were of a nature to awaken all the enthusiasm of an ardent tempera- ment such as that of Alexander. Steeped as his mind had been from early days in veneration for the Homeric poems, so that his great desire was to rival, or rather to identify himself with, the heroes of that tale, he now found himself on the Plain of Troy, in the presence of the inspiring memories of the conflicts of the Greeks and Trojans, and he proceeded to commemorate the occasion by sacrificing to Athena at Ilium, and celebrating rites at the tomb of Achilles. It was in this spirit that he shortly after- wards encountered the army which the Persian ^^ the satraps of Asia Minor had brought up to oppose him on the banks of the Granicus; on which 334B