The Golden Hope: A Story of the Time of King Alexander the Great

What was to be the fate of Thebes? The minds of the wretched inhabitants of the city were diverted from their sorrows as they asked each other this question on the morning after...

Ariston, uncle of Clearchus and formerly guardian of his fortune, sat at his work-table before a mass of papyri closely written with memoranda and accounts. His house stood by i...

Long before Nathan with his captives reached the Persian capital, the sentinels upon the towers of Halicarnassus gave warning of the approach of Alexander's army. Fresh from the...

At the approach of Bessus the great bronze gates in the palace wall swung wide, and he rode through them, followed by his Bactrians. Nathan halted at the entrance, which he foun...

Again Alexander and Darius stood face to face, this time upon the plain of Nineveh at Gaugamela, the Camel's House, beyond the swift Tigris. Chares and Leonidas felt the chill o...

Clearchus and Chares gazed with wonder upon the mighty walls of Babylon, raising their sheer height from the surface of the Euphrates until the soldiers who paced the lofty para...

While Azemilcus was dealing with his enemies in his own way, the wretched chancellor, shaking in every limb, conducted the Macedonians back through the secret passage by which h...

Through her window in the house of Iphicrates in Halicarnassus, Artemisia could see the blue waters of the harbor and beyond them the massive gray walls of the Royal Citadel. Fo...

In the Theatre of Dionysus the citizens of Athens were gathering for the purpose of deciding whether to break their treaty with Macedon and by one stroke revenge upon Alexander...

Artemisia and Thais looked from their window at the scud of flying clouds and beneath them the Macedonian fleet assembling south of the city. Thais' eyes danced with excitement,...

"Aristotle will take charge of the food and wine," said the Theban, eagerly, "if he is willing to assume such a responsibility; and I will provide the entertainment and send out...

Phradates stood on the broad stone wharf in the Sidonian Harbor of Tyre, amid a group of young men whose costly garments and jewelled fingers showed them to belong to the rich f...

Although they had been repulsed, the Macedonians returned to their camp, confident that Tyre could not much longer stand against them. Alexander ordered the sacrifice of a black...

On the night after the slaughter of the heralds, the galleys sent to Carthage returned with a courteous message that it would be impossible for the colony to send assistance. Am...

Down in the secret passage the fugitives from the Temple of Moloch could hear no sound of the battle. Leonidas had snatched one of the perfumed censers from the hand of a quakin...

Clearchus and Artemisia were walking in the garden of their home in Alexandria. Between the trunks of the trees, at a distance, they could see the roofs and towers of the populo...

As Clearchus lay upon the broad slab, the voices of his friends seemed to him faint and far away. He tried to rise, but a strange languor weighed him down. Chares seized him and...

King Azemilcus stood at a window of his chamber, with the aged chancellor at his side, looking out across the parapet of the wall. They were alone in the room, for the king had...

The entire population of Tyre was at work before dawn on the day following the return of the ambassadors. The council had decided to accept Alexander's challenge. As the first m...

The phalanx swept into the shallow bed of the river. The Greek mercenaries who confronted it on the western bank, nerved by the hope of gaining the immense reward promised by th...

It was after midnight when the council ended and the generals returned to the mercenary camp. Chares and Clearchus had long been slumbering, but Leonidas, feeling his responsibi...

Clearchus and Leonidas rode out of Attica across the olive-bearing plains, and up the rugged spurs and ridges which flank the mountain of Cithæron, upon whose rocky slopes Antio...

Inside the Temple of Baal-Moloch the chant of the priests swelled to a triumphant hymn of praise. The throbbing of drums and the droning of strange musical instruments increased...

Mena, the Egyptian, had found a good excuse for remaining in Athens during the fighting, but after the battle of the Granicus Phradates had summoned him to Halicarnassus. He was...

Athens was rousing herself from sleep. The beams of the morning sun bathed the rugged sides of Mount Hymettus and lightened the dark foliage that clothed the nearer wooded slope...

Down from the Phrygian plateau, through a land that glowed with the touch of autumn, marched the Macedonian host, with Alexander at its head. On a clear October night the army h...

Clearchus and Chares shivered in the chill of the dungeon. By the glimmer of light that entered through a narrow opening above their heads, they saw that the place was quite bar...

The plain where once the sons of Niobe lay weltering had borne its last harvest of slaughter. On every side Leonidas and Clearchus noted the ghastly evidences of battle. Darknes...

"We know no more than thou," Agias replied. "The answer given to thee is more definite than any we have had in these later times. That is a good omen. Be content and doubtless t...

Cautiously and in silence they threaded their way from one branch of the canal to another, through the fields of grain and vegetables that spread like a vast garden for miles ac...

"Clearchus and his two friends, Chares and the Spartan," the old man replied. "They set out for Pella this afternoon to join the Macedonian army. Fortune has smiled upon us once...

Again and yet again Amyntas was thrust back from the other shore, slippery with mud and clay, while deadly gusts of arrows and javelins beat upon him. Jealous of glory, the youn...

Sometimes running and sometimes walking, Leonidas led Clearchus and Chares all night through the foot-hills of Mount Ida. It was not until day was breaking and they were thoroug...

Alexander listened to Joel's story and questioned him closely regarding the disposition of affairs in the city. He learned that supplies were running low and that already the ga...

The morning sun, shining from a cloudless sky, danced upon the rippling harbor before the eyes of the two prisoners as they were led to the Royal Citadel where Memnon had establ...

In the great Hall of Xerxes, in Persepolis, the city whose streets had never been trodden by the feet of an enemy since the first Cyrus overthrew the Medes and founded the Achæm...

Clearchus led the way through brake and thicket and across tilled fields, bearing off slightly to the southwest so as to avoid the Long Walls that joined the city to the Piræus,...

Alexander was riding upon Bucephalus, with Parmenio at his side. Behind them rode the light-hearted pages and the grave generals, followed by the Companions and the infantry, wi...

With the sea on their left and the mountain cliffs on their right, Clearchus and Nathan rode on either side of Chares in the front rank of the squadron of Companion cavalry comm...

It was a clear, bright spring day when the three friends rode into Pella. The new sap was beginning to swell the buds, and the fresh green of the grass was gleaming hopefully on...

On the night after the battle, rough soldiers of the phalanx slept in garments of fine wool wrought with gold, clasping in their hands necklaces of jewels in which the glow of t...

Alexander kept the anniversary of his departure from Macedon in the city of Gordium, surrounded by his army, on the wind-swept uplands of Phrygia. He reached the place through t...

In the second watch of the night, the Macedonian outposts challenged four men whose horses were flecked with foam. The strangers came from the direction of Issus, along the narr...

Silent and thoughtful in the midst of the swarthy Arabian guard commanded by Nathan the Israelite, who bore Memnon's letters to the Great King, Clearchus and Chares rode out of...

A few miles west of Athens, in the suburb of Academe, dwelt Melissa, aunt and guardian of Artemisia. She was an invalid, bedridden for the greater part of the year, and she had...

Chares sat in the house of Thais in Athens, idly watching the lithe motions of the tame leopard as it worried an ivory ball. Its mistress lay at full length on a low couch of sa...

Upon Bucephalus, whose proud spirit he alone had known how to tame, Alexander led his army out of Pella. The great charger tossed his head and uttered a shrill neigh, which soun...

Azemilcus walked to the window and stood there leaning against the frame. Day was breaking, sullen and gray, in a wrack of flying clouds, and the uneasy moaning of the sea sound...

Simon made no further remonstrance. He took up a lamp and led the way down a flight of stone stairs to the cellar, where great amphoræ of wine, covered with dust and cobwebs, st...

Tyre was delirious with joy over the success of the attack on the towers, for the city was convinced that now, at last, the Macedonians would depart. Feasts were given in the gr...

Prince Hur, son of Azemilcus, sat in his house, which opened from the courtyard of the palace. In figure he was undersized, like his father, with a delicate face and thin white...