He had plunged
into the wilds of Scythia, north of the Danube, and had
carried off a vast booty of flocks and herds from the
barbarous people; but on his return through Thrace he
was attacked by the Triballi, one of the fiercest and
most warlike of the tribes of that dangerous region.
into the wilds of Scythia, north of the Danube, and had
carried off a vast booty of flocks and herds from the
barbarous people; but on his return through Thrace he
was attacked by the Triballi, one of the fiercest and
most warlike of the tribes of that dangerous region.
Demosthenese - 1869 - Brodribb
Further,
I say, punish your corrupt statesmen, execrate them at
all times and places, and thereby prove that men of
virtue and honourable conduct have consulted wisely
both for others and for themselves. "
It is satisfactory to' learn that this speech was success-
ful, and that Diopeithes, who certainly deserved well of
his country, was continued in his command, and the
Chersonese saved for Athens.
Demosthenes was now the leading Athenian states-
man. He had shaken the influence of the peace party,
and he seems to have still further strengthened his
political position by a speech delivered about three
months after that which we have just been considering.
The speech in question has always been regarded as one
of singular power. As far as we know, nothing new
had occurred ; but Philip was still in Thrace, threaten-
ing the Chersonese and the northern shores of the
A. O. S. S. vol. iv. H
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? 114 . ' >DEMOSTHENES. '
Propontis, and clearly had designs on Perinthus and
Byzantium. Demosthenes repeats in substance the
arguments he had recently urged. Greece, he says, is
in the utmost peril from its miserable divisions and
apathy, and from the unique position which it has
allowed Philip to attain. As for Athens, "her affairs
have been brought so low by carelessness and negli-
gence, I fear it is a hard truth to say that if all the ora--
tors had sought to suggest, and you to pass, resolutions
for the utter ruining of the commonwealth, we could
not, methinks, be worse off than we are. " It had been
said at Athens in the speeches of some of the orators,
"Wait till Philip declares war, and then it will be
time to discuss how we shall resist him. " Demosthenes'
reply is,----
" If we wait till Philip avows that he is at war with
us, we are the simplest of mortals; for he would not
declare war, though he marched even against Athens
and Piraeus--at least, if we may judge from his conduct
to others. When he sends his mercenaries into the
Chersonese, which the king of Persia and all the Greeks
acknowledge to be yours, what can be the meaning of
such proceedings! He says he is not at war. But I
cannot admit such conduct to be an observance of the
peace. Far otherwise. I say that by his present ad
vance into Thrace, by his intrigues in the Peloponnese,
by the whole course of his operations with his army, he
has been breaking the peace and making war upon you,
---nnless, indeed, you will say that those who establish
military engines are not at war until they apply them
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? SPEECHES A GAINST PHILIP. I 15
to the walls. But that you will not say; for whoever
prepares and contrives the means for my conquest, is
at war with me before he hurls the dart or draws the
bow. Should anything happen, what is the risk you
run' ! The alienation of the Hellespont, the subjection
of Megara and Euboea to your enemy, the siding of
the Peloponnese with him. Then, can I allow that
one who sets such an engine at work against Athens
is at peace with her' ! Quite the contrary. From the
day that he destroyed Phocis I date his commence-
ment of hostilities. So widely do I differ from your
other advisers that I deem any discussion about the
Chers>one'se or Byzantium out of place. Succour them
--I advise that; watch that no harm befalls them; send
all necessary supplies to your troops in that quarter:
but let your deliberations be for the safety of all
Greece, as being in the most extreme jeopardy. "
The Greeks, he declares, must have utterly forgotten
themselves in allowing a foreigner and a barbarian a
licence in dealing with their affairs which they had
never thought of according to such states as Athens
or Sparta. This was monstrous, and implied a fatal
degeneracy.
"I observe," says the orator, "that all people be-
ginning from yourselves have conceded to Philip a
right which in former days was the subject of contest
in every Greek war. What is this'! The right of
doing what he pleases, openlyfieecing and pillaging
the Greeks one after another, attacking and enslaving
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? 116 DEMOSTHENES.
their cities. You were at the head of the Greeks for
seventy-three years, the Lacedaemonians for twenty-
nine, and the Thebans had some power in these latter
days after the battle of Leuctra. Yet neither you nor
Lacedaemonians nor Thebans were ever licensed to act
as you pleased. Far otherwise. When you, or rather
the Athenians of that time, appeared to be dealing
harshly with certain people, all the rest, even such as
had no complaint against Athens, thought proper to
side with the injured parties in a war against her. So,
when the Lacedaemonians became masters and suc-
ceeded to your empire, on their attempting to encroach
and make oppressive innovations, a general war was
declared against them even by such as had no cause
of complaint. But why mention other people'! We
ourselves and the Lacedaemonians, although at the
outset we could not allege' any mutual injuries, thought
proper to make war for the injustice that we saw done
to our neighbours. Yet all the faults committed by
the Spartans in those thirty years, and by our ancestors
in the seventy, are less than the wrongs which in
thirteen incomplete years, while Philip has been upper-
most, he has inflicted on the Greeks. Nay, they are
scarcely a fraction of them, as I may easily and briefly
show. Olynthus and Methone, and Apollonia and
thirty-two cities on the borders of Thrace, I pass over
---all which he has so cruelly destroyed that a visitor
could scarcely tell if they were ever inhabited. And
of Phocis, so considerable a people exterminated, I say
nothing. But what is 'the condition of Thessaly! Has
he not taken away her constitutions and her cities, and
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? SPEECHES AGAINST PHILIP. 117
established tetrarchies, to parcel her out, not only by
cities, but by provinces, for subjection! Are not the
states of Eubma now governed by despots, and Euboea
is an island near to Thebes and to Athens! Does he
not expressly write in his epistles, " I am at peace with
those who are willing to obey me"' ! Neither Greek nor
barbaric land contains the man's ambition. And we,
the Greek community, seeing and hearing this, instead
of sending embassies to one another about it and ex-
pressing our indignation, are in such a miserable state,
so entrenched in our separate towns, that to this day
we can attempt nothing that interest or necessity re-
quires ; we cannot combine for succour and alliance;
we look unconcernedly on the man's growing power,
each resolving to enjoy the interval in which another
is destroyed, not caring nor striving for the salvation
of Greece. 'Whatever wrong the Greeks sustained
from Lacedaemonians or from us, was at least inflicted
by a genuine Greek people. It might be felt in the
same manner as if a lawful son, born to a large fortune,
committed some fault or error in the management of
it. On that ground, one would consider him open to
censure and to reproach; yet it could not be said he
was an alien and not an heir to the property which
he so dealt with. But if a slave or a spurious child
wasted and spoilt that in which he had no interest,
how much more heinous and hateful would all have
oronounced it! "
On the decay of patriotism and the venality of public
men throughout Greece, he speaks thus :-
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? 118 DEMOSTHENES.
" There must be some cause, some good reason, why
the Greeks were so eager for liberty then, and now are so
eager for servitude. There was something in the hearts
of the multitude then which there is not now, which
overcame the wealth of Persia, and maintained the free-
dom of Greece, and quailed not under any battle by sea
or land, the loss whereof has ruined all and thrown the
Greek world into confusion. What was this! No
subtlety or cleverness ; simply this, that whoever took
a bribe from the aspirants to power or the corrupters of
Greece was universally abhorred. It was a fearful thing
to be convicted of bribery; the severest punishment was
inflicted on the guilty, and there was no intercession
or pardon. The favourable moments for enterprise
which fortune frequently offers to the careless against
the vigilant, to them that will do nothing against those
that discharge their entire duty, could not be bought
from orators or generals; no more could mutual con-
cord, nor distrust of tyrants and barbarians, nor any-
thing of the But now all such principles have
been sold as in open market, and principles imported
in exchange by which Greece is ruined and diseased.
What are they'! Envy, when a man gets a bribe;
laughter, if he confesses it; mercy to the convicted ;'-
hatred of those who denounce the crime,--all the usual
accompaniments of corruption. For as to ships and
men, and revenues and abundance of other material-
all, in fact, that may be reckoned as constituting national
strength, assuredly the Greeks of our day are more
fully and perfectly supplied with such advantages than
Greeks of the olden times. But they are all rendered
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? SPEECHES AGAINST PHILIP. 119
useless, unavailable, unprofitable by the agency of these
traflickers. "
This is indeed a powerful denunciation of a state of
things which we know to be very possible, in which
the corruption of public men is treated as a joke,
and when exposed and detected, is hardly thought to
deserve rcprobation and punishment. If all that was
best in Greece had really so utterly died out, it would
seem that Demosthenes was wasting his breath in idle
declamation. But we may well believe that he clung to
the old Athenian ideal, and could not bring himself to
despair of his country. And it is certain that this and
the preceding speech produced an effect, and Athens
made efforts which were temporarily successful. " The
work of saving Greece," he told them before he sat-
down, "belongs to you; this privilege your ancestors
bequeathed to you as the prize of many perilous exer-
tions. "
As one might expect, there were those who sought
to persuade the Athenians that Philip's power for
aggression had been greatly exaggerated, and that he
was by no means so formidable as Sparta had once
been, when she led the Peloponnesian confederacy.
Demosthenes points out that Philip had introduced
what was really a new method of warfare. Athens
and Sparta, in the height of their power, had only been
able to command a citizen militia from the states in
league with them. Such a force was prepared only for
a summer campaign, and could not always follow up
its blows effectively. Philip, on the other hand, could
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? 120 > DEMOSTHENES.
take the field in winter as well as in summer. His
troops were never disbanded, and they were under his
sole direction. He was, in fact, to the Greeks what
Napoleon was to the Austrians. An able and restless
despot, at the head of a well-trained standing army,
will often, for a time at least, have a decided advantage
in war over a free and constitutional state.
The next year, 340 13. 0. , events occurred which com-
pletely justified the warnings of Demosthenes. Philip
attempted the conquest of the cities on the Propontis,
Perinthus and Byzantium. He was foiled by prompt
intervention from Athens. There was for a brief space
a doubt whether Byzantium would accept Athenian
aid, so thoroughly had the city become estranged from
Athens in consequence of the Social VVar. Demos-
thenes went thither at the head of an embassy, and the
result was, that an alliance was concluded. Shortly
afterwards, the conscientious and much -respected
Phocion, though he differed politically from Demos-
thenes, sailed thither with a powerful armament and a
force of Athenian citizens. Through the influence of
Leon, one of the leading citizens of Byzantium, who
had been Phocion's fellow-student at Athens in the
Academy, they were admitted into the city, and charmed
the Byzantines by their quiet and admirable behaviour.
Succours also arrived from some of the islands of the
ZEgean--from Cos, Chios, Rhodes. Byzantium was
now all but impregnable, and Philip was obliged to
abandon the siege both of it and of Perinthus. Even
his own territory was invaded by Phocion, and many
of the Macedonian cruisers were captured. For Philip
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? SPEECIIES AGAINST PHILIP. 121
it was a year of reverses, as for Athens it was one of
success and glory. The two cities on the Propontis
decreed her a vote of thanks, and displayed their
gratitude by erecting three colossal statues, represent-
ing Athens receiving a wreath at their hands in testi-
mony of their deliverance. Demosthenes, too, had his
reward. No one could question that to his counsels
and energy they owed in great measure the preservation
of the Chersonese and their supremacy at sea. Corn
cheap and abundant was for the present assured to
them. The Athenian people were in a pleased and
grateful mood, and the Assembly passed a vote of
thanks to Demosthenes, which none of his many
political enemies dared to oppose.
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? CHAPTER XI.
omanosnm--rann or ensues.
WE must now hurry on to the decisive catastrophe
which sealed the fate of Greece and of its political
independence. Its glory had been to have been re-
presented by an aggregate of free states, of which
Athens was immeasurably the first in culture and
civilisation. Its weakness and curse had been per-
petual and all but irremediable rivalries and jealousies,
which went far to neutralise its collective strength
in the face of a real peril. It was now on the eve
of a revolution which the Greek mind, in spite of
many a warning from Demosthenes, had never been
able to bring itself to contemplate as possible. He had
done his best, as we have seen, to retard it amid end-
less discouragements, and to the last we shall find him
faithful to the cause of which he never once seems to
have allowed himself to despair. In the train of events
which culminated in Cheeroneia we find him bearing a
conspicuous and honourable part.
Philip's career, as we have just seen, had been
temporarily checked ; and at the close of the year 340
13. 0. Athens might almost congratulate herself on all
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? CH1ER0NEIA--FALL OF GREECE. _ 123
danger having passed away. In the spring of 339 no.
the King met with another disaster.
He had plunged
into the wilds of Scythia, north of the Danube, and had
carried off a vast booty of flocks and herds from the
barbarous people; but on his return through Thrace he
was attacked by the Triballi, one of the fiercest and
most warlike of the tribes of that dangerous region.
We know what it is for a regular and well-equipped
army to have to march through an intricate and hostile
country. The king of Macedon, encumbered as he
was with spoil, was taken at a disadvantage, and if
not actually defeated, he was at least worsted, lost his
plunder, and was himself badly wounded. Thus the
year 339 13. 0. seemed one of good omen for Athens and
for Greece. And thanks to the vigorous efforts of
Demosthenes in the way of naval reform, the Athenian
fleet was now supreme in the Aigean.
Meanwhile a new sacred war in behalf of the god
and temple of Delphi was unfortunately breaking out.
It arose out of incidents which may seem to us com-
paratively trifling. An Amphictyonic Council had
assembled at Delphi in the autumn of 340 13. 0. , and
Athens was represented by iEschines. The fruitful
plain of Crisa, stretching inland from the Gulf of
Corinth to the town of Amphissa, under the mountains
of Parnassus, was the consecrated possession of the
Delphic god. It was holy ground, and to till or to
plant it had been forbidden with a tremendous curse.
Part of it, however, adjacent to the town and port of
Cirrha, had, almost with the sanction of Greek opinion,
been occupied and brought into cultivation for a long
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? 124 _ DEMOSTHENES.
period by the Locrians. Between them and the
Phocians there had been a long-standing feud, which
reached a climax in the recent Sacred War. The Loe-
rians in that war had sided with Philip and the Thebans
against their sacrilegious neighbours. Consequently,
after the destruction of Phocis, they had a sore feeling
towards Athens as the ally of the Phocians. One of
their deputies, on the occasion of which we are speaking,
rudely gave expression to this feeling, and went so far
as to revile the Athenians, and to imply that an alliance
with such a people was in itself equivalent to the guilt
of sacrilege. Possibly the man may have wished to
curry favour with the Thebans, to whose disgust some
golden shields had just been set up by the Athenians
in a new chapel at Delphi, with an inscription com-
memorating the victory of Athens over Persia and
Thebes at Plataea a century and a half ago. This
small incident was dwelt upon by the Locrian orator in
violent and intemperate language. " Do not," said he,'
"permit the name of the Athenian people to be pro-
nounced among you at this holy season. Turn them
out of the sacred ground like men under a curse. "
ZEschines, the Athenian representative (he describes
the affair himself in his great speech against Ctesiphon,
or, we may say, against Demosthenes), savagely re-
tortcd. He pointed to the plain of Crisa, visible from
the spot where they were assembled. " You see," he
said, "that plain cultivated by the Locrians of Am-
phissa, covered with their farm-buildings. You have
under your eyes the port of Cirrha, consecrated by
your forefathers' oath, now occupied and fortified. "
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? OIL/ERONEIA--FALL OF GREECE. _l25
Then he caused the ancient oracle, the oath with its
dreadful curse, to be read out before the Council.
" Here am I," he went on to say, "ready to defend
the property of the god according to your forefathers'
oath. I stand prepared to clear my own city of her
obligations. Do you take counsel for yourselves.
You are here to pray for blessings to the gods, publicly
and individually. Where will you find voice or heart
or courage to offer such a prayer if you let these as-
cursed Locrians of Amphissa remain unpunished' ! "
The appeal of 1Eschines produced an instantaneous
effect. The excitement was prodigious; and the Coun-
oil in a moment of fury passed a resolution that on the
morrow all the population of Delphi were to assemble
with spades and pickaxes, and sweep away from the
sacred plain every trace of the impious tillage and
cultivation. Next day this mad proposal was actually
carried into effect. The furious mob rushed across the
plain into the town of Cirrha, and pillaged and fired
the place. On their return, however, they were met
by the Locrians of Amphissa with an armed force, and
obliged to take refuge in Delphi. There was no blood-
shed, even under these circumstances of provocation,
as the aggrieved owners of the destroyed property were
restrained by a sentiment of reverence for the Amphic-
tyonic Council. Here is, indeed, a striking evidence
of the respect felt for the traditions of the god of
Delphi and his ancient temple, the centre of the
religious life of Greece. Again, on the following day,
the Council met, and after warm praise had been
bestowed on Athens as the avenger of Apollo's rights,
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? 126_ - DEMOSTHENES.
the people' of Amphissa were denounced as having
incurred the guilt of sacrilege; and it was finally
decided _that the Amphictyonic deputies should shortly
assemble at Thermopylae to consider how they were to
be punished.
A new sacred war was thus in effect begun six years
after the disastrous termination of the previous war in
346 B. 0. That had ended in the destruction of a mem-
ber of the Greek community ; this was to end in the
ruin and fall of Greece. The danger was not at once
perceived at Athens. We cannot wonder at this.
Zfischines' vindication of his countrymen at the Coun-
cil might well seem spirited and patriotic. Atherfs,
through him, had stood forward as the champion of
the god of Delphi. It was easy for him to argue that
those who took a different view, and regretted the rash
act to which the Amphictyons had been prompted by
his oratory, were little better than the paid agents of
those sacrilegious Locrians, who had allowed one of
their speakers openly to insult Athens. Demosthenes,
however--so he tells us--at once declared in the As-
sembly, " You are bringing war into Attica, ZEschines--
an Amphictyonic war. " The popular sentiment at the
time was in favour of ZFschines, and this his political
rival must have known and felt. Still, Demosthenes
was able--a proof this of the highrespect in which he
was held--to persuade the people not to send any
deputies to the special congress at Thermopylae, which
was to deliberate on the punishment of the Locrians.
Thebes, too, allowed herself to be unrepresented. War
was decided on; the Locriau territory was invaded,
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? OHAERONEIA'---FALL OF GREECE. I27
and a' fine imposed on the Locrians,a the 'payment of
which, however, the army was not sufficiently power-
ful to compel.
The congress of which we have just spoken was not
the regular Amphictyonic meeting. This was held in
the autumn of 339 13. 0. Philip by that time had
returned to his kingdom. The meeting was now at
Delphi ; and Athens, as might be expected, took part
in it. ? Eschines again was one of her representatives.
It was on this occasion that the fatal step was taken
of invoking the aid of Philip. It is not very difiicult
to understand how such a vote was carried. Macedon
itself was a member of the Council; and so, too, were
several states like Thessaly and Phthiotis, which now
were simply Macedonian dependencies. 1Eschines, it
may be from really corrupt motives, supported the
vote. Accordingly Philip was elected general of the
Amphictyonic army; and a request was forwarded to
him that "he would march to the aid of Apollo and
the Amphietyons, and not suffer the rights of the god
to be invaded by the impious Locrians of Amphissa. "
The die was now cast. The peril to Greece might
possibly even yet have been warded off ; but it was
great and imminent. And Thebes and Athens, on
whom all now depended, were still notoriously un-
reconciled. Philip, of course, instantly accepted the
Council's invitation. He would enter Greece as the
representative of a holy cause, as well as the head of a
very powerful army. From Thermopylae he marched
straight through Phocis to Elateia, the chief Phocian
town and the key to southern Greece. It was not sixty
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? 128' DEMOSTHENES.
miles from the Athenian frontier. Here he halted and
began to establish a regular camp. This was in itself
'alarming. His next step was to send a message to
Thebes inviting the co-operation of the Thebans in an
attack on Attica. '
In a graphic passage in the most famous of his
speeches, Demosthenes describes the impression made
at Athens by the news that Philip was at Elateia.
"It was evening," he says, "when a messenger arrived
with tidings for the Presidents that Elateia was taken.
They rose instantly from the public supper-table ; some
drove the people from the stalls in the Forum, and set
fire to the wicker-work in order to clear the space;
others sent for the generals, and called the trumpeter.
The whole city was in commotion. Next morning, at
break of day, the Presidents convoked the Senate in
the Senate House, and you repaired to the Assembly,
and before the Senate could enter upon business, or
draw up the decree to be submitted to you, all the
people had taken their seats in the Pnyx. When the
Senate had entered--when the Presidents had commu-
nicated the intelligence which had been brought to
them--when the messenger had been introduced, and
related his tidings,--the herald made proclamation,
'Who desires to speak'! ' But no one came forward.
Again and again did the herald repeat the proclama--
tion; our country's voice called out for a man to speak
and save her; for the voice of the herald raised at the
law's command should be regarded as the voice of our
common country. Still not a man came forward. "
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? CHJ? IfONEIA----FALL OF GREECE. 129
In this crisis Demosthenes/ gave his counsel. It was
to the following effect :-- _
"I said," he tells us, "that the dismay of those
who suppose that Philip could still count on the
Thebans must proceed from an ignorance of the real
state of the case. If that were so, it would not
be at Elateia--it would be on our own frontier---
that we should hear of Philip. That he had come to
make things ready for him in Thebes I knew well.
But mark, I said, how the matter stands. Every
man in Thebes whom money can buy, every man
whom flattery can gain, has long ago been secured.
But he is totally unable to prevail upon those who
have withstood him from the beginning, and who are
opposing him still. What, then, has brought Philip to
Elateial He hopes, by a military demonstration in
your neighbourhood, and by bringing up his army, to
raise the courage and confidence of his friends, and to
strike terror into his enemies, so that they may be
frightened or coerced into_surrenden'ng what hitherto
they have been unwilling to concede. If, then, I said,
we choose at this crisis to remember every ill turn
which the Thebans have done us, and to distrust them
and treat them as enemies, in the first place we shall
be doing the very thing which Philip most desires ; and
next, I fear that, his present adversaries embracing his
cause, they will all fall on Attica together. If you will
be advised by me, and regard what I am about to say
as matter for reflection rather than for disputation, I
believe that my counsel will obtain your approbation,
and be the means of averting the peril which now
A. 0. S. S. vol. iv. 1
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? 130 DEMOSTHENE8.
threatens the State. What, then, do I advise' ! First,
shake off this panic--or rather change the direction of
your fears from yourselves to the Thebans, for they are
far nearer ruin than ourselves. The danger is theirs
before it is ours. Next, let all citizens of military age
and all your cavalry march to Eleusis, and show your-
selves to the world in arms, that the Thebans who are
on your side may be as bold as their adversaries, and
speak out in the cause of right, with the assurance
that, if there is at Elateia a force at hand to support
the party who have sold their country to Philip, your
forces are no less at the disposal of those who would
fight for freedom, and ready to succour them in case
of attack. Make no conditions with the Thebans. It
would be unworthy on such an occasion. Simply de-
clareyour readiness to succour them, on the assump-
tion that their peril is imminent, and that you are in a
better position than they to forecast the future. If
they accept our offer and adopt our views, we shall
have attained our object, and pursued a policy worthy
of our country. If anything should mar the project,
they will have only themselves to blame, and we shall
have nothing to blush for in our part of the transac-
tion. "
Such was the counsel of Demosthenes in this great
crisis. It was instantly adopted by the Assembly
without a dissentient voice. The matter did not stop
here. " Not only did I make a speech," Demosthenes
tells us, "but I proposed a decree. Not only did I
propose the decree, but I went upon the embassy. Not
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? C'IIA2RONEIA--FALL 'OF GREECE. 131
only went I on the embassy, but I prevailed on the
Thebans. " At Thebes the orator had to confront the
envoys of Philip, backed up by the Philippising party
and by the old Theban animosity towards Athens.
Each embassy was heard, according to Greek custom,
before the Theban Assembly. Philip had eloquent
advocates who suggested plausible reasons why he
should be allowed to march through Boeotia and to
humble the old enemy of Thebes. Unfortunately, we
have not the reply of Demosthenes. We know, how-
ever, from the historian of the time, Theopompus, that
he rose to the occasion, and convinced the wavering
Thebans, by an impressive appeal to every Greek and
patriotic sentiment, that it was their duty and interest
to accept the offered alliance. It was a signal triumph
--one, too, achieved under extreme dilficulties.
It must, indeed, have been a proud moment for De-
mosthenes when he saw his country's army march
across the Attic frontier and enter Boeotia at the
Theban invitation. All distrust and jealousy had now
passed away; and the two states, between whom there
had been long and bitter rivalry, had at last made up
their mind to co-operate in a common cause. As it
_ had been at Byzantium, so was it now at Thebes. The
Athenian soldiers received a hearty welcome, and were
hospitably entertained in the houses of the city.
" With such cordiality," says Demosthenes in his
speech on the Crown, "did they welcome you, that while
their own infantry and cavalry were quartered outside
the walls, they received your army within their city and
? ?
I say, punish your corrupt statesmen, execrate them at
all times and places, and thereby prove that men of
virtue and honourable conduct have consulted wisely
both for others and for themselves. "
It is satisfactory to' learn that this speech was success-
ful, and that Diopeithes, who certainly deserved well of
his country, was continued in his command, and the
Chersonese saved for Athens.
Demosthenes was now the leading Athenian states-
man. He had shaken the influence of the peace party,
and he seems to have still further strengthened his
political position by a speech delivered about three
months after that which we have just been considering.
The speech in question has always been regarded as one
of singular power. As far as we know, nothing new
had occurred ; but Philip was still in Thrace, threaten-
ing the Chersonese and the northern shores of the
A. O. S. S. vol. iv. H
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? 114 . ' >DEMOSTHENES. '
Propontis, and clearly had designs on Perinthus and
Byzantium. Demosthenes repeats in substance the
arguments he had recently urged. Greece, he says, is
in the utmost peril from its miserable divisions and
apathy, and from the unique position which it has
allowed Philip to attain. As for Athens, "her affairs
have been brought so low by carelessness and negli-
gence, I fear it is a hard truth to say that if all the ora--
tors had sought to suggest, and you to pass, resolutions
for the utter ruining of the commonwealth, we could
not, methinks, be worse off than we are. " It had been
said at Athens in the speeches of some of the orators,
"Wait till Philip declares war, and then it will be
time to discuss how we shall resist him. " Demosthenes'
reply is,----
" If we wait till Philip avows that he is at war with
us, we are the simplest of mortals; for he would not
declare war, though he marched even against Athens
and Piraeus--at least, if we may judge from his conduct
to others. When he sends his mercenaries into the
Chersonese, which the king of Persia and all the Greeks
acknowledge to be yours, what can be the meaning of
such proceedings! He says he is not at war. But I
cannot admit such conduct to be an observance of the
peace. Far otherwise. I say that by his present ad
vance into Thrace, by his intrigues in the Peloponnese,
by the whole course of his operations with his army, he
has been breaking the peace and making war upon you,
---nnless, indeed, you will say that those who establish
military engines are not at war until they apply them
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? SPEECHES A GAINST PHILIP. I 15
to the walls. But that you will not say; for whoever
prepares and contrives the means for my conquest, is
at war with me before he hurls the dart or draws the
bow. Should anything happen, what is the risk you
run' ! The alienation of the Hellespont, the subjection
of Megara and Euboea to your enemy, the siding of
the Peloponnese with him. Then, can I allow that
one who sets such an engine at work against Athens
is at peace with her' ! Quite the contrary. From the
day that he destroyed Phocis I date his commence-
ment of hostilities. So widely do I differ from your
other advisers that I deem any discussion about the
Chers>one'se or Byzantium out of place. Succour them
--I advise that; watch that no harm befalls them; send
all necessary supplies to your troops in that quarter:
but let your deliberations be for the safety of all
Greece, as being in the most extreme jeopardy. "
The Greeks, he declares, must have utterly forgotten
themselves in allowing a foreigner and a barbarian a
licence in dealing with their affairs which they had
never thought of according to such states as Athens
or Sparta. This was monstrous, and implied a fatal
degeneracy.
"I observe," says the orator, "that all people be-
ginning from yourselves have conceded to Philip a
right which in former days was the subject of contest
in every Greek war. What is this'! The right of
doing what he pleases, openlyfieecing and pillaging
the Greeks one after another, attacking and enslaving
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? 116 DEMOSTHENES.
their cities. You were at the head of the Greeks for
seventy-three years, the Lacedaemonians for twenty-
nine, and the Thebans had some power in these latter
days after the battle of Leuctra. Yet neither you nor
Lacedaemonians nor Thebans were ever licensed to act
as you pleased. Far otherwise. When you, or rather
the Athenians of that time, appeared to be dealing
harshly with certain people, all the rest, even such as
had no complaint against Athens, thought proper to
side with the injured parties in a war against her. So,
when the Lacedaemonians became masters and suc-
ceeded to your empire, on their attempting to encroach
and make oppressive innovations, a general war was
declared against them even by such as had no cause
of complaint. But why mention other people'! We
ourselves and the Lacedaemonians, although at the
outset we could not allege' any mutual injuries, thought
proper to make war for the injustice that we saw done
to our neighbours. Yet all the faults committed by
the Spartans in those thirty years, and by our ancestors
in the seventy, are less than the wrongs which in
thirteen incomplete years, while Philip has been upper-
most, he has inflicted on the Greeks. Nay, they are
scarcely a fraction of them, as I may easily and briefly
show. Olynthus and Methone, and Apollonia and
thirty-two cities on the borders of Thrace, I pass over
---all which he has so cruelly destroyed that a visitor
could scarcely tell if they were ever inhabited. And
of Phocis, so considerable a people exterminated, I say
nothing. But what is 'the condition of Thessaly! Has
he not taken away her constitutions and her cities, and
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? SPEECHES AGAINST PHILIP. 117
established tetrarchies, to parcel her out, not only by
cities, but by provinces, for subjection! Are not the
states of Eubma now governed by despots, and Euboea
is an island near to Thebes and to Athens! Does he
not expressly write in his epistles, " I am at peace with
those who are willing to obey me"' ! Neither Greek nor
barbaric land contains the man's ambition. And we,
the Greek community, seeing and hearing this, instead
of sending embassies to one another about it and ex-
pressing our indignation, are in such a miserable state,
so entrenched in our separate towns, that to this day
we can attempt nothing that interest or necessity re-
quires ; we cannot combine for succour and alliance;
we look unconcernedly on the man's growing power,
each resolving to enjoy the interval in which another
is destroyed, not caring nor striving for the salvation
of Greece. 'Whatever wrong the Greeks sustained
from Lacedaemonians or from us, was at least inflicted
by a genuine Greek people. It might be felt in the
same manner as if a lawful son, born to a large fortune,
committed some fault or error in the management of
it. On that ground, one would consider him open to
censure and to reproach; yet it could not be said he
was an alien and not an heir to the property which
he so dealt with. But if a slave or a spurious child
wasted and spoilt that in which he had no interest,
how much more heinous and hateful would all have
oronounced it! "
On the decay of patriotism and the venality of public
men throughout Greece, he speaks thus :-
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? 118 DEMOSTHENES.
" There must be some cause, some good reason, why
the Greeks were so eager for liberty then, and now are so
eager for servitude. There was something in the hearts
of the multitude then which there is not now, which
overcame the wealth of Persia, and maintained the free-
dom of Greece, and quailed not under any battle by sea
or land, the loss whereof has ruined all and thrown the
Greek world into confusion. What was this! No
subtlety or cleverness ; simply this, that whoever took
a bribe from the aspirants to power or the corrupters of
Greece was universally abhorred. It was a fearful thing
to be convicted of bribery; the severest punishment was
inflicted on the guilty, and there was no intercession
or pardon. The favourable moments for enterprise
which fortune frequently offers to the careless against
the vigilant, to them that will do nothing against those
that discharge their entire duty, could not be bought
from orators or generals; no more could mutual con-
cord, nor distrust of tyrants and barbarians, nor any-
thing of the But now all such principles have
been sold as in open market, and principles imported
in exchange by which Greece is ruined and diseased.
What are they'! Envy, when a man gets a bribe;
laughter, if he confesses it; mercy to the convicted ;'-
hatred of those who denounce the crime,--all the usual
accompaniments of corruption. For as to ships and
men, and revenues and abundance of other material-
all, in fact, that may be reckoned as constituting national
strength, assuredly the Greeks of our day are more
fully and perfectly supplied with such advantages than
Greeks of the olden times. But they are all rendered
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? SPEECHES AGAINST PHILIP. 119
useless, unavailable, unprofitable by the agency of these
traflickers. "
This is indeed a powerful denunciation of a state of
things which we know to be very possible, in which
the corruption of public men is treated as a joke,
and when exposed and detected, is hardly thought to
deserve rcprobation and punishment. If all that was
best in Greece had really so utterly died out, it would
seem that Demosthenes was wasting his breath in idle
declamation. But we may well believe that he clung to
the old Athenian ideal, and could not bring himself to
despair of his country. And it is certain that this and
the preceding speech produced an effect, and Athens
made efforts which were temporarily successful. " The
work of saving Greece," he told them before he sat-
down, "belongs to you; this privilege your ancestors
bequeathed to you as the prize of many perilous exer-
tions. "
As one might expect, there were those who sought
to persuade the Athenians that Philip's power for
aggression had been greatly exaggerated, and that he
was by no means so formidable as Sparta had once
been, when she led the Peloponnesian confederacy.
Demosthenes points out that Philip had introduced
what was really a new method of warfare. Athens
and Sparta, in the height of their power, had only been
able to command a citizen militia from the states in
league with them. Such a force was prepared only for
a summer campaign, and could not always follow up
its blows effectively. Philip, on the other hand, could
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? 120 > DEMOSTHENES.
take the field in winter as well as in summer. His
troops were never disbanded, and they were under his
sole direction. He was, in fact, to the Greeks what
Napoleon was to the Austrians. An able and restless
despot, at the head of a well-trained standing army,
will often, for a time at least, have a decided advantage
in war over a free and constitutional state.
The next year, 340 13. 0. , events occurred which com-
pletely justified the warnings of Demosthenes. Philip
attempted the conquest of the cities on the Propontis,
Perinthus and Byzantium. He was foiled by prompt
intervention from Athens. There was for a brief space
a doubt whether Byzantium would accept Athenian
aid, so thoroughly had the city become estranged from
Athens in consequence of the Social VVar. Demos-
thenes went thither at the head of an embassy, and the
result was, that an alliance was concluded. Shortly
afterwards, the conscientious and much -respected
Phocion, though he differed politically from Demos-
thenes, sailed thither with a powerful armament and a
force of Athenian citizens. Through the influence of
Leon, one of the leading citizens of Byzantium, who
had been Phocion's fellow-student at Athens in the
Academy, they were admitted into the city, and charmed
the Byzantines by their quiet and admirable behaviour.
Succours also arrived from some of the islands of the
ZEgean--from Cos, Chios, Rhodes. Byzantium was
now all but impregnable, and Philip was obliged to
abandon the siege both of it and of Perinthus. Even
his own territory was invaded by Phocion, and many
of the Macedonian cruisers were captured. For Philip
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? SPEECIIES AGAINST PHILIP. 121
it was a year of reverses, as for Athens it was one of
success and glory. The two cities on the Propontis
decreed her a vote of thanks, and displayed their
gratitude by erecting three colossal statues, represent-
ing Athens receiving a wreath at their hands in testi-
mony of their deliverance. Demosthenes, too, had his
reward. No one could question that to his counsels
and energy they owed in great measure the preservation
of the Chersonese and their supremacy at sea. Corn
cheap and abundant was for the present assured to
them. The Athenian people were in a pleased and
grateful mood, and the Assembly passed a vote of
thanks to Demosthenes, which none of his many
political enemies dared to oppose.
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? CHAPTER XI.
omanosnm--rann or ensues.
WE must now hurry on to the decisive catastrophe
which sealed the fate of Greece and of its political
independence. Its glory had been to have been re-
presented by an aggregate of free states, of which
Athens was immeasurably the first in culture and
civilisation. Its weakness and curse had been per-
petual and all but irremediable rivalries and jealousies,
which went far to neutralise its collective strength
in the face of a real peril. It was now on the eve
of a revolution which the Greek mind, in spite of
many a warning from Demosthenes, had never been
able to bring itself to contemplate as possible. He had
done his best, as we have seen, to retard it amid end-
less discouragements, and to the last we shall find him
faithful to the cause of which he never once seems to
have allowed himself to despair. In the train of events
which culminated in Cheeroneia we find him bearing a
conspicuous and honourable part.
Philip's career, as we have just seen, had been
temporarily checked ; and at the close of the year 340
13. 0. Athens might almost congratulate herself on all
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? CH1ER0NEIA--FALL OF GREECE. _ 123
danger having passed away. In the spring of 339 no.
the King met with another disaster.
He had plunged
into the wilds of Scythia, north of the Danube, and had
carried off a vast booty of flocks and herds from the
barbarous people; but on his return through Thrace he
was attacked by the Triballi, one of the fiercest and
most warlike of the tribes of that dangerous region.
We know what it is for a regular and well-equipped
army to have to march through an intricate and hostile
country. The king of Macedon, encumbered as he
was with spoil, was taken at a disadvantage, and if
not actually defeated, he was at least worsted, lost his
plunder, and was himself badly wounded. Thus the
year 339 13. 0. seemed one of good omen for Athens and
for Greece. And thanks to the vigorous efforts of
Demosthenes in the way of naval reform, the Athenian
fleet was now supreme in the Aigean.
Meanwhile a new sacred war in behalf of the god
and temple of Delphi was unfortunately breaking out.
It arose out of incidents which may seem to us com-
paratively trifling. An Amphictyonic Council had
assembled at Delphi in the autumn of 340 13. 0. , and
Athens was represented by iEschines. The fruitful
plain of Crisa, stretching inland from the Gulf of
Corinth to the town of Amphissa, under the mountains
of Parnassus, was the consecrated possession of the
Delphic god. It was holy ground, and to till or to
plant it had been forbidden with a tremendous curse.
Part of it, however, adjacent to the town and port of
Cirrha, had, almost with the sanction of Greek opinion,
been occupied and brought into cultivation for a long
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? 124 _ DEMOSTHENES.
period by the Locrians. Between them and the
Phocians there had been a long-standing feud, which
reached a climax in the recent Sacred War. The Loe-
rians in that war had sided with Philip and the Thebans
against their sacrilegious neighbours. Consequently,
after the destruction of Phocis, they had a sore feeling
towards Athens as the ally of the Phocians. One of
their deputies, on the occasion of which we are speaking,
rudely gave expression to this feeling, and went so far
as to revile the Athenians, and to imply that an alliance
with such a people was in itself equivalent to the guilt
of sacrilege. Possibly the man may have wished to
curry favour with the Thebans, to whose disgust some
golden shields had just been set up by the Athenians
in a new chapel at Delphi, with an inscription com-
memorating the victory of Athens over Persia and
Thebes at Plataea a century and a half ago. This
small incident was dwelt upon by the Locrian orator in
violent and intemperate language. " Do not," said he,'
"permit the name of the Athenian people to be pro-
nounced among you at this holy season. Turn them
out of the sacred ground like men under a curse. "
ZEschines, the Athenian representative (he describes
the affair himself in his great speech against Ctesiphon,
or, we may say, against Demosthenes), savagely re-
tortcd. He pointed to the plain of Crisa, visible from
the spot where they were assembled. " You see," he
said, "that plain cultivated by the Locrians of Am-
phissa, covered with their farm-buildings. You have
under your eyes the port of Cirrha, consecrated by
your forefathers' oath, now occupied and fortified. "
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? OIL/ERONEIA--FALL OF GREECE. _l25
Then he caused the ancient oracle, the oath with its
dreadful curse, to be read out before the Council.
" Here am I," he went on to say, "ready to defend
the property of the god according to your forefathers'
oath. I stand prepared to clear my own city of her
obligations. Do you take counsel for yourselves.
You are here to pray for blessings to the gods, publicly
and individually. Where will you find voice or heart
or courage to offer such a prayer if you let these as-
cursed Locrians of Amphissa remain unpunished' ! "
The appeal of 1Eschines produced an instantaneous
effect. The excitement was prodigious; and the Coun-
oil in a moment of fury passed a resolution that on the
morrow all the population of Delphi were to assemble
with spades and pickaxes, and sweep away from the
sacred plain every trace of the impious tillage and
cultivation. Next day this mad proposal was actually
carried into effect. The furious mob rushed across the
plain into the town of Cirrha, and pillaged and fired
the place. On their return, however, they were met
by the Locrians of Amphissa with an armed force, and
obliged to take refuge in Delphi. There was no blood-
shed, even under these circumstances of provocation,
as the aggrieved owners of the destroyed property were
restrained by a sentiment of reverence for the Amphic-
tyonic Council. Here is, indeed, a striking evidence
of the respect felt for the traditions of the god of
Delphi and his ancient temple, the centre of the
religious life of Greece. Again, on the following day,
the Council met, and after warm praise had been
bestowed on Athens as the avenger of Apollo's rights,
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? 126_ - DEMOSTHENES.
the people' of Amphissa were denounced as having
incurred the guilt of sacrilege; and it was finally
decided _that the Amphictyonic deputies should shortly
assemble at Thermopylae to consider how they were to
be punished.
A new sacred war was thus in effect begun six years
after the disastrous termination of the previous war in
346 B. 0. That had ended in the destruction of a mem-
ber of the Greek community ; this was to end in the
ruin and fall of Greece. The danger was not at once
perceived at Athens. We cannot wonder at this.
Zfischines' vindication of his countrymen at the Coun-
cil might well seem spirited and patriotic. Atherfs,
through him, had stood forward as the champion of
the god of Delphi. It was easy for him to argue that
those who took a different view, and regretted the rash
act to which the Amphictyons had been prompted by
his oratory, were little better than the paid agents of
those sacrilegious Locrians, who had allowed one of
their speakers openly to insult Athens. Demosthenes,
however--so he tells us--at once declared in the As-
sembly, " You are bringing war into Attica, ZEschines--
an Amphictyonic war. " The popular sentiment at the
time was in favour of ZFschines, and this his political
rival must have known and felt. Still, Demosthenes
was able--a proof this of the highrespect in which he
was held--to persuade the people not to send any
deputies to the special congress at Thermopylae, which
was to deliberate on the punishment of the Locrians.
Thebes, too, allowed herself to be unrepresented. War
was decided on; the Locriau territory was invaded,
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? OHAERONEIA'---FALL OF GREECE. I27
and a' fine imposed on the Locrians,a the 'payment of
which, however, the army was not sufficiently power-
ful to compel.
The congress of which we have just spoken was not
the regular Amphictyonic meeting. This was held in
the autumn of 339 13. 0. Philip by that time had
returned to his kingdom. The meeting was now at
Delphi ; and Athens, as might be expected, took part
in it. ? Eschines again was one of her representatives.
It was on this occasion that the fatal step was taken
of invoking the aid of Philip. It is not very difiicult
to understand how such a vote was carried. Macedon
itself was a member of the Council; and so, too, were
several states like Thessaly and Phthiotis, which now
were simply Macedonian dependencies. 1Eschines, it
may be from really corrupt motives, supported the
vote. Accordingly Philip was elected general of the
Amphictyonic army; and a request was forwarded to
him that "he would march to the aid of Apollo and
the Amphietyons, and not suffer the rights of the god
to be invaded by the impious Locrians of Amphissa. "
The die was now cast. The peril to Greece might
possibly even yet have been warded off ; but it was
great and imminent. And Thebes and Athens, on
whom all now depended, were still notoriously un-
reconciled. Philip, of course, instantly accepted the
Council's invitation. He would enter Greece as the
representative of a holy cause, as well as the head of a
very powerful army. From Thermopylae he marched
straight through Phocis to Elateia, the chief Phocian
town and the key to southern Greece. It was not sixty
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? 128' DEMOSTHENES.
miles from the Athenian frontier. Here he halted and
began to establish a regular camp. This was in itself
'alarming. His next step was to send a message to
Thebes inviting the co-operation of the Thebans in an
attack on Attica. '
In a graphic passage in the most famous of his
speeches, Demosthenes describes the impression made
at Athens by the news that Philip was at Elateia.
"It was evening," he says, "when a messenger arrived
with tidings for the Presidents that Elateia was taken.
They rose instantly from the public supper-table ; some
drove the people from the stalls in the Forum, and set
fire to the wicker-work in order to clear the space;
others sent for the generals, and called the trumpeter.
The whole city was in commotion. Next morning, at
break of day, the Presidents convoked the Senate in
the Senate House, and you repaired to the Assembly,
and before the Senate could enter upon business, or
draw up the decree to be submitted to you, all the
people had taken their seats in the Pnyx. When the
Senate had entered--when the Presidents had commu-
nicated the intelligence which had been brought to
them--when the messenger had been introduced, and
related his tidings,--the herald made proclamation,
'Who desires to speak'! ' But no one came forward.
Again and again did the herald repeat the proclama--
tion; our country's voice called out for a man to speak
and save her; for the voice of the herald raised at the
law's command should be regarded as the voice of our
common country. Still not a man came forward. "
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? CHJ? IfONEIA----FALL OF GREECE. 129
In this crisis Demosthenes/ gave his counsel. It was
to the following effect :-- _
"I said," he tells us, "that the dismay of those
who suppose that Philip could still count on the
Thebans must proceed from an ignorance of the real
state of the case. If that were so, it would not
be at Elateia--it would be on our own frontier---
that we should hear of Philip. That he had come to
make things ready for him in Thebes I knew well.
But mark, I said, how the matter stands. Every
man in Thebes whom money can buy, every man
whom flattery can gain, has long ago been secured.
But he is totally unable to prevail upon those who
have withstood him from the beginning, and who are
opposing him still. What, then, has brought Philip to
Elateial He hopes, by a military demonstration in
your neighbourhood, and by bringing up his army, to
raise the courage and confidence of his friends, and to
strike terror into his enemies, so that they may be
frightened or coerced into_surrenden'ng what hitherto
they have been unwilling to concede. If, then, I said,
we choose at this crisis to remember every ill turn
which the Thebans have done us, and to distrust them
and treat them as enemies, in the first place we shall
be doing the very thing which Philip most desires ; and
next, I fear that, his present adversaries embracing his
cause, they will all fall on Attica together. If you will
be advised by me, and regard what I am about to say
as matter for reflection rather than for disputation, I
believe that my counsel will obtain your approbation,
and be the means of averting the peril which now
A. 0. S. S. vol. iv. 1
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? 130 DEMOSTHENE8.
threatens the State. What, then, do I advise' ! First,
shake off this panic--or rather change the direction of
your fears from yourselves to the Thebans, for they are
far nearer ruin than ourselves. The danger is theirs
before it is ours. Next, let all citizens of military age
and all your cavalry march to Eleusis, and show your-
selves to the world in arms, that the Thebans who are
on your side may be as bold as their adversaries, and
speak out in the cause of right, with the assurance
that, if there is at Elateia a force at hand to support
the party who have sold their country to Philip, your
forces are no less at the disposal of those who would
fight for freedom, and ready to succour them in case
of attack. Make no conditions with the Thebans. It
would be unworthy on such an occasion. Simply de-
clareyour readiness to succour them, on the assump-
tion that their peril is imminent, and that you are in a
better position than they to forecast the future. If
they accept our offer and adopt our views, we shall
have attained our object, and pursued a policy worthy
of our country. If anything should mar the project,
they will have only themselves to blame, and we shall
have nothing to blush for in our part of the transac-
tion. "
Such was the counsel of Demosthenes in this great
crisis. It was instantly adopted by the Assembly
without a dissentient voice. The matter did not stop
here. " Not only did I make a speech," Demosthenes
tells us, "but I proposed a decree. Not only did I
propose the decree, but I went upon the embassy. Not
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? C'IIA2RONEIA--FALL 'OF GREECE. 131
only went I on the embassy, but I prevailed on the
Thebans. " At Thebes the orator had to confront the
envoys of Philip, backed up by the Philippising party
and by the old Theban animosity towards Athens.
Each embassy was heard, according to Greek custom,
before the Theban Assembly. Philip had eloquent
advocates who suggested plausible reasons why he
should be allowed to march through Boeotia and to
humble the old enemy of Thebes. Unfortunately, we
have not the reply of Demosthenes. We know, how-
ever, from the historian of the time, Theopompus, that
he rose to the occasion, and convinced the wavering
Thebans, by an impressive appeal to every Greek and
patriotic sentiment, that it was their duty and interest
to accept the offered alliance. It was a signal triumph
--one, too, achieved under extreme dilficulties.
It must, indeed, have been a proud moment for De-
mosthenes when he saw his country's army march
across the Attic frontier and enter Boeotia at the
Theban invitation. All distrust and jealousy had now
passed away; and the two states, between whom there
had been long and bitter rivalry, had at last made up
their mind to co-operate in a common cause. As it
_ had been at Byzantium, so was it now at Thebes. The
Athenian soldiers received a hearty welcome, and were
hospitably entertained in the houses of the city.
" With such cordiality," says Demosthenes in his
speech on the Crown, "did they welcome you, that while
their own infantry and cavalry were quartered outside
the walls, they received your army within their city and
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