No More Learning

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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? 132 DEAIOSTHENES.
their homes, among their wives and all that they held
most precious. On that day the Thebans gave you, in
the face of all mankind, three of the highest testimonials
--the first of your valour, the second of your justice,
and the third of your good conduct. For in choosing
to fight with you rather than against you, they judged
that you were better soldiers, and engaged in a better'
cause than Philip; and by intrusting to you that
which they in common with all mankind regard with
the most jealous watchfulness, their children and their
wives, they manifested their confidence in your good
conduct. The result showed that they were well war-
ranted in their trust; for after the army entered their
city, not a single complaint, well or ill founded, was
made against you, so orderly was your behaviour. And
when your soldiers stood side by side with their hosts
in two successive engagements, their discipline, their
equipments, their courage, were such as not only to
challenge criticism, but to command admiration. "
Two slight successes, indeed, were won by the united
armies of Thebes and Athens.
Of the campaign we
have no detailed narrative, and of the final battle we
have but an imperfect and unsatisfactory description.
It would have been most interesting to have had such
an account of it as Xenophon has given us of Leuctra
and Mantineia. It was fought near Chaeroneia, close
to the borders of Phocis,--a town of little importance,
but memorable from its historical associations. More
than two centuries afterwards, a great victory was won
there by Sulla over an army of Mithridates. It was,
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? C'ILERONEIA--FALL or GREECE. 133
too, the birthplace of Plutarch, and to it he retired
from Rome in his old age. On this occasion it would
seem that' as to numbers the forces were evenly
matched. _ But the Greek army was without a general
of any marked ability. Phocion, by far the best
Athenian> officer, was absent with the fleet in the
]Egean. A commander of the first order--a man, for
example, of the calibre of Epameinondas--might have
turned the scale, and no doubt would have done so
had there been a powerful contingent from Sparta and
the Peloponnese. United Greece, it is probable, could
even yet have crushed Philip. As it was, all may be
said to have depended on Athens and Thebes, though
a few other states furnished some soldiers. The Mace-
donian army was both skilfully commanded and was
very formidable in itself. It was led by Philip and
by his young son Alexander; and he it was, it appears,
to whom the victory was mainly due. He was opposed
to the Theban phalanx--the Sacred band, as it was called
----which fell fighting to a man. It is certain that the
battle was obstinately contested, and almost equally
certain that it was decided by superiority of general-
ship. The Athenians, after their wont, dashed upon
the enemy with furious impetuosity; but a citizen
militia, however brave and enthusiastic, unless they
were victorious at the first onset, could hardly be
expected to stand long against such troops as
'Philip's trained veterans. They did, according to one
account, put the enemy to flight, and their general
exclaimed, "Let us pursue them even to Macedonia. "
But the end was epmpletc defeat for the Greek army,
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? 1 34 DEM 0s THENES.
and the year 338 13. 0. witnessed the fall of Greek in-
dependence.
To Thebes the result was immediate ruin. Its cita-
del was at once occupied by a Macedonian garrison,
and its government put under Macedonian control.
Athens, 1000 of whose citizens had fallen, and 2000
been taken prisoners, was in an agony of distress; but
she did not allow herself to despair. Isocrates, still
alive in his 99th year, though he had been politically
opposed to Demosthenes and had cherished the idea of
a united Greece under the leadership of the king of
Macedon, was heart-broken, and refused to live any
longer. He was a true patriot; and
" That dishonest victory
At Chaeroneia, fatal to liberty,
Killed with report that old man eloquent. "
Demosthenes had fought in his countrymen's ranks,
and had fled with the rest; but though his enemies
taunted him with cowardice, he had the honour of pro-
nouneing the funeral panegyric over the fallen. His
counsels had been followed; the result had been dis-
astrous ; yet he still evidently retained the confidence
and esteem of the people. Athens recovered her cap-
tured citizens without ransom, for the conqueror chose
to be generous; but the cause for which she had
fought was a thing of the past. Demosthenes must
have felt after Chaeroneia as Pitt felt after Austerlitz
when he closed the map of Europe. His efforts had'
been rewarded with the gratitude of his countrymen,
but they had not been rewarded with success.
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? CHAPTER XII.
oorrrssr BETWEEN DEMOSTHENES AND zss0nnms.
Pnrmr was now the acknowledged head of the Greek
world. Phocion, Athens' best soldier, as well as a highly
honourable citizen, told the Athenians that they must
acquiesce in this result. Demosthenes had not a word
left to say on foreign policy. The subject was, in fact,
closed. He was continually and virulently attacked
by his political opponents, but he was too strong for
them. He spoke the funeral eulogy at the obsequies
of the slain in the great battle--an honour to which he
was chosen in preference to Aischines, as well as to
Demades, who had negotiated the peace. He held,
too, more than one important office. He was treasurer
of the Theorie fund, which provided Athens with her
grand dramatic entertainments ; and in this capacity he
had a considerable control over the finances generally.
He was also superintendent of the city walls and fortifi-
cations. He must thus have had the character of an
able and upright man of business. And he continued
to follow the profession of the bar, and found abundant
employment.
In 336 13. 0. Philip was assassinated. It seems that
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? I36 ' DEMOSTHENES.
Demosthenes, though at the time he was mourning the
death of an only daughter, showed an excessive joy by
appearing in public in a white dress with a garland on
his head, and performing a solemn sacrifice of thanks-
giving. Could he have indulged in the dream that all
was now to be reversed, and that Greece was again to be
free' ! Macedon, no doubt, with its sudden growth of
power, might have collapsed, had Philip's son and suc-
cessor been an imbecile. And it appears that Demos-
thenes thought meanly of the young Alexander. He com-
pared him to Margites, the hero of a comic poem which
tradition attributed to Homer. Margites was a man
who "knew many things, but knew them all badly ; "
he was a sort of "Jack of all trades and master of
none. " Alexander was famous for the variety of his
studies and pursuits; and it was this, it may be supposed,
which gave point to the comparison. Demosthenes' idea
of him was, that he was a studious, bookish young man,
of whom the world would never hear much. The fact
that he was only twenty years of age at the time of his
father's death may have reasonably encouraged Demos-
thenes to believe that Greece had some chance of throw-
ing off the yoke imposed on her by her defeat at Chas-
roneia. He did not think it wrong to correspond with
Persia, and to avail himself of Persian gold, with the
view of frustrating Philip's designs on Asia. We can
hardly censure him for this, when we remember that it
was done for the patriotic purpose of freeing Greece
from its present position of a Macedonian dependency.
If he used questionable means, he at least had the
merit of standing by the old cause. But, of course, it
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? DEMOSTHENES AND 1ESC'1IINES. 137
was easy for his enemies to represent his conduct in an
odious light.
Three years after Chseroneia, Alexander, after a suc-
cessful expedition into Thrace, and a victory over the
barbarous and warlike Getae on the further bank of
the Danube, hurried with marvellous rapidity south-
wards to crush a movement of revolt in Thebes. There
was, as we have seen, a Macedonian garrison in the city.
There was, too, a powerful political party which urged
prompt submission. Alexandrr himself was particu-
larly anxious not to drive matters to extremities. But
the party which had instigated the movement knew
that they could not hope for mercy; and, by appealing
to the cause of Greek freedom, persuaded the people to
reject all offers of peace. The unhappy city was cap-
tured by assault, and every house but that of the poet
Pindar and those of his descendants was razed to the
ground.
" The great Emathian conqueror bade spare
The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower
Went to the ground. "
It was a terrible doom, but it was approved by the
towns of Doeotia; and but for the brief grandeur to
which Thebes rose under Epameinondas, and her share
in the battle of Chaeroneia, we may almost say it was
' deserved. She had been a traitor to the common cause
in the great struggle with Persia ; and afterwards, with
a peculiar baseness, she had urged Sparta to slaughter,
in cold blood, the brave Plataeans, whose only crime
was, that they had sided with Athens in the Pelopon-
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? 138 D Ezuosrrlslvzzs.
nesian War. Thebes was now blotted out of existence.
Again Athens trembled. Alexander, there was reason
to believe, was magnanimous; but it was impossible to
say how he might deal with a city which had been so
persistently hostile to his father. At the suggestion of
Demadcs, an embassy of congratulation was sent to
him. The people were to express their joy not only on
his safe return from the Danube, but on the extinction
of Thebes. It was, as Dr Thirlwall happily calls it,
"impudent obsequiousness. " Alexander's answer was
a demand for the surrender of the nine chief anti-
Macedonian orators,--Demosthenes, of course, included.
But the demand was waived, chiefly, it seems, through
the opportune intervention of Phocion, whom Alex-
ander highly respected.
The next year he crossed the Hellespont into Asia.
Four years from that time sufficed for the overthrow
of the Persian empire. Darius, the last king of Persia,
was murdered in 330 13. 0. That same year witnessed
an abortive attempt in Greece against Macedonian
supremacy. >It was bravely led by a king of Sparta,
who fell in a hard-fought battle near Megalopolis with
Antipater, to whom Alexander had intrusted his king-
dom during his absence. Greece could now no longer
even dream of independence. Anything like an anti-
Macedonian policy would be preposterous; and there
was thus an opportunity at Athens of attempting to
rouse popular feeling against any statesman who had
advocated that policy, the end of which had been so
fatal to Greece.
It was under these circumstances that . /Esehines
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? DEMOSTHENES AND . Esc'H11vEs. 139
made a great effort to crush his old rivaL It had been
proposed by Ctesiphon, in the year after Chaeroneia,
that a public testimonial to the worth of Demosthenes
should be given him in the form of a golden crown;
and that the honour should be proclaimed on the
occasion of one of those great dramatic festivals, when
the city was crowded with visitors from every part
of Greece. The proposal had been approved by the
Athenian Senate, but it had yet to be submitted to the
popular assembly. ZEschines at the time denounced
it as unconstitutional, and opposed it by one of the
recognised modes of legal procedure. Technically,
indeed, the motion of Ctesiphon was illegal. Demos-
thenes, as we have stated, was holding two ollices ; he
was superintendent of fortifications and treasurer of
the Theorie fund. It was contrary to Athenian law
to bestow the honour of a crown on an officer before
his accounts had been audited; it was also forbidden
that such an honour should be proclaimed anywhere
else than in the Pnyx, the regular place of the people's
assembly. According to the motion of the proposer,
it would have been proclaimed in the theatre. [Es-
chines could, therefore, argue that it was in two points
illegal. But he wished to win a decisive victory ; and
he accordingly waited for some years, and finally
rested his case on the argument that Demosthenes, as
a public man, was undeserving of the honour. It is
this which gives interest to his extant speech. He
laboured to convince the Athenians that his rival
could not have been thoroughly sincere in his anti-
Macedonian professions, because he had let slip three
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-27 04:56 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/coo. 31924026456347 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 140 DEMOSTHENES.
important opportunities. Demosthenes had done
nothing, so he argued, when Alexander first crossed
into Asia; or when he was supposed to be in great
jeopardy just before the battle of Issue in 333 B. 0. ;
or lastly, when Sparta, as has been stated, made an
attempt at resistance. It was in the year of this
unsuccessful attempt--the year 330 13. 0. , when Mace-
don was triumphant both in Asia and Greece--that
this memorable cause between the two rival orators
was heard before the Athenian assembly. As might
have been expected, there was a numerous gathering both
of citizens and strangers, very many of whom were
well qualified to be keen critics of the great contest.
The question really to be decided--and this was the
issue which fEschines was anxious to raise--was, Had
Demosthenes been a good or bad citizen! had he
honestly at all times and seasons stood by the cause
in which he so earnestly professed to believe' ! Demos-
thenes' reply to this question is the vindication of his
political life. The cause for which he had exerted
himself, though finally unsuccessful, was, he maintains,
the true and the right cause. Had he foreseen the end
from the beginning, he would have spoken and acted
as he did. He reviews his policy from the peace of
346 13. 0. , concluded just after Philip's destruction of
Phocis, down to the king's death ten years afterwards.
To all this he looks back with satisfaction and pride.
In defending himself he attacks his rival, and de-
nounces him as really the author of the calamities
which had fallen on the Greek world. It was '
through the diplomacy of Zfischines, he declares, that
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? DEMOSTHENES AND ESOHINES. 141
Philip was admitted to Thermopylae, the beginning of
all the subsequent mischief. If it was dreadful to
think of Greece being under a foreign master, it was a
glorious fact that Athens had done her best to avert
such a disgrace.
This is the drift and purport of the great speech on
the Crown, as it is usually called. It has been well
described by Mr Grote as "a funeral oration on ex-
tinct Athenian and Grecian freedom," " It breathes,"
says Dr Thirlwall, "the spirit of that high philosophy
which, whether learnt in the schools or from life, has
consoled the noblest of our kind in prisons and on
scaffolds, and under every persecution of adverse
fortune, but in the tone necessary to impress a mixed
multitude with a like feeling, and to elevate it for a
while into a sphere above its own. "
Some passages from this oration have already been
quoted in the preceding chapter; and it is due to'
the reader to give him some further specimens of,
perhaps, the greatest of all the oratorical efforts of
Demosthenes.
Here is a passage in which the speaker dwells on the
generous and magnanimous temper of his countrymen
in their best days :--
" Let me for a moment bring before your eyes one
or two of the brightest passages in the history of our
times. Lacedaamon was paramount by sea and land;
she had a belt of garrisons about the frontiers of our
territory; Euboea, Tanagra, all Boeotia, Megara, Zligina,
Cleonae, every island on the coast.