with the Olynthians, invaded and ravaged Pallene and Bot-
tiaea; but when they retired, Philip entered Chalcidice,
where he took and razed the fortress of Zeira, and forced
several other towns to submit. The affairs of Thessaly,
where Peitholaus had recovered his authority in Pherae,
then calling him away, he went thither and expelled hira.
* Plutarch, Phocion, 13. The reason probahly belongs to the biog-
rapher, who was thinking of the Cleons of former days ; for the lead-
ing orators of both parties now were by no means sanguinary men.
383 HISTORY OF GREECE.
The Olynthians had meantime again called on their Athe-
nian allies; and the necessity of the case was now so evi-
dent, that in spite of their aversion to personal service in
war, two thousand hoplites and three hundred horse, all
Athenian citizens, embarked for Chalcidice. Philip, who
had gained the towns of Mecyberna and Torone by treach-
ery, now led his forces against Olynthus itself. When
within forty stadia of the city, he sent to say that they must
quit Olynthus, or he Macedonia. The Olynthians and their
Athenian allies gave him battle twice, but were defeated;
and a body of five hundred Olynthian cavalry were betrayed
into his hands by their own commanders. Lasthenes and
his associates, the hirelings of Philip, got the direction of
afFairs, and they lost no time in delivering up the city.
Philip treated it with unwonted rigor; the town was plun-
dered, and the inhabitants sold into slavery. The same was
the fate of Apollonia and thirty-two other towns of Chal-
cidice and the coast of Thrace.*
Philip testified his joy at the conquest of Olynthus by
celebrating with great splendor the Olympia, a national feast
of the Macedonians, at Dion. (Ol. 108, 2.) The concourse
of strangers was great, and artists of every kind were pres-
ent from all parts of Greece. Among these was Satyrus,
a celebrated comedian. Philip, always liberal, distributed
numerous presents at the banquet which he held, and ob-
serving that Satyrus asked for nothing, he inquired the cause.
He replied, that what he would ask was easy for Philip to
grant, but he doubted if he would do so. The king averred
that he would refuse him nothing; the noble-minded player
then said that he had had a friend at Pydna, named Apol-
lophanes, who was murdered, and whose daughters were
removed, by their friends, for safety to Olynthus, where, on
the taking of the city, they were made slaves; they were
now in Philip's possession, and he prayed him to give them
to him, adding that it was his intention to portion them and
* Demosth., False Embassy, 426.
PEACE BETWEEN PHILIP AND THE ATHENIANS. 389
marry them reputably. A tumult of approbation burst forth
among the guests, and Philip, though Apollophanes had been
one of those who murdered his brother Alexander, moved
by the generosity of Satyrus and by regard for those present,
granted his request. Very different from the conduct of
Satyrus was that of the ambassadors of some Grecian re-
publics, who received as presents from Philip unfortunate
Olynthian women and children for slaves ! *
CHAPTER II.
PEACE BETWEEN PHILIP AND THE ATHENIANS. END OF THE
SACRED WAR. ATHENIAN STATESMEN. SIEGE OF PERIN-
THUS AND BYZANTIUM. AMPHISSIAN OR THIRD SACRED
WAR. BATTLE OF CHJERONEIA. DEATH OF PHILIP.
Philip and the Athenians were now equally anxious for
peace. The commerce of both suffered from each other's
privateers, for Philip now had shipping which had made
descents on Lemnos and Imbros, taken rich merchantmen
from Euboea, and even landed at Marathon, and carried off
the Salaminian trireme. His influence in Thebes, Eubcea,
Megara, and Peloponnesus caused the Athenians much ap-
prehension, for they found their embassies every where de-
feated by the orators whom his gold had purchased.
Some Eubcean ambassadors, coming to Athens to treat of
peace, stated that they were authorized by Philip to say that
* Demosth., False Embassy, 401. jEschines, as he was returning
from an embassy to Arcadia, met the Arcadian ambassadors with a
train of Olynthian women and children whom Philip had given them,
(Demosth., ibid. 439:) Philocrates brought Olynthian women to
Athens, (ibid. 440.) Yet Mitford says, " Support wholly fails among
the orators of the day for the report of the annalist of three centuries
after, that he plundered the town, and sold the inhabitants for slaves."
33*
390 HISTORY OF GREECE.
he also was desirous of peace.* Soon after, an Athenian
named Phrynon, being taken by one of Philip's cruisers
during the truce of the Olympic Games, (Ol. 108, 1,) and
being ransomed, requested the people to appoint him an
ambassador to Philip, that he might try to get back his
ransom. The people appointed him and Ctesiphon, (Ol.
108, 3 ; ) and the latter on his return speaking highly of
Philip, and his desire of peace, leave was granted, on the
motion of Philocrates, for Philip to send heralds and an
embassy to treat of peace. As there had been a decree
prohibiting all intercourse with Philip, Philocrates was
accused of a breach of law; but Demosthenes defended
him, and he was triumphantly acquitted.
Several Athenians had been made prisoners at Olynthus,
among whom were two persons named Stratocles and Eu-
crates, whose relatives implored the people to interfere in
their favor ; and Aristodemus, the player, was sent to Philip,
with whom he was a great favorite, for this purpose. Philip
released Stratocles at once without ransom, who on his
return declared that monarch's anxiety for peace, to which
Aristodemus added, that he even wished to become the ally
of the city. It was then decreed, on the motion of Philoc-
rates, that an embassy of ten persons should be sent to
Philip ; and Philocrates, Demosthenes, ^Eschines, and Aris-
todemus were among those appointed.
The chief objects proposed, besides the security of the
Athenian dominions, were to prevent Philip from interfering
in Euboaa, to save Kersobleptes, and to have the Phocians
included in the peace. The ambassadors were received
by Philip with the utmost courtesy; he was particularly
attentive to iEschines and Philocrates ; and if Demosthenes
is to be believed, (and there surely is no reason to doubt
him,) he secured their cooperation in his projects by
bribes.t He then dismissed them with the heads of a treaty
* All these transactions are related by jEschines, (False Embassy,
29, 30.)
t Demosthenes (False Embassy, 380) specifies the value of the lands
PEACE BETWEEN PHILIP AND THE ATHENIANS. 391
in which the Phocians were not included ; but iEschines
assured the people that Philip had told him in private that
he was obliged to keep measures with the Thebans, but that
his real intentions were to save the Phocians, and to force
the Thebans, as having been the real authors of the sacri-
lege, to make good the deficiency in the sacred treasures.
Meantime Philip pursued his conquests in Thrace ; and he
sent Parmenion, Antipater, and Eurylochus as his ministers
to Athens to conclude the peace ; his hirelings there being
pledged to forward his views as much as possible. Demos-
thenes himself, for the honor of his country, entertained
these ambassadors in a very splendid manner, and showed
them every attention while they staid. Peace and alliance
with Philip were concluded; and Demosthenes immediately
had a decree passed that Proxenus, who commanded a fleet
off Eubcea, should convey the ambassadors appointed to
receive Philip's ratification of the treaty (two of whom were
himself and iEschines) to wherever Philip might be at the
time; for he well knew that any conquests he might make
in the interval would be so much clear gain to him, as the
Athenians would never renew the war for the sake of them.
But the views of iEschines and his friends were different;
they were, to make as much delay as possible; they there-
fore would not take any short way ; they spent twenty-three
days going round by Thessaly, and then would stay at Pella
to wait for Philip ; thus giving him, in all, nearly three
months to prosecute his conquests; during which time he
forced Kersobleptes, who had taken refuge in the peninsula
of Mount Athos, to submit ; so that there could be now no
question othim in the treaty. He had also reduced Doris-
cus, Serrion, the Sacred Hill, and other places in Thrace,
which were now all resigned to him ; and when the author-
ity of the Athenians was acknowledged over the Chersonese,
in Phocis which Philip gave ^schines and Philocrates. iEschines, it
is true, retorts the charge ; but what credit can be given to the man who
(Ctes. 62, 63) accuses Demosthenes of having taken bribes from
Philip?
392 HISTORY OF GREECE.
the Cardians, as allies of Philip, were exempted from their
jurisdiction. Philip swore to the peace on these terms ; and
as he was now on the eve of marching against the Phocians,
he made JEschines and his friends detain the embassy some
time longer at Pella, lest the Athenians, being officially in-
formed of his intentions, should send troops to occupy
Pylae. On their return, when they appeared before the
senate, Demosthenes told the whole truth, and charged his
colleagues with their treachery; and his representations
had such effect, that the senate did not as usual give the
embassy their supper in the Prytaneion. But when they
came before the assembly, iEschines rose, and very pom-
pously assured the people that he had persuaded Philip to
do every thing that was for their advantage in the affair of
the Amphictyons, and in every thing else; and that if they
would only stay quietly at home for two or three days,
they would hear of Thebes being besieged, Thespise and
Platsea rebuilt, and the Thebans, not the Phocians, being
made to replace the treasures of the god; and that Philip
would give up Euboea to them. He had also arranged
something further, of which he would not now speak,
meaning Oropus. He ceased : Demosthenes then mounting,
the bc?na, began by declaring that all these things were
unknown to him ; and he was proceeding, when ^Eschines
stood up on one side, and Philocrates on the other, and
shouted at and mocked him ; the people then began to
laugh, and would not listen to him.*
While the Athenians were thus beguiled through their
desire of peace, Philip was on his march against the
Phocians. The war between them and the Boeotians had
still continued, with the advantage rather on the side of
the former, who held the towns of Orchomenus, Coroneia,
and Corsiae, in Bceotia. An accusation of having made
away with several articles of the sacred treasures, was made
against PhalaDCUs, and he was deprived of his command ;
* Deraosth., False Embassy, 346, 347, 389391.
END OF THE SACRED WAR. 393
three generals, Deinocrates, Callias, and Sophanes, were
appointed in his stead, and a strict inquiry into the dilapida-
tions was instituted. Philon, one of those principally con-
cerned, being put to the torture, gave information against
his accomplices; and after having been made to restore all
that remained of their plunder, they were put to death as
temple robbers. It appears that Phalsecus and his friends,
not content with what was remaining of the treasures of
Croesus and of the different states, had dug up the floor of
the temple, inferring from a passage of Homer * that a treas-
ure was buried there. We are told that when they began
to dig about the tripod, the ground was shaken by earth-
quakes, and they desisted in terror.
The Thebans, in want of both men and money, implored
the aid of the king of Macedonia, who sent them some
troops. The Phocians were soon obliged to restore the
chief command to Phalsecus, for he remained at the head of
the mercenaries, and had also a strong party among the peo-
ple ; but as the designs of Philip were now no secret, they
sent to the Athenians, offering to put into their hands the
three Locrian towns, Alponus, Thronion, and Nicaea, which
commanded the pass of Pylse, if they would come to their
aid. This was before the conclusion of the peace with
Philip ; and it was decreed at once that Proxenus should
sail with fifty triremes and take possession of these places,
and that all the citizens under thirty years of age should
march to Locris. But Phalsecus and his officers, who had
their own views, prevented this, and they abused and ill-
treated the ministers who had concluded the treaty with
Athens. As the danger became more imminent, King Ar-
chidamus, who had been sent with one thousand hoplites
to aid the Phocians, offered to garrison those fortresses ;
but Phalsecus and his party made an insolent reply, and the
Lacedaemonians left Phocis to its fate. Philip passed the
strait at the head of an army : Phalsecus, who lay at Nicaea
* II. ix. 404
X X
394 HISTORY OF GREECE.
with eight thousand men, feigned to be preparing to give
him battle; but he secretly negotiated, and at length de-
livered up the fortresses, on condition of himself and his
troops being allowed to pass over to Peloponnesus. The
wretched Phocians, who were now entirely at the mercy
of Philip, surrendered unconditionally. A council of Am-
phictyons was assembled, in which of course the deputies of
states adverse to them formed the majority. Philip, who
was never wantonly cruel, found it necessary to moderate
the violence of some of the more zealous, such as the
CEteans, who ferociously proposed that all the grown men
should be flung from a rock and killed. He, however, deemed
it prudent to give way to the Thebans and Thessalians, and
the following not very gentle decree was passed : The Pho-
cians were no longer to have any part in the temple or in the
Amphictyonic council, their two votes in which were to be
given to the king of Macedonia and his posterity; their
towns were to be destroyed, and the inhabitants divided into
villages of not more than fifty houses each, and not less
than a stadion asunder : they were to pay sixty talents a
year to the god, till the whole of the treasure was replaced,
and till that was done they were to have neither horses nor
armor ; those which they had at present were to be given
up; the former to be sold, the latter to be broken and burnt.
The Lacedaemonians, as abettors of the sacrilege, were to be
excluded from the council, and the Corinthians to lose the
presidence of the Pythian games, which, with the right of
promanty, was awarded to the pious king of Macedonia.
Philip carried the decree of the Amphictyons into execution,
and laid Phocis waste. He offered an asylum in his domin-
ions to the wretched inhabitants, and peopled with them
some of the towns which he founded in Thrace.
The Sacred War, excited by the malice and cupidity of
the Thebans, thus terminated in the ruin of an innocent
people; for surely the Phocians are not chargeable with
the guilt of their leaders. It was in every way injurious to
Greece; it carried to the height the ruinous practice of
ATHENIAN STATESMEN. 395
mercenary service ; and it utterly destroyed the remaining
reverence for religion, by scattering the votive offerings of
piety, and by inuring men to set at nought the anger of
the deities of popular belief. Historians have endeavored
to show, that all the aiders and abettors of the sacrilege
met with due chastisement : * Athens and Sparta, for in-
stance, lost their independence ; Archidamus was slain, aid-
ing the Tarentines, in Italy ; Phalsecus and several of his
men were killed by lightning, as they were making an at-
tempt on the town of Cydonia, in Crete ; the remainder
were slain, or sold for slaves, by the Arcadians and Eleians :
the woman who got the collar of Eriphyle perished in the
flames of a house, set fire to by her own son ; and she who
got that of Helena became a common harlot. Remarks of
this kind, however, are little to be heeded ; they indicate
the weakness of superstition, not the strength of rational
religion.
The Athenians alone can now be regarded as the rivals
of the king of Macedonia. A glance at the public men at
Athens will be therefore of advantage.f
Isocrates, the amiable, excellent old man, the master of
so many statesmen and historians, was still alive. Born
five years before the Peloponnesian War, he had been the
witness of all the intestine tumults and divisions of Greece,
for which he saw no remedy but a general confederacy,
headed by the king of Macedonia, against the Persians.
But he was a sincere patriot, and never dreamed of sacri-
ficing the independence of Athens.
The worthy (/grjaTdg) Phocion, plain and simple in man-
ners, pure in life, viewed with disgust and contempt the
* Diodor. xvi. 61 64.
t Our views of some of these characters will be found to differ widely
from those of Mitford. We are conscious of no prejudice, and that
writer's are well known. It is to be observed, that Mitford has not a
single follower on the Continent ; and, if names are to decide, that of
Niebuhr is beyond his. Mitford makes Demosthenes almost worse
than Cleon, Niebuhr terms him a (political) saint.
396 HISTORY OF GREECE.
sunken condition of the Athenian character. He was there-
fore opposed to war, from which he anticipated no sub-
stantial advantages to his country ; but, like the aristocrats
of the preceding period, though he disapproved of her poli-
tics, he never refused her his services, and he was chosen
general not less than forty-five times by the people, who
knew his worth. Had Phocion been more mild and con-
descending, his virtues would probably have been more pro-
ductive of good to the state.
Demosthenes, whose imagination was filled with the
glory and power of Athens at the time when Macedonia
was as nought in the political scale, could not brook the
idea of tamely yielding up the supremacy which she had
nearly regained. He was fully aware of the degeneracy of
the Athenians ; but he relied on his own mighty powers to
raise them to a level with himself, and he did achieve won-
ders, but the evil was beyond cure. His policy, therefore,
though generous, was ill-judged ; but the lover of national
independence must always view his character with respect
and veneration.
Lycurgus, a second Aristeides, felt, and thought, and acted
with Demosthenes. Hypereides, Polyeuctes, Diophantus,
Hegesippus, and others, all men of talent, were on the same
side. As political parties never can be altogether pure, this
one was disgraced by the unworthy Timarchus.
Against these patriots were arrayed the hirelings of
Philip, at the head of whom was iEschines, a man of con-
siderable talent, and, in general, respectable in character.
He had been, as he boasted, the first to see through the de-
signs of Philip, and had exerted himself to thwart them ; *
but, on the occasion of his first embassy to Macedonia, that
able prince found means to purchase his services, and he
was to the last the ready agent of his will. Eubulus, also
a man of talent, was purchased in like manner when on an
embassy. Philocrates made no secret of his having sold
* Demosth., False Embassy, 438.
ATHENIAN STATESMEN. 397
himself. Demades, originally a boatman, without regular
education, but powerful as an extemporary speaker, whose
extravagance, it was said, would have wasted even the reve-
nues of Persia, was naturally in the pay of Philip. These
were the chief, but several of inferior note actively co-
operated with them.
But Philip had a more powerful ally in the character of
the Athenian people, who thought only of enjoyment, and
shrank from the toils of war. The lower orders were un-
willing to serve personally, and the rich were adverse to
giving their money to hire mercenaries; and these, when
hired, were not to be depended on. Phocion and Diopeithes
were brave and upright officers ; but the swaggering, worth-
less Chares was the favorite of the people, and was but too
often preferred to them. The faithless, mercenary Chari-
demus was also frequently employed on expeditions of im-
portance.
With Philip every thing was different. He could form
his plans in secret, having no popular assembly to persuade ;
he had money in abundance; he had a standing army of
mercenaries and of his own subjects, for he had now formed
the renowned Macedonian phalanx, a body of greater depth
and with longer spears then any that had yet been em-
ployed : he had able generals and ministers ; above all, he was
himself one of the first generals and statesmen of the age.
To form and consolidate an empire northwards of Greece,
to exercise the hegemony over Greece itself, and to lead a
combined army of Greeks and Macedonians to the conquest
of Persia, were the objects that guided his policy. There
is no reason for supposing that he ever aimed at making
Greece a province of his empire.
Having thus shown the policy of Philip and his opponents,
we are freed from the necessity of giving the events of the
three next years in detail, and shall only briefly point them
out.
The year after the end of the Phocian war (Ol. 108, 4)
Philip spent chiefly in Thrace, founding towns, in which he
34
393 HISTORY OF GREECE.
placed the Phocians and other Greeks. He then turned his
arms against the Illyrians, to secure his dominions on that
side. Soon afterwards, (Ol. 109, 1,) he remodelled Thessaly,
so as to put the power there completely into the hands of his
own friends ; he divided it into its four original provinces,
Phthiotis, Histiaeotis, Pelasgiotis, and Thessaliotis. Mean-
time he made himself master of Leucas and Ambracia on
the Ionian Sea, and he formed alliances with the Argives,
Messenians, Arcadians, and Eleians in Peloponnesus.
Eubcea chiefly attracted his attention, on account of its
proximity to Attica. The Eretrians, after the expulsion of
Plutarchus, were split into two parties, one for Athens,
another for Philip. The latter got the upper hand, and
Philip sent thither one thousand mercenaries, and placed the
chief power in the hands of Hipparchus, Automedon, and
Cleitarchus, who were devoted to him. He acted in the
same manner at Oreos, where he set up Philistides, and thus
established his influence over the whole island.
Philip again (Ol. 109, 3) led his troops into Thrace, and
extended his conquests as far as the Ister, where he spent
an entire winter. But the Chersonese and the cities on the
Propontis were what he really aimed at. He sent troops
to the aid of the Cardians, who were hard pressed by the
Athenians. Diopeithes, whom the Athenians had sent out,
took satisfaction for this by an incursion into Thrace ; and,
when Philip complained, as usual, they, by the advice of
Demosthenes, paid no attention to his representations. The
orator himself went to the coast of Thrace, on the part of
his country, and formed an alliance with the people of By-
zantion, Perinthus, Selymbria, and some of the petty princes
about there; and soon after, the people of Eubcea having
solicited aid against their tyrants, an army, commanded by
Phocion, who was accompanied by Demosthenes, passed
over and restored them to liberty.
Philip, who was now returned from beyond Mount
Haemus, came and laid siege to Selymbria; and leaving
some troops to blockade it, he advanced with 30,000 men,
SIEGE OF PERINTHUS. 399
and sat down before Perinthus. (01. 110, 1.) He assailed
the town incessantly with battering-rams and machines of
every kind : the Perinthians made a gallant defence ; the
Byzantians sent them supplies of arms ; and the Persian
satraps of the opposite coast, aware of Philip's ulterior de-
signs, sent them money, corn, arms, and a good body of
mercenaries. Philip, having long assailed Perinthus in vain,
divided his forces ; and leaving one half at Perinthus, went
himself with the remainder, and laid siege to Byzantion.
But this city being, like Perinthus, built on a peninsula,
was easy to defend ; and the Athenians, at length fully
aware of the designs of Philip, resolved to aid it.
Demosthenes had, with difficulty, gained the advantage
over the Macedonian hirelings in the Athenian assembly ;
and he now showed so plainly the consequences of Philip's
becoming master of the Bosporus, that it was voted that
Philip had broken the peace, and a fleet of one hundred and
twenty triremes was got ready for the relief of Byzantion.
But the command was given to the unprincipled Chares,
whose character was so notorious that the Byzantians would
not admit him into their harbor. It was then transferred
to Phocion, and him they cheerfully received into their
town. The Chians, Coans, and Rhodians sent assistance to
their ancient allies ; and Philip was at length obliged to