induced the Athenians to prosecute the war with a little more energy.

In 350 B.C., Philip having captured a town in Chalcidicé, Olynthus began to tremble for her own safety, and sent envoys to Athens to crave assistance. Olynthus was still at the head of thirty-two Greek towns, and the confederacy was a sort of counterpoise to the power of Philip. It was on this occasion that Demosthenes delivered his three Olynthaic orations, in which he warmly advocated an alliance with Olynthus.

§ 14. Demosthenes was opposed by a strong party, with which Phocion commonly acted. Phocion is one of the most singular and original characters in Grecian history. Naturally simple, upright, and benevolent, his manners were nevertheless often rendered repulsive by a tinge of misanthropy and cynicism. He viewed the multitude and their affairs with a scorn which he was at no pains to disguise; receiving their anger with indifference, and their praises with contempt. When a response from Delphi announced to the Athenians that though they were themselves unanimous, there was one man who dissented from them, Phocion stepped forwards, and said: "Do not trouble yourselves to seek for this refractory citizen;—I am he, and I like nothing that you do." On another occasion, when one of his speeches was received with general applause, he turned round to his friends, and inquired, "Have I said anything bad ?" Phocion's whole art of oratory consisted in condensing his speeches into the smallest possible compass, without any attention to the smoothness of his periods, or the grace of his language. Yet their terse and homely vigour was often heightened by a sort of dry humour, which produced more effect than the most studied efforts of oratory. "What, at your meditations, Phocion?" inquired a friend, who perceived him wrapt up in thought.— “Yes,” he replied, "I am considering whether I can shorten what I have to say to the Athenians." His known probity also gave him weight with the assembly. He was the only statesman of whom Demosthenes stood in awe; who was accustomed to say when Phocion rose, "Here comes the pruner of my periods." But Phocion's desponding views, and his mistrust of the Athenian people, made him an ill statesman at a period which demanded the most active patriotism. He doubtless injured his country by contributing to check the more enlarged and patriotic views of Demosthenes; and though his own conduct was pure and disinterested, he unintentionally threw his weight on the side of those who, like Demades and others, were actuated by the basest motives. This division of opinion rendered the operations of the Athenians for the aid of the Olyn

thians languid and desultory. Town after town of the confederacy fell before Philip; and in B.C. 348, or early in 347, he laid siege to Olynthus itself. The city was vigorously defended; but Philip at length gained admission through the treachery of Lasthenes and Euthycrates, two of the leading men, when he razed it to the ground and sold the inhabitants into slavery. The whole of the Chalcidian peninsula thus became a Macedonian province. Philip celebrated his triumph at Dium, a town on the borders of Thessaly; where, on the occasion of a festival to the Muses, instituted by Archelaus, he amused the people with banquets, games, and theatrical entertainments.

§ 15. The prospects of Athens now became alarming. Her possessions in the Chersonese were threatened, as well as the freedom of the Greek towns upon the Hellespont. At this juncture Demosthenes endeavoured to persuade the Athenians to organize a confederacy among the Grecian states for the purpose of arresting a power which seemed to threaten the liberty of all; and in this he was seconded by some of those politicians who usually opposed him. But though steps were taken towards this object, the attempt entirely failed. The attention of the Athenians was next directed towards a reconciliation with Thebes. The progress of the sacred war, to which we must now briefly revert, seemed favourable to such a project. After the death of Onomarchus, his brother Phayllus had assumed the command of the Phocians; and as the sacred treasure was still unexhausted he succeeded in obtaining large reinforcements of troops. The Spartans sent 1000 men; the Achæans 2000; the Athenians 5000 foot and 400 horse under Nausicles. With these forces Phayllus undertook a successful invasion of Boeotia; and afterwards attacked the Epicnemidian Locrians, and took all their towns except Naryæ. But in the course of the year Phayllus died, and was succeeded in the conduct of the war by Mnaseas, guardian of Phalacus, the youthful son of Onomarchus. Mnaseas, however, was soon slain, and Phalacus himself then assumed the command. Under him the war was continued between the Phocians and Thebans, but without any decisive success on either side. The treasures of Delphi were nearly exhausted, and on the other hand the war was becoming every year more and more burthensome to the Thebans. It was at this juncture that the Athenians, as before hinted, were contemplating a peace with Thebes; nor did it seem improbable that one might be concluded not only between those two cities, but among the Grecian states generally. It seems to have been this aspect of affairs that induced Philip to make several indirect overtures to the Athenians in the summer of B.C. 347. In spite of subsidies from

Delphi the war had been very onerous to them, and they received these advances with joy, yet not without suspicion, as they were quite unable to divine Philip's motives for making them. On the motion of Philocrates, however, it was decreed that ten ambassadors should be despatched to Philip's court. Philocrates himself was at the head of them, and among the rest were the rival orators, Demosthenes and Æschines, and the actor Aristodēmus. We have, however, no particulars on which we can rely respecting this embassy. All that we can gather respecting it is from the personal recriminations of Demosthenes and Æschines, and we can only infer on the whole that it was a miserable failure. Philip seems to have bribed some of the ambassadors, and to have cajoled the rest by his hospitable banquets and his winning and condescending manners. Nothing decisive was done respecting Amphipolis or the Phocians; and as far as we can learn the whole fruits of the embassy were some vague promises on the part of Philip to respect the Athenian possessions in Thrace. Soon after the return of Philocrates and his colleagues, Antipater, Parmenio, and Eurylochus, three of Philip's most distinguished generals and statesmen, came on a mission to Athens, where they were entertained by Demosthenes. The basis of a treaty of peace and alliance seems now to have been arranged, in which Philip dictated his own terms. Another embassy, consisting probably of the former ten, was appointed to procure the ratification of this treaty by Philip; and on the news that he was invading the dominions of Cersobleptes, they were directed to hasten their departure, and to seek that monarch in whatever quarter he might be. With this view they proceeded to the port of Oreus in Eubœa; but instead of following the advice of Demosthenes, and embarking for the Hellespont, which they might have reached in two or three days, they wasted some time at that place, and then proceeded by a circuitous route to Pella: hence they did not reach that city till upwards of three weeks after quitting Athens. Here they met ambassadors from other states concerned in the progress of the sacred war, as Thebes, Phocis, Sparta, and Thessaly; but Philip was still in Thrace, and they had to wait a month for his return. Even when he arrived at Pella, he delayed the final ratification of the treaty, and per suaded the ambassadors to accompany him on his march to Pheræ in Thessaly, under pretence that he desired their mediation between the Pharsalians and Halus; though his real motive undoubtedly was to gain time for invading Phocis. He at length swore to the treaty in Pheræ ; but the Phocians were expressly excluded from it.

§ 16. Scarcely had the Athenian ambassadors returned home

when Philip began his march towards Thermopyla. Demosthenes, on his return, protested against the acts of his colleagues, and his representations had such an effect, that the ambassadors were not honoured with the usual vote of thanks. The main charge which he brought against his colleagues, and against Eschines in particular, was that of having deluded the people with false hopes respecting Philip's views towards Athens. But the opposite party had possession of the popular ear. Not only was nothing done for the Phocians, but a decree was even passed to convey the thanks of Athens to Philip, and to declare that unless Delphi was delivered up by the Phocians to the Amphictyons, the Athenians would help to enforce that step. The ambassadors were again directed to carry this decree to Philip; but Demosthenes was so disgusted with it that he refused to go, and Eschines also declined on the plea of ill-health.

The Phocians now lay at the mercy of Philip. As soon as the king had passed the straits of Thermopyla, Phalacus secured his own safety by concluding a treaty with Philip, by which he was permitted to retire into the Peloponnesus with 8000 mercenaries. When Philip entered Phocis all its towns surrendered unconditionally at his approach. Philip then occupied Delphi, where he assembled the Amphictyons to pronounce sentence upon those who had been concerned in the sacrilege committed there. The council decreed that all the cities of Phocis, except Abæ, should be destroyed, and their inhabitants scattered into villages containing not more than fifty houses each; and that they should replace by yearly payments the treasures of the temple estimated at the enormous sum of 10,000 talents, or nearly two millions and a half sterling. Sparta was deprived of her share in the Amphictyonic privileges; the two votes in the Council possessed by the Phocians were transferred to the kings of Macedonia; and Philip was to share with the Thebans and Thessalians the honour of presiding at the Pythian games. These were no slight privileges gained by Philip. A seat in the Amphictyonic council recognized him at once as a Grecian power, and would afford him occasion to interfere in the affairs of Greece. Thebes recovered the places which she had Such was the termination of the Sacred

lost in Boeotia.

War (B.C. 346).

§ 1. Results of the Sacred War. § 2. Macedonian embassy to Athens. Second Philippic. §3. Philip's expedition into Thrace. § 4. Third Philippic. Progress of Philip. Siege of Perinthus. § 5. Phocion's successes in Eubœa. § 6. Declaration of war between Athens and Macedon. Phocion compels Philip to evacuate the Chersonese. § 7. Charge of sacrilege against the Amphissians. §8. Philip appointed general by the Amphictyons to conduct the war against Amphissa. § 9. He seizes Elatea. League between Athens and Thebes. § 10. Battle of Charonea. § 11. Philip's extravagant joy for his victory. § 12. Congress at Corinth. Philip's progress through the Peloponnesus. § 13. Philip's domestic quarrels. § 14. Preparations for the Persian expedition. § 15. Assassination of Philip.

§ 1. THE result of the Sacred War rendered Macedon the leading state in Grece. Philip at once acquired by it military glory, a reputation for piety, and an accession of power. His ambitious designs were now too plain to be mistaken. The eyes of the blindest among the Athenians were at last opened; the promoters of the peace which had been concluded with Philip incurred the hatred and suspicion of the people; whilst on the other hand Demosthenes rose higher than ever in public favour. They showed their resentment against Philip by omitting to send their usual deputation to the Pythian games at which the Macedonian monarch presided.