deed Chares, as we have already observed, was a general without valour or military knowledge. His whole merit consisted in having gained a great ascendant over the people by the haughty and bold air which he assumed. His presumption concealed his incapacity from himself; and a sordid principle of avarice made him commit as many blunders as enterprises.

A. M. 3665. The people, struck with this discourse, immediately Ant. J. C. 339. changed their opinion, and appointed Phocion himself to command a body of fresh troops, in order to succour the allies upon the Hellespont. This choice contributed more than any thing to the preservation of Byzantium. Phocion had already acquired great reputation, not only for his valour and ability in the art of war, but still more for his probity and disinterestedness. The Byzantines, on his arrival, opened their gates to him with joy, and lodged his soldiers in their houses, as if they had been their own brothers and children. The Athenian officers and soldiers, struck with the confidence reposed in them, behaved with the utmost prudence and modesty, and were entirely irreproachable in their conduct. Nor were they less admired for their courage; and in all the attacks they sustained, discovered the utmost intrepidity, which seemed to be animated by the sight of danger. Phocion's prudence,* seconded by the bravery of his troops, soon forced Philip to abandon his design upon Byzantium and Parinthus. This very much diminished his fame and glory; for he hitherto had been thought invincible, and nothing had been able to oppose him. Phocion took some of his ships, recovered many fortresses which he had garrisoned; and having made several descents upon different parts of his territories, he plundered all the open country, till a body of forces having assembled to check his progress, he was obliged to retire, after having been wounded.

The Byzantines and Perinthians testified their gratitude to the people of Athens by a very honourable decree,† preserved by Demosthenes in one of his orations, the substance of which I shall repeat here. Under Bosphoricus the Pontiff, Damagetus, after having desired leave of the senale to speak, said, in a full assembly: Inasmuch as in times past the constant good will of the people of Athens towards the Byzantines and Perinthians, united by alliance and a common origin, has never failed upon any occasion; as this good will, so often signalized, has lately displayed itself, when Philip of Macedon (who had taken up arms to destroy Byzantium and Perinthus) battered our walls, burnt our country, cut down our forests; as in a season of so great calamity this beneficent people has succoured us with a fleet of 120 sail, furnished with provisions, arms, and forces; as they have saved us from the greatest danger; in fine, as they have restored us to the quiet possession of our government, our laws, and our tombs: the Byzantines and Perinthians, by a decree, grant to the Diod. 1. xvi. p. 468. ↑ Demosth. pro Ctes. p. 487, 488.

He probably was the chief magistrate.

Athenians liberty to settle in the countries belonging to Perinthus and Byzantium; to marry in them, to purchase lands, and to enjoy all the prerogatives of citizens: they also grant them a distinguished place at public shows, and the right of sitting both in the senate and the assembly of the people, next to the pontiffs: and farther, that every Athenian, who shall think proper to settle in either of the two cities above mentioned, shall be exempted from taxes of any kind: that, in the harbour, three statues of sixteen cubits each shall be set up, which statues shall represent the people of Athens crowned by those of Byzantium and Perinthus: and, besides, that presents shall be sent to the four solemn games of Greece; and that the crown we have decreed to the Athenians shall there be proclaimed: so that the same ceremony may acquaint all the Greeks, both with the magnanimity of the Athenians, and the gratitude of the Perinthians and Byzantines.

The inhabitants of the Chersonesus made a like decree, the tenor of which is as follows: Among the nations inhabiting the Chersonesus, the people of Sestos, of Eleontum, of Madytis, and of Alopeconnesus, decree to the people and senate of Athens a crown of gold of sixty talents, and erect two altars, the one to the goddess of gratitude, and the other to the Athenians, for their having, by the most glorious of all benefactions, freed from the yoke of Philip the people of the Chersonesus, and restored them to the possession of their country, their laws, their liberty, and their temples: an act of beneficence which they will fix eternally in their memories, and never cease to acknowledge to the utmost of their power. All which they have resolved in full senate.

Philip, after having been forced to raise the siege of Byzantium, marched against Atheas, king of Scythia, from whom he had received some personal cause of discontent, and took his son with him in this expedition. Though the Scythians had a very numerous army, he defeated them without any difficulty. He got a very great booty, which consisted not in gold or silver, the use and value of which the Scythians were not as yet so unhappy as to know; but in cattle, in horses, and a great number of women and children.

At his return from Scythia, the Triballi, a people of Mosia, disputed his passage, laying claim to part of the plunder he was carrying off. Philip was forced to come to a battle; and a very bloody one was fought, in which great numbers on each side were killed on the spot. The king himself was wounded in the thigh, and with the same thrust had his horse killed under him. Alexander flew to his father's aid; and, covering him with his shield, killed or put to flight all who attacked him.

* Sixty thousand French crowns.
2 D

VOL. IV.

† Justin. 1. ix. c. 2, 3.

SECTION VI.

Philip, by his intrigues, succeeds in getting himself appointed generalissimo of the Greeks, in the council of the Amphictyons. He possesses himself of Elatea. The Athenians and Thebans, alarmed by the conquest of this city, unite against Philip. He makes overtures of peace, which, upon the remonstrances of Demosthenes, are rejected. A battle is fought at Charonæa, where Philip gains a signal victory. Demosthenes is accused and brought to a trial by schines. The latter is banished, and goes to Rhodes.

The Athenians had considered the siege of Byzantium as an absolute rupture, and an open declaration of war. The king of MaceA. M. 3666. don, who was apprehensive of the consequences of it, Ant. J. C. 338. and dreaded very much the power of the Athenians, whose hatred he had drawn upon himself, made overtures of peace, in order to soften their resentments. Phocion, little suspicious, and apprehensive of the uncertainty of the events of war, was of opinion that the Athenians should accept his offers. But Demosthenes, who had studied the genius and character of Philip more than Phocion, and was persuaded that, according to his usual custom, his only view was to amuse and impose upon the Athenians, prevented their listening to his pacific proposals.

It was very much the interest of this prince to terminate immediately a war,† which gave him great cause of disquiet, and particularly distressed him by the frequent depredations of the Athenian privateers, who infested the sea bordering upon his dominions. They entirely interrupted all commerce, and prevented his subjects from exporting any of the products of Macedonia into other countries, or foreigners from importing into his kingdom the merchandise it wanted. Philip was sensible that it would be impossible for him to put an end to this war, and free himself from the inconveniences attending it, otherwise than by exciting the Thessalians and Thebans against Athens. He could not yet attack that city with any advantage, either by sea or land. His naval forces were at this time inferior to those of that republic; and the passage by land to Attica would be shut against him, as long as the Thessalians should refuse to join him, and the Thebans should oppose his passage. If, with the view of prompting them to declare war against Athens, he were to ascribe no other motive for it than his private enmity, he was very sensible that it would have no effect with either of the states; but that in case he could once prevail with them to appoint him their chief (upon the specious pretence of espousing their common cause,) he then hoped it would be easier for him to make them acquiesce in his desires, either by persuasion or deceit.

This was his aim; the smallest traces of which it highly concerned him to conceal, in order not to give the least opportunity for any one to suspect the design he meditated. In every city he retained pensioners who sent him notice of whatever passed, and by

*Plutarch. in Phoc. p. 748.

† Demost. pro Ctes. p. 497, 498.

that means were of great use to him, and were accordingly well paid. By their machinations he raised divisions among the Locri Ozolæ, otherwise called the Locrians of Amphissa, from the name of their capital city: their country was situated between Etolia and Phocis; and they were accused of having profaned a spot of sacred ground, by ploughing up the Cyrrhean field, which lay very near the temple of Delphi. The reader has seen that a similar cause of complaint occasioned the first sacred war. The affair was to be heard before the Amphictyons. Had Philip employed in his own favour any known or suspicious agent, he plainly saw that the Thebans and the Thessalians would infalliby suspect his design; in which case, all parties would not fail to stand upon their guard.

But Philip acted more artfully, by carrying on his designs by persons in the dark, which entirely prevented their being discovered. By the assiduity of his pensioners in Athens, he had caused Eschines, who was entirely devoted to him, to be appointed one of the Pylagori, by which name those were called who were sent by the several Greek cities to the assembly of the Amphictyons. The instant he came into it, he acted the more effectually in favour of Philip, as, from being a citizen of Athens, which had declared openly against this prince, he was less suspected. Upon his remonstrances, a visit to the place was appointed, in order to inspect the spot of ground, of which the Amphissians had hitherto been considered the lawful possessors, but which they now were accused of usurping by a most sacrilegious act.

Whilst the Amphictyons were visiting the spot of ground in question, the Locrians fall upon them unawares, pour in a shower of darts, and oblige them to fly. So open an outrage kindled the flames of resentment and war against these Locrians. Cottyphus, one of the Amphictyons, took the field with the army intended to punish the rebels; but many not coming to the rendezvous, the army retired without acting. In the following assembly of the Amphictyons, the affair was debated very seriously. It was there that the orators previously bribed by Philip exerted all their eloquence, and, by a studied oration, proved to the deputies, that they must either assess themselves to support foreign soldiers and punish the rebels, or else elect Philip for their general. The deputies, to save their respective states the expense, and secure them from the dangers and fatigues of a war, resolved upon the latter. Upon which, by a public decree, ambassadors were sent to Philip of Macedon, who, in the name of Apollo and the Amphictyons, implore his assistance, beseech him not to neglect the cause of that god which the impious Amphissians make their sport; and notify to him, that for this purpose all the Greeks, associated in the council of the Amphictyons, elect him for their general, with full power to act as he shall think proper

This was the honour to which Philip had long aspired; the aim of all his views, and end of all the engines he had set at work till

that time. He therefore did not lose a moment, but immediately assembles his forces; and feigning to direct his march towards the Cyrrhean field, forgetting now both the Cyrrheans and Locrians who had only served as a specious pretext for his journey, and for whom he had not the least regard; he possessed himself of Elatea, the greatest city in Phocis, standing on the river Cephissus, and the most happily situated for the design he meditated, of awing the Thebans, who now began to open their eyes, and to perceive the danger they were in.

This news being brought to Athens in the evening,* spread terror through every part of the city. The next morning an assembly was summoned, when the herald, as was the usual custom, cries with a loud voice, Who among you will ascend the tribunal? However, no person appears for that purpose: upon which he repeated the invitation several times: but still no one rose up, though all the generals and orators were present; and although the common voice of the country, with repeated cries, conjured somebody to propose some salutary counsel: For, says Demosthenes (from whom these particulars are taken,) whenever the voice of the herald speaks in the name of the laws, it ought to be considered as the voice of the country. During this general silence, occasioned by the universal alarm with which the minds of the Athenians were seized, Demosthenes, animated at the sight of the great danger his fellow-citizens were in, ascends the tribunal, and endeavours to revive the spirits of the drooping Athenians, and inspire them with sentiments suitable to the present conjuncture and the necessities of the state. Excelling equally in politics and eloquence, by the extent of his superior genius, he immediately suggests a plan which includes all that was necessary for the Athenians to perform both at home and abroad, by land as well as by sea.

The people of Athens were under a double error with regard to the Thebans, and he therefore endeavours to undeceive them. They imagined that people were inviolably attached, both from interest and inclination, to Philip; but he proves to them, that the majority of the Thebans waited only an opportunity to declare against that monarch, and that the conquest of Elatea has apprized them of what they are to expect from him. On the other side, they looked upon the Thebans as their most ancient and most dangerous enemies, and therefore could not prevail with themselves to afford them the least aid in the extreme danger with which they were threatened. It must be confessed, that there had always been a declared enmity between the Thebans and Athenians, which rose so high that Pindar was sentenced by the Thebans to pay a considerable fine for having applauded the city of Athens in one of his poems.† Demosthenes, notwithstanding that prejudice had taken such deep root in *Demost. pro Ctes. p. 501-504. Diod. lib. xvi. p 477.

He had called Athens a flourishing and renowned city, the bulwark of Greece. Δίπαραι καὶ ἀοιδιμαι, Ελλαδος ἔρεισμα, κλειναὶ ̓Αθῆναι, But the Athe