A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

DEMOSTHENES.
be sent to the king was discussed in the asseinbly,
B. c. 344, to place in his second Philippic the proceedings and designs of the king and his Athenian friends in their true light. The answer which
the Athenians sent to Philip was probably not
very satisfactory to him, for he immediately sent
another embassy to Athens, headed by Python,
with proposals for a modification of the late,peace,
although he subsequently denied having given to
Python any authority for such proposals. (Dem.
de Halones. p. 81.)
Philip had for some time been engaged in
the formation of a navy, and the apprehensions
which the Athenians entertained on that score
were but too soon justified; for no sooner were
his preparations completed, than he took possession
of the island of Halonesus, which belonged to
Athens. The Athenians sent an embassy to claim.
the island back; but Philip, who had found it in
the hands of pirates, denied that the Athenians
had any right to claim it, but at the same time he
offered to make them a present of the island, if
they would receive it as such. On the return of
the ambassadors to Athens in B. c. 343, the oration
on Halonesus (r-epi 'AXov<aeov) was delivered. It
is usually printed among the orations of Demosthenes, but belongs in all probability to Hegesippus. This and other similar acts of aggression,
which at length opened the eyes of the Athenians,
roused them once more to vigorous and energetic
measures, in spite of the efforts of the Macedonian
party to keep the people quiet. Embassies were
sent to Acarnania and Peloponnesus to counteract
Philip's schemes in those quarters (Dem. Phil. iii.
p. 129), and his expedition into Thrace, by which
the Chersonesus was threatened, called forth an
energetic demonstration of the Athenians under
Diopeithes. The complaints which Philip then
made roused Demosthenes, in B. c. 342, to his
powerful oration Wrepi TrCV ie Xeppo3iVqf, and to
his third Philippic, in which he describes the
king's faithlessness in the most glaring colours,
and exhorts his countrymen to unite and resist
the treacherous aggressor. Soon after this, the tyrants whom Philip had established in Euboea were
expelled through the influence and assistance of
Demosthenes (Dem. de Coron. p. 254); but it was
not till B. c. 341, when Philip laid siege to Perinthus and attacked Byzantium, that the long-suppressed indignation of the Athenians burst forth.
The peace with Philip was now declared violated
(n. c. 340); a fleet was sent to relieve Byzantium
(Plut. Phoc. 14), and Philip was compelled to
withdraw without having accomplished anything.
Demosthenes was the soul of all these energetic
measures. He had proposed, as early as the Olynthian war, to apply the theoricon to defray the
expenses of the military undertakings of Athens
(Dem. Olynth. iii. p. 31); but it was not till Philip's attack upon Byzantium that he succeeded in
carrying a decree to this effect. (Dionys. Ep. ad
Anmm. i. 11.) By his law concerning the trierarchy
(Yo'leos rpiqpapXuPcKs), he further regulated the
symmoriae on a new and more equitable footing.
(Dem. de Coron. p. 260, &c.) He thus at once
gave a fresh impulse to the maritime power and
enterprise of Athens, B. c. 340.
Philip now assumed the appearance of giving
himself no further concern about the affairs of
Greece. He carried on war with his northern
neighbours, and left it to his hirelings to prepare

DEMOSTHENES. 985
the last stroke at the independence of Greece. He
calculated well; for when in the spring of B. c, 340
the Amphictyons assembled at Delphi, Aeschines,
who was present as pylagoras, effected a decree
against the Locrians of Amphissa for having unlawfully occupied a district of sacred land. The
Amphissaeans rose against this decree, and the
Amphictyons summoned an extraordinary meeting
to deliberate on the punishment to be inflicted
upon Amphissa. Demosthenes foresaw and foretold the unfortunate consequences of a war of the
Amphictyons, and he succeeded at least in persuading the Athenians not to send any deputies to that
extraordinary meeting. (Dem. de Coron. p. 275;
Aeschin. c. COtesips. ~ 125, &c.) The Amphictyons
however decreed war against Amphissa, and the
command of the Amphictyonic army was given to
Cottyphus, an Arcadian; but the expedition failed
from want of spirit and energy among those who
took part in it. (Dem. de Coron. p. 277.) The
consequence was, that in B. c. 339, at the next
ordinary meeting of the Amphictyons, king Philip
was appointed chief commander of the Amphictyonic army. This was the very thing which he had
been looking for. With the appearance of justice
on his side, he now had an opportunity of establishing himself with an armed force in the very heart of
Greece. He set out without delay, and when the
Athenians received the news of his having taken
possession of Elatea, they were thrown into the
deepest consternation. Demosthenes alone did not
give up all hopes, and he once more roused his
countrymen by bringing about an alliance between
Athens and Thebes. The Thebans had formerly
been favoured by Philip, but his subsequent neglect of them had effaced the recollection of it;
and they now clearly saw that the fall of Athens
would inevitably be followed by their own ruin.
They had before opposed the war of the Amphictyons, and when Philip now called upon them to
allow his army to march through their territory or
to join him in his expedition against Athens, they
indignantly rejected all his handsome proposals,
and threw themselves into the open arms of the
Athenians. (Dem. de Coron. p. 299, &c.) This
was the last grand effort against the growing power
of Macedonia; but the battle of Chaeroneia, on
the 7th of Metageitnion, B. c. 338, put an end to
the independence of Greece. Thebes paid dearly
for its resistance, and Athens, which expected a
similar fate, resolved at least to perish in a glorious
struggle. The most prodigious efforts were made
to meet the enemy; but Philip unexpectedly offered
to conclude peace on tolerable terms, which it
would have been madness to reject, for Athens
thus had an opportunity of at least securing its
existence and a shadow of its former independence.
The period which now followed could not be
otherwise than painful and gloomy to Demosthenes,
for the evil might have been averted had his advice been followed in time. The catastrophe of
Chaeroneia might indeed to some extent be regarded as his work; but the people were too generous and too well convinced of the purity of his
intentions, as well as of the necessity of acting as he
had acted, to make him responsible for the unfortunate consequences of the war with Philip. It
was, on the contrary, one of the most glorious
acknowledgments of his merits that he could have
received, that he was requested to deliver the funeral oration upon those who had fallen at Chaero