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

984 DEMOSTHENES.
were tired of the war and unable to form a coalition against the king, had accepted the proposal.
Philocrates accordingly advised the Athenians to
commence negotiations and to send an embassy to
Philip. Demosthenes supported the plan, and
Philocrates, Aeschines, and Demosthenes were
among the ambassadors who went to the king.
The transactions with Philip are not quite clear,
though they must have referred to the Phocians
and Thebans also, for the Phocians were allied
with Athens, and the Athenian ambassadors probably demanded that the Phocians should be included in the treaty of peace and alliance between
Macedonia and Athens. But this was more than
Philip was inclined to agree to, since he had
already resolved upon the destruction of the Phocians. It is, therefore, very probable that he may
have quieted the ambassadors by vague promises,
and have declined to comply with their demand
under the pretext that he could not make a public
declaration in favour of the Phocians on account of
his relation to the Thessalians and Thebans. After
the return of the ambassadors to Athens, the peace
was discussed in two successive assemblies of the
people, and it was at length sanctioned and sworn
to by an oath to the king's ambassadors. Aeschines
censures Demosthenes for having hurried the conclusion of this peace so much, that the Athenians
did not even wait for the arrival of the deputies of
their allies, who had been invited, and the contradictory manner in which Demosthenes himself (de
Fals. Leg. p. 346, de Coron. p. 232) speaks of the
matter seems indeed to cast some suspicion upon
him; but the cause of Demosthenes's acting as he did
may have been the vague manner in which Philip
had expressed himself in regard to the Phocians. At
any rate, however, quick decision was absolutely
necessary, since Philip was in the meantime making
war upon Cersobleptes, a king of Thrace, and
since, in spite of his promises to spare the possessions of Athens in the Chersonesus, he might easily
have been tempted to stretch out his hands after
them: in order to prevent this, it was necessary that
Philip, as soon as possible, should take his oath to
the treaty of peace and alliance with Athens. It
was on this occasion that the treacherous designs of
Aeschines and his party became manifest, for notwithstanding the urgent admonitions of Demosthenes not to lose any time, the embassy to receive
the king's oath (ird rots 3pKcovs), of which both
Aeschines and Demosthenes were again members
(the statement in the article AESCHINES, p. 37,
that Demosthenes was not one of the ambassadors,
must be corrected: see Newman in the Classical
Mlseum, vol. i. p. 145), set out with a slowness
as if there had been no danger whatever, and instead of taking the shortest road to Macedonia by
sea, the ambassadors travelled by land. On their
arrival in Macedonia they quietly waited till Philip
returned from Thrace. Nearly three months passed
away in this manner, and when at length Philip
arrived, he deferred taking his oath until he had
completed his preparations against the Phocians.
Accompanied by the Athenian ambassadors, lie
then marched into Thessaly, and it was not till his
arrival at Pherae that he took his oath to the
treaty, from which he now excluded the Phocians.
When the ambassadors arrived at Athens, Demosthenes immediately and boldly denounced the
treachery of his colleagues in the embassy; but in
vain. Acschiniies succeeded in allayinsg the fears of

DEMOSTHENES.

the people, and persuaded them quietly to wait fir
the issue of the events. Philip in the meantime
passed Thermopylae, and the fate of Phocis was
decided without a blow. The king was now admitted as a member of the Amphictyonic league,
and the Athenians, who had allowed themselves to
act the part of mere spectators during those proceedings, were now unable to do anything, but still
they ventured to express their indignation at the
king's conduct by refusing their sanction to his
becoming a member of the Amphictyonic league.
The mischief, however, was done, and in order
to prevent still more serious consequences, Demosthenes, in B. c. 346, delivered his oration "on the
peace" (irepZ elpipVs), and the people gave way.
From this time forward the two political parties
are fully developed, and openly act against each
other; the party or rather the faction to which
Aeschines belonged, was bribed by Philip to oppose the true patriots, who were headed by Demosthenes. He was assisted in his great work by
such able men as Lycurgus, Hyperides, Polyeuctus,
Hegesippus, and others, and being supported by
his confidence in the good cause, he soon reached
the highest point in his career as a statesman and
orator. The basis of his power and influence was
the people's conviction of his incorruptible love of
justice and of his pure and enthusiastic love of his
country. This conviction manifested itself clearly
in the vengeance which the people took upon the
treacherous Philocrates. (Aeschin. e. Ctesiph. ~
79.) But this admiration and reverence for real
and virtuous greatness soon cooled, and it was in
vain that Demosthenes endeavoured to place the
other men who had betrayed their country to Philip in their embassy to him, in the same light as
Philocrates (Dem. de Fals. Leg. p. 376), for the
people were unwilling to sacrifice more than the
one man, whom the Macedonian party itself had
given up in order to save the rest. It was undoubtedly owing to the influence of this party that
Aeschines, when after a long delay he consented
to render an account of his conduct during the
embassy, B. c. 343, escaped punishment, notwithstanding the vehement attacks of Demosthenes in
the written oration 7repi rapasrpeo3elas. [AEsCHINES, p. 38.]
In the mean time Philip followed up his plans
for the reduction of Greece. With a view of drawing the Peloponnesians into his interests, he tried
to win the confidence of the Argives and Messenians, who were then perilled by Sparta; he even
sent them subsidies and threatened Sparta with an
attack. (D)em. I'hil. ii. p. 69.) Sparta did not
venture to offer any resistance, and the Athenians,
who were allied with Sparta, felt unable to do anything more than send ambassadors to Peloponnesus, among whom was Demosthenes, to draw the
Peloponnesians away from the Macedonian, and to
caution them against his intrigues. (Dem. P1iltp.
ii. p. 70, &c.) In consequence of these proceedings, ambassadors from Philip and the Peloponnesians met at Athens to complain of the Athenians
favouring the ambitious schemes of Sparta, which
aimed at suppressing the freedom of the peninsula,
and to demand an explanation of their conduct.
The Macedonian party at Athens, of course, supported those complaints; their endeavours to disguise Philip's real intentions and to represent them
to the people in a favourable light, afforded an
opportunity for Demosthcncs, when the answer to