ATHENS. 



S3 



Athens. 



Athens 

 again the 

 chief state 

 in Greece. 



First diffe- 

 rences with 

 Macedon. 

 A. C. 350. 



discovered and Frustrated ; but when the Athenians 

 demanded satisfaction, the influence of Agesilaus 

 screened the offender from punishment. Athens then 

 took up arms, and, while the Thebans were carrying 

 on the war by land, obtained important naval advan- 

 tages. Under the conduct of their distinguished 

 leaders, Chabrias and Timotheus, they repeatedly de- 

 feated the Lacedemonians, ravaged their coasts, and 

 re-established their own influence over the maritime 

 states. After, however, the battle of Leuctra had 

 raised Thebes to the highest pitch of power, and re- 

 duced her rival tu the utmost distress, the Athenians, 

 jealous of this new influence, began to slacken their 

 efforts, and at length were even induced to interfere 

 in behalf of Lacedemon. An army, sent into Pelo- 

 ponnesus under the command of Iphicrates, compelled 

 the Thebans to retreat into Boeotia. Their prompti- 

 tude also frustrated an attempt tnade by Epaminon- 

 das to supplant them in the dominion of the sea. A 

 large body of Athenian cavalry was present at the 

 battle of Mantinca, and though the rest of the allied 

 army were defeated, this part was victorious. 



Thebes and Sparta being now worn out by mu- 

 tual contests, Athens, which had for some time act- 

 ed only a subordinate part, again rose to be the lead- 

 ing power in Greece. There were many circum- 

 stances, however, in her internal constitution, which 

 kept her far beneath the level of her ancient great- 

 ness. The democracy had now acquired a complete 

 and uncontrouled ascendency ; the preceding convul- 

 sions had annihilated all the former checks on its li- 

 centiousness. The most worthless demagogues held 

 the chief sway ; and the levity, characteristic of a 

 popular assembly, had risen to such a height, that a 

 measure decreed was almost as uncertain as if it had 

 never been proposed. They retained all their former 

 enterprizing and ambitious character, but were no 

 longer disposed to employ the same means of render- 

 ing their resolutions effectual. The bearing of arms 

 was now considered as a burdensome duty : " the so- 

 vereign people," says Mr Mitford, " more and more 

 dispensed with their own services." Metics (a mix- 

 ed race between freemen and slaves ) and foreign mer- 

 cenaries, were soon exclusively employed in the army ; 

 and though the sea service, formerly the least ho- 

 nourable, was now preferred on account of its oppor- 

 tunities of plunder, yet it gradually fell into the 

 same hands. Such troops, acting without any mo- 

 tive to animate them or secure their fidelity, did no 

 honour to the Athenian name. Athens, indeed, even 

 in her last decline, was still fruitful of great men, but 

 these were resorted to only on pressing emergencies ; 

 at all other times, the command was vested in those 

 who could best flatter the passions of the peopk'. In 

 the better times of the republic, the same person Itad 

 united the characters of orator and general ; these 

 were now separated ; and every commander had an 

 orator attached to him, who supported his interest in 

 the popular assembly. 



Unfortunately, about this time a power arose, to 

 withstand which would have required the utmost 

 exertions of Athens in her best days. Macedon, re- 

 mote and barbarous, had hitherto been scarcely num- 

 bered among the Grecian nations ; but the activity of 

 some of her late sovereigns had improved her civil and 



VOL. in. part I. 



military constitution ; and in this last respect, she 

 now united all the energy of a barbarous people, with 

 the arts of a civilized one. Philip had recently as- 

 cended the throne ; a prince of the highest accom- 

 plishments, both as a warrior agd statesman, ar- 

 dently ambitious of extending his dominions, and ac- 

 quiring an influence in the general concerns of Greece. 

 The first subjects of contest were the towns on the 

 Thracian coast, which were equally objects of ambi- 

 tion to the two parties. The Athenians, urged par- 

 ticularly by the hope of recovering Amphipolis, had 

 sent a force in support of Argauis, a pretender to the 

 crown of Macedon. Argxus and his auxiliaries 

 were completely defeated ; but Philip, who felt it to 

 be still his interest to court the favour of the Athe- 

 nians, and who-,, 'as ambitious of the fame of clemen- 

 cy, not only dismissed his prisoners without ransom, 

 but agreed to withdraw his claims upon Amphipolis, 

 and to allow the Athenians an opportunity of re- 

 gaining that favourite object of their ambition. Am- 

 phipolis endeavoured to protect itself, by joining a 

 grand confederacy of Thracian cities, which had 

 Olynthus for its head. A ground of dissension was 

 thus established between Athens and Olynthus, which 

 proved equally prejudicial to both, whose interest it 

 was to have united against Philip. Athens, however, 

 sent an armament against Amphipolis, under the 

 command of Iphicrates. That general reduced the 

 city to extremity, and brought it to accept of a ca- 

 pitulation ; but as the conditions were on the point 

 of being executed, Timotheus arrived with a com- 

 mission which superseded that of Iphicrates. The 

 inhabitants, who had trusted to the personal charac- 

 ter of the commander, rather than to the faith of the 

 Athenian state, refused to place the same confidence 

 in another man ; the negociation was broken off ; and 

 the Athenian mercenaries having slipt away, the 

 whole enterprize failed. 



This good understanding did not long continue be- 

 tween two powers so restless and ambitious. There 

 appears reason to suspect, that the Athenians finding, 

 through the disposition of the people, an opportu- 

 nity to take possession of Pydna, a Macedonian 

 city, did not scruple to avail themselves of it. Phi- 

 lip, therefore, having freed himself from his enemies 

 on the side of Illyria and Thrace, and seeing no long- 

 er any thing very formidable in the military character 

 of the Athenians, formed an alliance with Olynthus 

 against them, and subdued Amphipolis, Pychia, and 

 Potida=a. To cement his alliance vith Olynthus, as 

 well as to maintain the character of ostentatious ge- 

 nerosity, which he affected, he presented that state 

 with the two last mentioned cities. 



Athens was withheld from resisting these advances, 

 not only by her internal feebleness and disunion, but 

 by two other wars in which she was, about this time, 

 involved. The sacred war was then raging in Pho- 

 cis ; an event of which the details will be found in 

 their proper place. The Athenians engaged in it as 

 auxiliaries to the Phocians; but though they seem to 

 Jiave espoused the justest cause, yet they escaped not 

 the suspicion of having been biassed, by receiving a 

 share of the treasure of which the Phocian leader 

 Philomelus had impiously despoiled the temple of 

 Delphi They 1 rendered, however, an important ser- 



Athens. 



