ARISTOTLE. 115 



history will not fail to recollect that the suspicions which the Athenians 

 had for some time entertained of the ambitious designs of Philip 

 received a sudden confirmation just at this moment by the successes 

 of that monarch in the Chalcidian peninsula. The fall of Olynthus 

 and the destruction of the Greek confederacy, of which that town was 

 the head, 1 produced at Athens a feeling of indignation mixed with 

 fear, of which Demosthenes did not fail to take advantage to kindle 

 a strong hatred of anything belonging to Macedon. The modern 

 example of France will enable us readily to understand how dangerous 

 must have been the position of a foreigner, by birth, connexions, or 

 feelings in the slightest degree mixed up with the unpopular party, 

 especially when resident in a democratic state, in which the statute 

 laws were every day subject to be violated by the extemporaneous 

 resolutions ^^itrpara) of a popular assembly. Philip, indeed, was 

 accustomed or at any rate by his enemies believed to make use of 

 such aliens, as from any cause were allowed free ingress to the states 

 with which he was not on good terms, as his emissaries. 2 It is 

 scarcely possible under these circumstances to conceive that the 

 jealousy of party hatred should fail to view the distinguished philo- 

 sopher, the friend of Antipater, and the son of a Macedonian court- 

 physician, with dislike and distrust, especially if, as from Cicero's 

 description appears highly probable, political affairs entered consider- 

 ably into the course of his public instructions. 



Here, then, w r e have a reason, quite independent of any particular 

 motive, for Aristotle's quitting Athens at this especial time. And 

 others, little less weighty, existed to take him to the court of Hermias. 

 For some time before, the gigantic body of the Persian empire had Revolt of 

 exhibited symptoms of breaking up. Egypt had for a considerable dependem 

 period maintained itself in a state of independence, and the success of 

 the experiment had produced the revolt of Phoenicia. The cities of 

 Asia Minor, whose intercourse with Greece Proper was constant, 

 naturally felt an even greater desire to throw off the yoke, and about 

 the year 349 before the Christian era, most of them were in a state 

 of open rebellion. Confederacies of greater or less extent for the 

 purpose of maintaining their common independence were formed 

 among them ; and over one of these, which included Atarneus and 

 Assos, one Eubulus, a native of Bithynia, exercised a sway which Eubuius. 

 Suidas represents as that of an absolute prince. 3 This remarkable 

 man, of whom it is much to be regretted that we know so little, is 

 described as having carried on the trade of a banker 4 in one of these 

 towns. If this be true, the train of circumstances which led him 

 to the pitch of power which he seems to have reached was probably 

 such a one as, in more modern times, made the son of a brewer of 



1 Above, p. 102. 



2 The case of Anaxinus (see ^Eschines c. Ctes. p. 85 ; Demosth. De Cor. p. 272) 

 may serve as one instance among many. 



3 Iwiffrov. 4 Tga<rs/Tav. Strabo, xiii. vol. iii. p. 126. 



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