DEMOSTHENES. 



61, 



] )eni< I \S 



but it remains among ancient writers to be gathered, 

 that though the Athenian people were not prevailed 

 1 upon directly and openly to oppose their allies the La- 

 cedemonians, yet the associates of Isocrates could pro- 

 cure no concurrence in the arrangement proposed by 

 Lacedemon. Demosthenes was now embarked in the 

 highly democratical side of Chares. 



The event of the social war has been already noticed. 

 For three years the states of Chios, Cos, and Rhodes, 

 had confederated in resisting the dominion of Athens ; 

 and in their fears of the Persian arms, the Athenians 

 had been forced to give a peace, by which it was stipu- 

 lated that the confederates should be free and indepen- 

 dent, or at least that they should pay no other tribute 

 to Athens than such as their respestive representatives 

 residing at Athens should consent to. Rhodes, after this 

 peace, became a prey to infuriate factions. The aristocra- 

 cy unable to withstand the democratical party, applied 

 to Artemisia, princess of Caria, who held a kind of feudal 

 principality under the Persian empire, and received a 

 Carian garrison into their citadel. The Rhodian de- 

 mocracy applied for aid to the Athenians; and in the 

 assembly convened on this occasion, Demosthenes 

 pleaded their cause. Their cause laboured under dif- 

 ficulties. In the Jate resistance of Rhodes, the many 

 had been distinguished for their zeal, or for what the 

 imperial republic of Athens chose to denominate, their 

 insolence and ingratitude towards the Athenians. It 

 was well known besides, that the Persian king interest- 

 ed himself on the side of the Carian aristocrats. The 

 clients of Demosthenes, the Rhodian democracy, were 

 the recent and most formidable champions of an inde- 

 pendence fought for, and won in despite of Athens ; 

 and in speaking of Persia, the orator was obliged to 

 modify or obliterate, as well as he could, the impres- 

 sions of his former arguments in favour of pacific po- 

 licy towards the great king. Fearing directly to meet 

 the prejudices of his audience against the Rhodians, 

 Demosthenes took the broad and popular ground of ar- 

 guing, that it was not the cause of the Rhodes that he 

 was pleading, but the common cause of democracy. 

 Such was the universal connection of the democratical 

 cause ; so readily, if variance arose between democrati- 

 cal governments, they fell into concord again, that it 

 would be better for Athens, (he contended,) to be at 

 war with all the states of Greece together, if all were 

 under democratical government, than to have peace and 

 alliance with all under oligarchy. What decree fol- 

 lowed we are not informed, but no measures, or none 

 that were effectual, were taken to support the Rhodian 

 petitioners, perhaps because the attention of the Athe- 

 nian government was forcibly called another way. 

 While the states of Greece were weakening themselves 

 in the sacred war, Philip was extending his frontier 

 without interruption, by taking in such places as were 

 either convenient or troublesome to him. It was not 

 long before he had an opportunity of engaging as a 

 party in the Phocian war. The nobility ofThessaly 

 were scarcely delivered from the yoke of Alexander of 

 Pheras, when another intolerable tyranny succeeded 

 under Tysophanus, Lycophron, and Pertholaus. These, 

 with the Aleuadas, the descendants of Hercules at their 

 head, petitioned for Philip's assistance against then op- 

 pressors. He marched into Thessalv, and soon divest- 

 ed the tyrants of all authority. After this, he marched 

 against the Phocians, who "had supported the cause 

 Of the tyrant, and having obtained the most deci- 

 sive success, advanced as far as the pass of Ther- 

 mopylae, with the combined Macedonian and Thessa- 

 lian forces. His approach naturally alarmed the Athe- 



nians, and they met him with a force, before which he Pemottfie. 

 thought proper to retire. Previous to this, negociations 

 for peace had been attempted, between Macedonia and 

 Olynthus as confederates on one side, and the Athe- 

 nians on the other; but they ended in nothing. With- 

 in a few years, Philip's conquest of Thrace, his acqui- 

 sition of the gold mines in that region, his successful 

 interference in Thessaly, the whole progress of his at' 

 fairs, and the spreading popularity of his name through- 

 out Greece, made him an object of terrific importance 

 to the only Grecian states which retained the sem- 

 blance of a power to oppose him. At thi^ distance of 

 time, the best informed can only conjecture what would 

 have been the fate of Athens if she had given a fair 

 trial to the repeated declarations of Philip, that he 

 wished not for destruction, and was unwilling to come 

 to extremities with her. The ruling party of Athens, 

 were not disposed to hazard any thing like such an ex- 

 periment. A triumph which Phocion obtained with 

 the Athenian arms in Eubcea, seemed to promise the 

 entire revival of the milder and more moderate party ; 

 but they seem to have never gained it completely. 

 About the end of the second, or the beginning of the 

 third year of the 107th Olympiad, commenced those 

 famous speeches against Philip, from the celebrity of 

 which, their name was adopted by Rome, and after- 

 wards by modern Europe, to designate orations abound- 

 ing with hostility. The first of these seems not, how- 

 ever, to have produced a decided effect on the actions 

 of the Athenians. They retained their ambition, but 

 not their primitive energy; and Philip, independent of 

 most all men, who dreaded the extreme violence of the 

 war-party, had also his venal partizans, who were fa- 

 vourably heard. The defection of Olynthus, however, 

 from the side of Philip to that of Athens, gave a new 

 turn to affairs. The Olynthians pressed the Athenians 

 for immediate Succours. Their ambassador opened their 

 commission in an assembly of the people. As the im- 

 portance of the occasion increased the number of the 

 speakers, the elder orators had debated the affair before 

 Demosthenes arose. In his first Olynthic oration, there- 

 fore, he speaks as to a people already informed, urges 

 the necessity of joining with the Olynthians, inveighs 

 against the designs and ambition of Philip, and labours 

 to remove their dreadful apprehensions of his power, 

 and to put an end to all domestic dissensions. In con- 

 sequence of the first Olynthic oration, the assembly 

 decreed that relief should be sent to the Olynthians, 

 and thirty galleys, and two thousand men, were ac- 

 cordingly dispatched under the command of Chai'es. 

 But these succours, consisting entirely of mercenaries-, 

 and commanded by a general of no great reputation, 

 could not be of decisive service, and were besides sus- 

 pected, and scarcely less dreaded by the Olynthians 

 than the Macedonians themselves. In the mean time, 

 the progress of Philip's arms could meet with little op- 

 position, and having twice defeated the Olynthians, 

 he shut them up in their city. In this emergency, 

 they applied for fresh succours from Athens; and 

 the object of our orator's second Olynthic oration, 

 was to prove, that both the honour and interest of 

 Athens demanded compliance. Inefficient succours ha- 

 ving been sent, a third Olynthic oration was devoted 

 to the same object as before. Olynthus fell into the 

 hands of Philip, and the Athenians, (Demosthenes him- 

 self advising the measure,) thought it necessary to come 

 to negociations for peace. Two several embassies were 

 dispatched from Athens to Macedon, and Demosthenes 

 accompanied both. If we may trust the account of 

 the bitterest enemy, he behaved with ridiculous affec- 



