to peace. These related that Philip did not appear averse to it, and that he even expressed a great affection for the commonwealth.. Upon this, the Athenians resolved to send a solemn embassy, to enquire more strictly into the truth of things and to procure the last explanations, previously necessary to so important a negociation. Æschines and De mosthenes were among the ten ambassadors, who brought back three from Philip, viz. Antipater, Parmenio, and Eurylochus. All the ten executed their commission very faith fully, and gave a very good account of it. Upon this, they were immediately sent back with full powers to conclude a peace, and to ratify it by oaths. It was then Demosthenes, who in his first embassy had met some Athenian captives in Macedonia, and had, promised to return and ransom them at his own expense, endeavours to enable himself to keep his word; and, in the mean time, advises his colleagues to embark with the utmost expedition, as the republic had commanded; and to wait as soon as possible upon Philip, in what place soever he might be. However, these, instead of making a speedy dispatchy as they were desired, go an ambassador's pace, proceed to Macedonia by land, stay three months in that country, and give Philip time to possess himself of several other strong places belonging to the Atheni ans in Thrace. At last, meeting with the king of Macedonia, they agree with him upon articles of peace; but having Julled them asleep with the specious pretence of a treaty he deferred the ratification of it from day to day. Philip had found means to corrupt the ambassadors one after another, by presents, Demosthenes excepted, who being but one, opposed his colleagues to no manner of purpose.

In the mean time, Philip made his troops advance con tinually. Being arrived at Phere in Thessaly, he at last ratifies the treaty of peace but refuses to include the Phoceans in it. When news was brought to Athens that Philip had signed the treaty, it occasioned very great joy in that city, especially those that were averse to the war, and dreaded the consequences of it. Among these was Isocrates. *He was a citizen very zealous for the commonwealth, whose prosperity he had very much at heart. The weakness of his voice, with a timidity natural to him, had prevented his appearing in public, and from mounting like others the tribunal of harangues. He had opened school in Athens, in which he read rhetorical lectures, and taught youth eloquence with great reputation and success. However he had not entirely renounced the care of public affairs; and

• Isocrat, Orat, ad Philip

as others served their country viva voce, in the public assemblies, Isocrates contributed to it by his writings, in which he delivered his thoughts and these being soon-made public, were very eagerly sought after.

On the present occasion he wrote a piece of considerable length, which he addressed to Philip, with whom he held a correspondence, but in such terms as were worthy a good and faithful citizen. He was then very far advanced in years, being at least 88. The scope of this discourse was to ex-: hort Philip to take advantage of the peace he had just before concluded, in order to reconcile all the Greek nations, and afterwards to turn his arms against the king of Persia, The business was to engage in this plan four cities, on which all the rest depended, viz. Athens, Sparta, Thebes, and Argos. He confesses, that had Sparta or Athens been as powerful as formerly, he should have been far from making such a proposal, which he was sensible they would never approve; and which the pride of those two republics, whilst sustained and augmented by success, would reject with disdain. But that now, as the most powerful cities of Greece, wearied out and exhausted by long wars, and humbled in their turns by fatal reverses of fortune, have equally an interest in laying down their arms, and living in peace, pursu ant to the example which the Athenians had begun to set them, the present is the most favourable opportunity Philip could have to reconcile and unite the several cities of Greece.

In case he, Philip, should be so happy as to succeed in such a project, so glorious and beneficial a success would raise him above whatever had appeared most august in Greece. But this project in itself, though it should not have so happy an effect as he might expect from it, would yet infallibly gain him the esteem, the affection, and confi dence of all the nations of Greece; advantages infinitely preferable to the taking of cities, and all the conquests he might hope to obtain.

Some persons indeed, who were prejudiced against Philip, represent and exclaim against him as a crafty prince, who gives a specious pretext to his march, but, at the same time, has in reality no other object in view but the enslaving of Greece. Isocrates, either from a too great credulity, or from a desire of bringing Philip into his views, supposes that rumours so injurious as these have no manner of foundation; it not being probable, that a prince who glories in being descended from Hercules, the deliver of Greece, should think of invading and possessing himself of it. But these very reports, which are so capable of blackening his name, and of sullying all his glory, should prompt him to

demonstrate the falsity of them in the presence of all Greece by the least suspicions of proofs, in leaving and maintaining each city in the full possession of its laws and liberties; in removing with the utmost care all suspicions of partiality; in not espousing the interest of one people against another; in winning the confidence of all men by a noble disinterestedness and an invariable love of justice: in fine, by aspiring to no other title than that of the reconciler of the divisions of Greece, a title far more glorious than that of conqueror.

It is in the king of Persia's dominions he ought to merit those last titles. The conquest of it is open and sure to him, in case he could succeed in pacifying the troubles of Greece, He should call to mind that Agesilaus, with no other forces than those of Sparta, shook the Persian throne, and would infallibly have subverted it, had he not been recalled into Greece, by the intestine divisions which then broke out. The signal victory of the 10,000 under Clearchus, and their triumphant retreat in the sight of innumerable armies, prove what might be expected from the joint forces of the Macedonians and Greeks, when commanded by Philip against a prince inferior in every respect to him whom Cyrus had endeavoured to dethrone..

Isocrates concludes with declaring that one would believe the gods had hitherto granted Philip so long a train of succes ses, with no other view but that he might be enabled to form and execute the glorious enterprise, the plan of which he had laid before him. He reduces the counsel he gave to three heads that this prince should govern his own empire with wisdom and justice; should heal the divisions between the neighbouring nations and all Greece, without desiring to possess any part of it himself; and this being done, that he should turn his victorious arms against a country, which from all ages had been the enemy of Greece, and had often vowed their destruction. It must be confessed, that this is a most noble plan, and highly worthy a great prince. But Isocrates had a very false idea of Philip, if he thought this monarch would ever put it in execution. Philip did not possess the equity, moderation, or disinterestedness, which such a pro ject required. He really intended to attack Pérsia, but was persuaded that it was his business to secure himself first of Greece, which indeed he was determined to do, not by servi ces but by force. He did not endeavour either to win over or persuade nations, but subject and reduce them. As on his side he had no manner of regard for alliances and treaties, he judged of others by himself, and was for assuring himself of them by much stronger ties than those of friendship, gratitude, and sincerity.

As Demosthenes was better acquainted with the state of affairs than Isocrates, so he formed a truer judgment of Philip's designs. Upon his return from his embassy, he declares expressly that he does not approve either of the discourse or the conduct of the Macedonian king, but that every thing is to be dreaded from him. On the contrary, Eschines, who had been bribed, assures the Athenians that he had discovered the greatest candour and sincerity in the promises and proceedings of this king. He had engaged that Thespia and Platea should be repeopled, in spite of the opposition of the Thebans; that in case he should proceed so far as to subject the Phocaans, he would preserve them, and not do them the least injury; that he would restore Thebes to the good order which had before been observed in it; that Oropus should be given up absolutely to the Athenians; and that in lieu of Amphipolis they should be put in possession of Eu bea. It was to no purpose that Demosthenes demonstrated to his fellow citizens, that Philip, notwithstanding all these glorious promises, endeavoured to possess himself ir an absolute manner of Phocis; and that by abandoning it to him they would betray the commonwealth, and give up all Greece into his hands. He was not heard, and the oration of Æs chines, who engaged that Philip would make good his several promises, prevailed over that of Demosthenes.

*These deliberations gave that prince an opportunity to possess himself of Thermopyla, and to enter Phocis. Hitherto there had been no possibility of reducing the Phocæans; but Philip needed but appear, for the bare sound of his name filled them with terror. Upon the supposition that he was marching against a herd of sacrilegious wretches, not against common enemies, he ordered all his soldiers to wear crowns of laurel, and led them to battle as under the conduct of the god himself, whose honour they revenged. The instant they appeared, the Phocæans believed themselves overcome. Ac cordingly they sue for peace, and yield to Philip's mercy, who gives Phalecus their leader leave to retire into Peloponnesus, with the 8000 men in his service. In this manner Philip, with very little trouble, engrossed all the honour of a long and bloody war, which had exhausted the forces of both parties. This victory gained him incredible honour throughout all Greece, and his glorious expedition was the

* A, M, 3658—Ant. J, C, 346-Diod. 1, xvi, p, 455

+ Incredibile quantum ca res apud omnes nationes Philippo gloriæ dedit. Illum vindicem sacrilegii, illum ultorem religionum, Ita que Diis proximus habetur, per quem deorum majestas vindicata sit. Justin, 1, viii, c, 2.

topic of all conversations in that country. He was considered as the avenger of sacrilege, and the protector of religion; and they almost ranked in the number of the gods the man who had defended their majesty with so much courage and

success.

Philip, that he might not seem to do any thing by his own private authority, in an affair which concerned all Greece, assembles the council of the Amphictyons, and appoints them, for form sake, supreme judges of the pains and penalties to which the Phocæans had rendered themselves obnoxious. Under the name of these judges, who were entirely at his devotion, he decrees that the cities of Phocis shall be destroyed, that they shall all be reduced to small towns of 60 houses each, and that those towns shall be at a certain distance one from the other; that those wretches who have committed sacrilege, shall be absolutely proscribed; and that the rest shall not enjoy their possessions, but upon condition of paying an annual tribute, which shall continue to be levied till such time as the whole sums taken out of the temple of Delphos shall be repaid. Philip did not forget himself on this occasion. After he had subjected the rebellious Phocæans, he demanded that their seat in the council of the Amphictyons, which they had been declared to have forfeited, should be transferred to him, The Amphictyons, the instrument of whose vengeance he had now been, were afraid of refusing him, and accordingly admitted him a member of their body; a circumstance of the highest importance to him, as we shall see in the sequel, and of very dangerous consequence to all the rest of Greece. They also gave him the superintendence of the Pythian games, in conjunction with the Boeotians and Thessalians ; because the Corinthians, who possessed this privilege hitherto, had rendered themselves unworthy of it, by sharing in the sacrilege of the Phocæans.

When news was brought to Athens of the treatment which the Phocæans had met with, the former perceived, but too late, the wrong step they had taken in refusing to comply with the councils of Demosthenes; and in abandoning themselves blindly to the vain and idle promises of a traitor who had sold his country. Besides the shame and grief with which they were seized, for having failed in the obligations of the confederacy, they found that they had betrayed their own interests in abandoning their allies; for Philip, by possessing himself of Phocis, was become master of ThermopyJa, which opened him the gates, and put into his hands

With the Phocæans,