Olyn'thus, a city on the Macedonian coast, which was the capital of a large and fertile district, called the Chalcid'icé The Olyn'thians, after having been defeated in the field, shut themselves up in their city, and prepared to made a vigorous defence. They also sent ambassadors to Athens, entreating assistance, and pointing out the danger to which the maritime supremacy of the republic would be exposed, if Philip made himself master of such an extensive sea coast. as the Chalcid'icé, and the peninsula of Palle'ne. These representations were ably seconded by Demosthenes in his four Olynthiae orations; but the Athenians, sunk in indolence, delayed the succours until they were too late; for in the second year of the siege, two of the citizens, Las'thenes and Euthy'crates, betrayed the city to Philip. 9. He treated the captives with the most barbarous cruelty, slaughtering or enslaving all his prisoners, and distinguishing the two traitors only by additional tortures at the place of execution. His two illegitimate brothers, who had been hitherto sheltered by the Olynthians, now fell into his hands, and were sacrificed to his jealousy and revenge.

10. In the mean time the Thebans, being unable alone to terminate the war which they had so long carried on against the Pho'cians, addressed themselves to Philip, and solicited his assistance. This he readily granted, being glad of so plausible a pretext for interfering in the affairs of Greece, and desiring at the same time to acquire the character of a religious prince; which he knew he should easily do by waging war against those who were convicted of sacrilege. 11. And in order to prevent the Athenians from thwarting his designs by sending aid to the Pho'cians, he took care to amuse them with proposals of peace; which had so good an effect, that they actually sent ten ambassadors, among whom were Æs'chines and Demos'thenes, into Ma'cedon, to carry on the treaty. All of these, however, Philip found means to corrupt, except Demos'thenes: and he thus continued to protract the negotiation, until he had marched into Pho'cis, and compelled the enemy, by the terror of his name, to surrender at discretion.

12. As to the allies of the Pho'cians, and particularly eight thousand mercenaries from Peloponne'sus, he allowed them to return home without molestation; but the Pho'cians themselves were left entirely to his mercy. As this, however, was an affair in which the Greeks in general were concerned, he did not think proper to act in it by his own

private authority, but referred it to the Amphic'tyons, whom he caused to be assembled for that purpose. But they were so much under his influence, that they served only to give a sanction to his determination. They decreed, that three of the cities of Pho'cis should be demolished; that they who had fled, as being principally concerned in the sacrilege, should be stigmatized as accursed, and proscribed as outlaws; that they who remained in the towns should be dispersed in villages, and obliged to pay out of their lands a yearly tribute of sixty talents, until the whole of what had been taken out of the temple should be restored, (for it is to be observed that Philome'lus, their first leader, had plundered the temple,) and they were adjudged to lose their seat in the council of the Amphic'tyons, in which they had a double voice.* 13. This Philip got transferred to himself, which was a very material point, and may be looked upon as the principal step towards his gaining that authority which he afterwards exercised in the affairs of Greece. At the same time he gained, in conjunction with the The 'bans, the superintendency of the Pyth'ian games, which the Corin'thians had forfeited, for their having taken part with the Pho'cians. Philip, having in this manner accomplished his professed design, did not think it prudent as yet to disclose his secret views of ambition; he, therefore, returned in triumph into his own country.

14. The next military operation which Philip undertook was against the Thracian Cherso'nese. This peninsula had for many years belonged to the Athenians; and thought Co'tys, as king of the country, had lately wrested it from them, and let it to his son Chersoblep'tes, yet he, being unable to defend himself against Philip, restored it to its

* Philip proceeded to execute the decree of the Amphictyons with inflexible cruelty; and the silence with which this was done seemed more dreadful than the tumultuary ravages of the fiercest war. After their cities were demolished, the inhabitants were driven, like herds of cattle, to the settlements allotted them, and compelled to cultivate the fields for their cruel and unrelenting masters. Three years after these events, Phocis presented a piteous sight of unexampled devastation. The youth and men of mature age had perished in the war, or been dragged into captivity. The once flourishing and populous cities had been razed to the ground, and the villages were thinly inhabited by women and children, and wretched old men, whose silent, but emphatic sorrow, was more expressive than all the complaints they could have uttered, and fitly bespoke the misery of their condition, and the barbarity of their conquerors.

former masters, and reserved only to himself the capital city, Car'dia. But the Cardians, afraid of falling back under the dominion of the Athenians, implored the protection of Philip, which he readily granted them. 15. Diopei'thes, who was the chief of the Athenian colony lately sent to the Cherso'nese, considered this proceeding of Philip as an act of hostility against Athens; and he therefore, by way of retaliation, invaded the maritime parts of Thrace, which Philip had lately conquered. Philip sent a letter to Athens, complaining of this conduct of Diopei'thes, which he represented as an infraction of the peace; and his creatures there were at great pains to show that his complaints were well founded, and that Diopei'thes had acted very improperly. 16. But Demos'thenes, in a speech which he had made upon the occasion, and which may be considered as the foundation of all the other orations that go by the name of Philip'pics, proved that Diopei'thes had done no more than his duty; and that, instead of incurring the censure, he ought to receive the thanks of his country.

17. Philip, however, was no way intimidated by the wordy resistance of his eloquent antagonist: but proceeding still to extend his influence among the different states of Greece, he offered his protection to the Messe'nians and Argives, who had been oppressed by the Spartans; and these being soon after joined by the Thebans, formed altogether a very powerful confederacy. The natural balance against it was a union between Athens and Sparta, which the Spartans pressed with great eagerness, and Philip and the Thebans did all tl.ey could to prevent. But Demos'thenes, exerting himself with great spirit, roused up the Athenians, and put them so far on their guard, that, without coming to an open rupture with Philip, they obliged him for the present to remain quiet.

18. Quiet, however, he could not long continue. His restless and enterprising spirit was ever at work. He had long fixed his eye upon the island of Eubœe'a, as being very conveniently situated for favouring the design he had formed against Greece; and he now contrived, upon pretence of an invitation from some of the inhabitants, to send a body of troops thither; by which means he possessed himself of several strong places, dismantled Portmos, and established three tyrants, or kings, over the country. 19. The Athenians were conjured, in this distressful situation, by Plutarch of Ere'tria, to come to the relief of the inhabitants; and

they accordingly despatched a few troops thither under the command of Pho'cion, a general of whom great hopes were entertained, and whose conduct justified the high opinion the public entertained of him.

20. Pho'cion had been long opposed to the poli- B.C. tics of Demos'thenes, not because he was blind to 342. the ambition of Philip, but because he despaired of his own countrymen. His own rule of life was strict and severe, formed on the rigid model of the Stoics; he, therefore, felt more acutely the demoralized condition of Athens, and the depravity which pervaded every class of society. Unfortunately, he took but little trouble to disguise his sentiments, and his bitter sarcasms excited enmity, where gentle remonstrance might have produced good effects. 21. He was accompanied in the expedition to Eubœ'a by Demos'thenes, and the harangues of the orator not a little contributed to the success of the general. The independence of the island was secured. Plutarch, who had invited the Athenians in vain, threw himself into the ranks of their opponents. Pho'cion totally defeated the traitor in a pitched battle, and drove him from the island.

Questions for Examination.

1. How was Alexander educated?

2. What city in Thrace did Philip subdue ?

3. How did Philip behave in Thessaly?

4. By whom was the king of Macedon prevented from seizing Theimopyle?

5. What were the circumstances of the early life of Demosthenes? 9 6. How did he succeed in his first public speech?

7. Were these defects overcome?

8. How did Philip make himself master of Olynthus ?

9. In what manner were the captives treated?

10. Why was Philip eager to join in the sacred war?

11. How were the Athenians prevented from interfering?

12. What punishment was inflicted on the Phocians?

13. How were the services of Philip rewarded?

14. What was the next enterprise of the Macedonian king? 15. How did Diopeithes act?

16. By whom was his conduct defended?

17. What were the next proceedings of Philip?

18. Did he attack any important island?

19. Were the Athenians invited to assist in repelling this invasion

20. What was the character of Phocian?

21. What was the success of the expedition to Eretria?

SECTION III.

THE SUCCESSFUL CAREER OF PHILIP.

1. PHILIP, disappointed in his designs upon Eubœ'a, Endeavoured to distress the Athenians in another quarter. He well knew that they had most of their supplies of corn from Thrace; and he, therefore, resolved to shut up the ports of that country against them, and particularly to make himself master of Perin'thus* and Byzantium.t 2. Still unwilling, however, to break with them entirely, he took care to amuse them with professions of his regard, and of his extreme reluctance to give them the least offence. Nay, he wrote them a letter, upon the present occasion, in which he strongly insinuated, that they, and not he, were the violaters of the peace. "In the times of enmity," says he, "the most you did was to fit out ships of war against me, and to seize and sell the merchants that came to trade in my dominions; but now you carry your hatred and injustice to such prodigious lengths, as even to send ambassadors to the king of Persia, to make him declare war against me." 3. The king of Persia was greatly alarmed at the rapid progress made by the Macedonian monarch, as he clearly saw that his ultimate aim was to accomplish the great design of Jason, and invade Persia at the head of a Greek army collected from all the states. To prevent this, the eastern monarch distributed large sums among the leading orators, and the Persian gold had fully as much influence as patriotism, in the opposition made by the demagogues to Philip. The Macedonian bribed in his turn, and secured a strong body of partisans at Athens, by whose assistance he hoped either to cajole or terrify the multitude, whom their love of pleasure and tranquillity had rendered weak and contemptible.

* Now Eretili, a town of Thrace. It was a very strong town, and very ably defended by its inhabitants. When Philip found all his attempts to take the place ineffectual, he suddenly detached a strong corps of his army to attack Byzantium, which city had been drained of its garrison to defend Perinthus. This scheme would probably have succeeded, had not the arrival of Phocion, with his fleet, quite changed the face of affairs, and compelled him to raise the siege of both places.

A town on the Thracian Bos'phorus, now Constantinople.