[_Introduction_. The advice given by Demosthenes in the Third Philippic
(spoken before the middle of 341) was in the main followed. He himself
was sent almost immediately to Byzantium, where he renewed the alliance
between that city and Athens, and at the same time entered into
relations with Abydos and the Thracian princes. Rhodes, and probably
Chios and Cos, were also conciliated, and an embassy was sent to the
King of Persia to ask for aid against Philip. The king appears to have
sent assistance to Diopeithes, and it is also stated (not on the best
authority) that he sent large sums of money to Demosthenes and
Hypereides. Demosthenes further succeeded, in conjunction with Callias
of Chalcis, in organizing a league against Philip, which included
Corinth, Megara, Corcyra, and the Acarnanians, and which at least
supplied a considerable number of men and some funds. The cities of
Euboea, most of which had been in the hands of Philip's party, were
also formed into a confederacy, in alliance with Athens, under the
leadership of Chalcis; Philistides was expelled from Oreus, about July
341, by the allied forces under Cephisophon; and later in the summer,
Phocion drove Cleitarchus from Eretria. On the motion of Aristonicus,
the Athenians voted Demosthenes a golden crown, which was conferred on
him in the theatre at the Great Dionysia in March 340. The arrest of
Anaxinus of Oreus, and his condemnation as a spy, acting in Philip's
interest, must have occurred about the same time. Not long afterwards
Demosthenes succeeded in carrying out a complete reorganization of the
trierarchic system, by which he made the burden of the expense vary
strictly according to property, and secured a regular and efficient
supply of ships, money, and men.
In the meantime (in 341 or 340) the island of Peparethus was attacked
by Philip's ships, in revenge for the seizure of the Macedonian
garrison in Halonnesus by the Peparethians: and the Athenian admirals
were ordered to retaliate. Philip himself had been pursuing his course
in Thrace; and on the rejection of his request to Byzantium for an
alliance, he laid siege (late in 340) to Perinthus (which lay on his
way to Byzantium), sending part of his forces through the Chersonese.
Aided by Byzantine and Persian soldiers, Perinthus held out, till at
last Philip took off most of his forces and besieged Byzantium itself.
He had shortly before this sent to Athens an express declaration of
war, and received a similar declaration from her, the formal excuse for
which was found in the recent seizure by his ships of some Athenian
merchant-vessels. But with help from Athens, Chios, Rhodes, and Cos,
the Byzantines maintained the defence. Philip's position became
serious; but he managed by a ruse to get his ships away into the open
sea, and even to do some damage to the Athenian settlers in the
Chersonese. In the winter he withdrew from Byzantium, and in 339 made
an incursion into Scythia; but, returning through the country of the
Triballi, he sustained some loss, and was severely wounded. Later in
the year a new Sacred War which had arisen gave him a convenient
opportunity for the invasion of Greece.
At the meeting of the Amphictyonic Council in the autumn of 340,[1]
Aeschines was one of the representatives of Athens. The Athenians had
recently offended Thebes by re-gilding and dedicating in the restored
temple at Delphi fifty shields, with an inscription stating that they
were spoil 'taken from the Medes and the Thebans, when they fought
against the Hellenes' (probably at Plataeae in 479). The Locrians of
Amphissa intended (according to Aeschines' account) to propose that the
Council should fine Athens fifty talents. Aeschines rose to state the
case for Athens; but a delegate from Amphissa forbade all mention of
the Athenians, and demanded their exclusion from the temple, on the
ground of their alliance with the accursed Phocians. Aeschines retorted
by charging the Amphisseans with cultivating and building upon the
sacred plain of Cirrha--acts forbidden for all time in 586 B.C.--and
roused the Council to such indignation that they gathered a body of men
and destroyed the harbour and the unlawful buildings of Cirrha; but
they were severely handled by the Amphisseans, and the Council now
voted that the Amphictyonic states should send representatives, to
discuss the question of war against Amphissa, to a meeting to be held
at Thermopylae before the spring meeting of the Council. To this
preliminary meeting, the Athenians (though inclined to view Aeschines'
performance with favour), on the advice of Demosthenes, sent no
representatives; nor did the Thebans (the allies of Amphissa). War was
declared by the Amphictyons against Amphissa; but Cottyphus, the
Thessalian, who had been appointed general, made little headway, and
(at the spring or the autumn meeting of the Council) declared that the
Amphictyonic states must either send men and money, or else make Philip
their general. Philip was, of course, at once appointed; but instead of
proceeding against Amphissa, marched to Elateia and fortified it. This
caused the greatest alarm at Athens. Demosthenes was immediately
dispatched to Thebes, where he succeeded, by what appear to have been
liberal and judicious proposals, in making an alliance between Thebes
and Athens, in spite of the attempts of Philip's envoys to counteract
his influence. Euboea, Megara, Corinth, and other members of the league
also sent help. Philip himself called upon his own friends in the
Peloponnese for aid, and at last moved towards Amphissa. Demosthenes
seems now to have succeeded in applying the festival-money to purposes
of war, and with the aid of Lycurgus, who became Controller of the
Festival Fund, to have amassed a large sum for the use of the State. At
the Dionysia of 338 he was again crowned, on the proposal of Demomeles
and Hypereides. The allies at first won some successes and refortified
some of the Phocian towns, but afterwards unfortunately divided their
forces, and so enabled Philip to defeat the two divisions separately,
and to destroy Amphissa. Philip's proposals of peace found supporters
both in Thebes and in Athens, but were counteracted by Demosthenes.
Late in the summer of 338, the decisive battle was fought at
Chaeroneia, and resulted in the total rout of the allies. Demosthenes
himself was one of the fugitives. Philip placed a Macedonian garrison
in Thebes, restored his exiled friends to power there, established a
Council of Three Hundred, and (through them) put to death or banished
his enemies. He also gave Orchomenus, Thespiae, and Plataeae their
independence. After a moment of panic, the Athenians, led by
Demosthenes, Lycurgus, and Hypereides, proceeded to take all possible
measures for the defence of the city, while private munificence
supplied the treasury. Demosthenes himself superintended the repair of
the fortifications, and went on a mission to secure a supply of corn.
But Philip, instead of marching upon Athens, sent a message by Demades,
whom he had taken prisoner at Chaeroneia; and the Assembly, in reply,
instructed Demades, Aeschines, and Phocion to ask Philip to release his
Athenian prisoners. Philip released them without ransom, and sent
Antipater and Alexander (with the ashes of the Athenian dead) to offer
terms of peace. By the 'Peace of Demades', concluded while Demosthenes
was still absent, the alliance between Athens and Philip was renewed;
the independence of Athens was guaranteed; Oropus was taken from Thebes
and restored to Athens; and she was permitted to retain Salamis, Samos,
Delos, and probably Lemnos and Imbros. On the other hand, she lost all
her possessions on the Hellespont and in the Chersonese, and promised
to join the league which Philip intended to form for the invasion of
Persia. Demosthenes was selected by the Assembly to deliver the funeral
oration upon those who fell at Chaeroneia; and although the Macedonian
party attacked him repeatedly in the law-courts, he was always
acquitted. Philip paid a long visit to the Peloponnese, in the course
of which he placed a Macedonian garrison in Corinth, ravaged Laconia,
giving parts of it to his allies, the Argives and Arcadians, and
announced his plans for the invasion of Persia at the head of the
Greeks; he then returned to Macedonia.
In 337 Demosthenes was again Commissioner of Fortifications, as well as
Controller of the Festival Fund--the most important office in the
State. He not only performed his work most efficiently, but gave
considerable sums for public purposes out of his private fortune; and
early in 336 Ctesiphon proposed, and the Council resolved, that he
should once more be crowned at the Dionysia. But before the proposal
could be brought before the Assembly, Aeschines indicted Ctesiphon for
its alleged illegality. The trial did not take place until late in the
summer of 330. We do not know the reason for so long a delay, but
probably the events of the intervening time were such as to render the
state of public feeling unfavourable to Aeschines. In 336 Philip was
assassinated, and was succeeded by Alexander. In 335 Alexander
destroyed Thebes, which had revolted, and sold its inhabitants into
slavery. He also demanded from Athens the surrender of Demosthenes and
other anti-Macedonian politicians and generals, but was persuaded to be
content with the banishment of Charidemus and Ephialtes, and the
promise of the prosecution of Demosthenes for using subsidies from
Persia to help Thebes--a prosecution which was allowed to drop. From
334 onwards Alexander was pursuing his conquests in the East, and we
know practically nothing of the history of Athens until the trial of
Ctesiphon came on in 330.
Aeschines alleged against Ctesiphon (1) that it was illegal to propose
to crown any one who had not passed his examination before the Board of
Auditors at the end of his term of office; and that Demosthenes, who
had been Commissioner of Fortifications and Controller of the Festival
Fund, was still in this position: (2) that it was illegal to proclaim
the grant of a crown at the Dionysia, except in the case of crowns
conferred by foreign states: (3) that it was illegal to insert untrue
statements in the public records, and that the language in which
Ctesiphon's decree described the political career of Demosthenes was
untrue. On the first point Aeschines was almost certainly right:
Demosthenes' defence is sophistical, and all that could really be said
was that the rule had often been broken before. On the second point,
certainty is impossible: the most probable view (though it also has its
difficulties) is that there were two inconsistent laws, and that one of
them permitted the proclamation in the theatre, if expressly voted by
the people; but the alleged illegality had certainly been often
committed. The third point, which raised the question of the value to
Athens of Demosthenes' whole political life, was that upon which the
case really turned; and it is to this that Demosthenes devotes the
greater part of his speech, breaking up his reply into convenient
stages by discussions (of a far less happy description) of the other
counts of the indictment, and of the character and career of Aeschines.
As in the Speech on the Embassy, certain facts are misrepresented, and
there are passages which are in bad taste; but Demosthenes proves
beyond doubt his unswerving loyalty to the high ideal of policy which
he had formed for his country, and it is with good reason that parts of
this speech have always been felt to reach a height of eloquence which
has never been surpassed.
The jury acquitted Ctesiphon: and Aeschines, failing to obtain a fifth
part of the votes, and thus incurring a heavy fine and the loss of some
of the rights of a citizen, left Athens, and lived most of the
remainder of his life at Rhodes.