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This letter from Darius is distinctly alluded to, and even a sentence cited from it, by AEschines adv. Ktesiph. p. 633, 634. c. 88. We know that Darius wrote in very different language not long afterwards, near the time when Alexander crossed into Asia . The first letter must have been sent shortly after Philip's death, when Darius was publicly boasting of having procured the deed, and before he had yet learnt to fear Alexander. Compare Diodor. xvii. 7.

Not merely in Athens, but in other Grecian States also, the death of Philip excited aspirations for freedom. The Lacedaemonians, who, though unsupported, had stood out inflexibly against any obedience to him, were now on the watch for new allies; while the Arcadians, Argeians, and Eleians, manifested sentiments adverse to Macedonia. The Ambrakiots expelled the garrison placed by Philip in their city; the AEtolians passed a vote to assist in restoring those Akarnanian exiles whom he had banished. On the other hand, the Thessalians manifested unshaken adherence to Macedonia. But the Macedonian garrison at Thebes, and the macedonizing Thebans who now governed that city, were probably the main obstacles to any combined manifestation in favor of Hellenic autonomy.

Diodor. xvii. 3.

Diodorus says that the Thebans passed a vote to expel the Macedonian garrison in the Kadmeia. But I have little hesitation in rejecting this statement. We may be sure that the presence of the Macedonian garrison was connected with the predominance in the city of a party favorable to Macedonia. In the ensuing year, when the resistance really occurred, this was done by the anti-Macedonian party, who then got back from exile.

Apprised of these impulses prevalent throughout the Grecian world, Alexander felt the necessity of checking them by a demonstration immediate, as well as intimidating. The energy and rapidity of his proceedings speedily overawed all those who had speculated on his youth, or had adopted the epithets applied to him by Demosthenes. Having surmounted, in a shorter time than was supposed possible, the difficulties of his newly-acquired position at home, he marched into Greece at the head of a formidable army, seemingly about two months after the death of Philip. He was favorably received by the Thessalians, who passed a vote constituting Alexander head of Greece in place of his father Philip; which vote was speedily confirmed by the Amphiktyonic assembly, convoked at Thermopylae. Alexander next advanced to Thebes, and from thence over the isthmus of Corinth into Peloponnesus. The details of his march we do not know; but his great force, probably not inferior to that which had conquered at Chaeroneia, spread terror everywhere, silencing all except his partisans. Nowhere was the alarm greater than at Athens. The Athenians recollecting both the speeches of their orators and the votes of their assembly,--offensive at least, if not hostile, to the Macedonians--trembled lest the march of Alexander should be directed against their city, and accordingly made preparation for standing a siege. All citizens were enjoined to bring in their families and properties from the country, insomuch that the space within the walls was full both of fugitives and of cattle. At the same time, the assembly adopted, on the motion of Demades, a resolution of apology and full submission to Alexander: they not only recognized him as chief of Greece, but conferred upon him divine honors, in terms even more emphatic than those bestowed on Philip. The mover, with other legates, carried the resolution to Alexander, whom they found at Thebes, and who accepted their submission. A young speaker named Pytheas is said to have opposed the vote in the Athenian assembly. Whether Demosthenes did the like--or whether, under the feeling of disappointed anticipations and overwhelming Macedonian force, he condemned himself to silence,--we cannot say. That he did not go with Demades on the mission to Alexander, seems a matter of course, though he is said to have been appointed by public vote to do so, and to have declined the duty. He accompanied the legation as far as Mount Kithaeron, on the frontier, and then returned to Athens. We read with astonishment that AEschines and his other enemies denounced this step as a cowardly desertion. No envoy could be so odious to Alexander, or so likely to provoke refusal for the proposition which he carried, as Demosthenes. To employ him in such a mission would have been absurd; except for the purpose probably intended by his enemies, that he might be either detained by the conqueror as an expiatory victim, or sent back as a pardoned and humiliated prisoner.

Demadis Fragment. ???? ??? ???????????, p. 180.

Arrian, i. 1, 4.

Plutarch, Reipub. Ger. Praecept. p. 804.

AEschines adv. Ktesiph. p. 564. c. 50; Deinarchus cont. Demosth. p. 57; Diodor. xvii. 4; Plutarch, Demosth. c. 23 . Demades, in the fragment of his oration remaining to us, makes no allusion to this proceeding of Demosthenes.

The decree, naming Demosthenes among the envoys, is likely enough to have been passed chiefly by the votes of his enemies. It was always open to an Athenian citizen to accept or decline such an appointment.

Several years afterwards, Demades himself was put to death by Antipater, to whom he had been sent as envoy from Athens .

After displaying his force in various portions of Peloponnesus, Alexander returned to Corinth, where he convened deputies from the Grecian cities generally. The list of those cities which obeyed the summons is not before us, but probably it included nearly all the cities of Central Greece. We know only that the Lacedaemonians continued to stand aloof, refusing all concurrence. Alexander asked from the assembled deputies the same appointment which the victorious Philip had required and obtained two years before--the hegemony or headship of the Greeks collectively for the purpose of prosecuting war against Persia. To the request of a prince at the head of an irresistible army, one answer only was admissible. He was nominated Imperator with full powers, by land and sea. Overawed by the presence and sentiment of Macedonian force, all acquiesced in this vote except the Lacedaemonians.

Arrian, i. 1, 2. ?????? ???? ????? ??? ????????? ??? ??? ???? ?????? ?????????, ?????? ??????? ??? ??????? ??? ????????? ?????? ???? ??????, ???? ?????????????, etc.

Demosthenes , Orat. xvii. De Foedere Alexandrino, p. 213, 214. ????????? ? ??????? ????? ?? ????, ?????????? ????? ??? ?????????? ???? ???????.--???? ??? ???????????, ??? ????? ??? ????????? ??? ???? ???????? ?????, ??? ???? ?????? ???? ???? ??? ??????? ???????, ??????????, ????????? ????? ???? ???? ??? ??????? ??????????....

Demosthen. Orat. de Foedere Alex. p. 213.

Demosth. ib. p 215.

Demosth. ib. p. 217. ???? ??? ????? ?? ???? ?????????, ??? ???????? ????? ???? ?????????? ??? ???????, ??? ?????? ??????? ?????? ???? ???????? ?????? ??????? ??????? ??? ?? ??? ???? ????? ????, ???????? ????? ???? ???? ??? ??????? ??????????....

Demosth. ib. p. 218, 219. B?hnecke, in his instructive comments on this convention , has treated the prohibition here mentioned as if it were one specially binding the Macedonians not to sail with armed ships into the Peiraeus. This undoubtedly is the particular case on which the orator insists; but I conceive it to have been only a particular case under a general prohibitory rule.

Arrian, ii. 1, 7; ii. 2, 4. Demosth. de Foed. Alex, p. 213. Tenedos, Mityl?n?, Antissa, and Eresus, can hardly have been members of the convention when first sworn.

Demosth. Orat. de Foed. Alex. p. 215. ???? ??? ?? ???? ????????? ???????????? ~???? ????????????? ??? ???? ??? ?? ????? ?????? ???????????~, ???? ?? ???? ???????????? ?????? ?? ????????? ??????? ???? ????? ???? ???? ????????? ???? ?????? ??????.... ?? ?? ???????? ?????? ?????? ?? ???????, ???? ??? ??????????????????, etc. .

The persons designated by ?? ??, and denounced throughout this oration generally, are, Alexander or the Macedonian officers and soldiers.

A passage in Deinarchus cont. Demosth. p. 14, leads to the supposition, that a standing Macedonian force was kept at Corinth, occupying the Isthmus. The Thebans, however, declared against Macedonia , and proceeding to besiege the Macedonian garrison in the Kadmeia, sent envoys to entreat aid from the Arcadians. "These envoys got with difficulty by sea to the Arcadians"--?? ???? ???????? ~?????~ ???????? ???? ????????. Whence should this difficulty arise, except from a Macedonian occupation of Corinth?

Such was the convention, in so far as we know its terms, agreed to by the Grecian deputies at Corinth with Alexander; but with Alexander at the head of an irresistible army. He proclaimed it as the "public statute of the Greeks", constituting a paramount obligation, of which he was the enforcer, binding on all, and authorizing him to treat all transgressors as rebels. It was set forth as counterpart of, and substitute for, the convention of Antalkidas, which we shall presently see the officers of Darius trying to revive against him--the headship of Persia against that of Macedonia. Such is the melancholy degradation of the Grecian World, that its cities have no alternative except to choose between these two foreign potentates--or to invite the help of Darius, the most distant and least dangerous, whose headship could hardly be more than nominal, against a neighbor sure to be domineering and compressive, and likely enough to be tyrannical. Of the once powerful Hellenic chiefs and competitors--Sparta, Athens, Thebes--under each of whom the Grecian world had been upheld as an independent and self-determining aggregate, admitting the free play of native sentiment and character, under circumstances more or less advantageous--the two last are now confounded as common units among the subject allies of Alexander; while Sparta preserves only the dignity of an isolated independence.

Arrian, i. 16, 10. ???? ?? ????? ??????? ???? ???????. After the death of Darius, Alexander pronounced that the Grecian mercenaries who had been serving with that prince, were highly criminal for having contravened the general vote of the Greeks , except such as had taken service before that vote was passed, and except the Sinopeans, whom Alexander considered as subjects of Persia and not partakers ??? ?????? ??? ??????? .

It appears that during the nine months which succeeded the swearing of the convention, Alexander and his officers were active, both by armed force and by mission of envoys, in procuring new adhesions and in re-modelling the governments of various cities suitably to their own views. Complaints of such aggressions were raised in the public assembly of Athens, the only place in Greece where any liberty of discussion still survived. An oration, pronounced by Demosthenes, Hyperides, or one of the contemporary, anti-Macedonian politicians , imparts to us some idea both of the Macedonian interventions steadily going on, and of the unavailing remonstrances raised against them by individual Athenian citizens. At the time of this oration, such remonstrances had already been often repeated. They were always met by the macedonizing Athenians with peremptory declarations that the convention must be observed. But in reply, the remonstrants urged, that it was unfair to call upon Athens for strict observance of the convention, while the Macedonians and their partisans in the various cities were perpetually violating it for their own profit. Alexander and his officers had never once laid down their arms since the convention was settled. They had been perpetually tampering with the governments of the various cities, to promote their own partisans to power. In Mess?n?, Sikyon, and Pell?n?, they had subverted the popular constitutions, banished many citizens, and established friends of their own as despots. The Macedonian force, destined as a public guarantee to enforce the observance of the convention, had been employed only to overrule its best conditions, and to arm the hands of factious partisans. Thus Alexander in his capacity of Imperator, disregarding all the restraints of the convention, acted as chief despot for the maintenance of subordinate despots in the separate cities. Even at Athens, this imperial authority had rescinded sentences of the dikastery, and compelled the adoption of measures contrary to the laws and constitution.

This is the oration ???? ??? ???? ?????????? ???????? already more than once alluded to above. Though standing among the Demosthenic works, it is supposed by Libanius as well as by most modern critics not to be the production of Demosthenes--upon internal grounds of style, which are certainly forcible. Libanius says that it bears much resemblance to the style of Hyperides. At any rate, there seems no reason to doubt that it is a genuine oration of one of the contemporary orators. I agree with B?hnecke in thinking that it must have been delivered a few months after the convention with Alexander, before the taking of Thebes.

Demosthenes , Orat. De Foedere Alex. p. 216. ???? ??? ?????? ?????? ?? ???? ???????? ? ???????, ???? ???? ???????? ??????, ???? ??? ??? ??? ??????????? ???? ???? ???????, etc.

Demosth. ib. p. 214, 215.

Demosth. Orat. De Foedere Alex. p. 212, 214, 215, 220, where the orator speaks of Alexander as the ???????? of Greece.

The orator argues that the Macedonians had recognized despotism as contrary to the convention, in so far as to expel the despots from the towns of Antissa and Eresus in Lesbos. But probably these despots were in correspondence with the Persians on the opposite mainland, or with Memnon.

Demosth. ib. p. 215. ???? ?? ?????? ???? ?????? ??????????? ?????, ???? ??? ??????????? ?? ???? ???????????? ????????, ????? ?? ???????? ??????? ?????????? ??????????....

Demosth. Orat. De Foedere Alex. p. 217. ??? ????? ??? ????????? ?????, ???? ??? ??????? ?????? ?? ?? ??? ?????? ????? ?????????, ??? ????????????? ???? ???? ?? ???????? ???????, ???? ????? ?????????? ???????? ?????? ??????? ??? ????????? ????? ????--? ???? ????????? ???????? ?????? ??????????? ??????? ??? ???? ???????? ?????????.... p. 218. ??? ??? ?? ??? ??? ???? ???????? ??? ?????? ?????????????? ????? ??????? , ???? ?? ???? ??? ???? ?? ????????? ??????? ???? ???????? ?????? ??????????? ????????, etc.

We know that Alexander caused a squadron of ships to sail round to and up the Danube from Byzantium , to meet him after his march by land from the southern coast of Thrace. It is not improbable that the Athenian vessels detained may have come loaded with a supply of corn, and that the detention of the corn-ships may have been intended to facilitate this operation.

Demosth. Orat. De Foedere Alex. p. 219.

"Let those speakers who are perpetually admonishing us to observe the convention , prevail on the imperial chief to set the example of observing it on his part. I too impress upon you the like observance. To a democracy nothing is more essential than scrupulous regard to equity and justice. But the convention itself enjoins all its members to make war against transgressors; and pursuant to this article, you ought to make war against Macedon. Be assured that all Greeks will see that the war is neither directed against them nor brought on by your fault. At this juncture, such a step for the maintenance of your own freedom as well as Hellenic freedom generally, will be not less opportune and advantageous than it is just. The time is come for shaking off your disgraceful submission to others, and your oblivion of our own past dignity. If you encourage me, I am prepared to make a formal motion--To declare war against the violators of the convention, as the convention itself directs."

Demosth. ib. p. 211. ????? ??? ????? ???? ???? ???????????????? ???????, ?? ???? ?? ???? ??? ?? ??????? ??????????.

I give here the main sense, without binding myself to the exact phrases.

Demosth. ib. p. 213. ??? ??? ??? ????????????? ?? ???? ?????????, ???????? ?????, ??? ?????? ???? ?????????? ????????, ????? ???? ??? ??????? ??????????, ??? ??? ????? ?????, ??? ???????????? ??? ????? ???????. Compare p. 214 init.

Demosth. ib. p. 217. ?????? ???? ????????? ???? ??? ??????? ?? ??? ???????? ?? ??? ????? ?????????????, ???? ??? ????? ??????? ??? ????? ?????????? ???? ????? ?????????, etc.

Demosth. ib. p. 214. ???? ??, ??? ??? ????? ??????? ??? ??? ? ?????? ??? ?? ???????? ?????????????, ????? ??? ???? ?????? ?????????? ??? ????? ?????????? ??? ??? ??? ??? ????? ??????? ?????????????

Demosth. ib. p. 220. ?? ??? ???? ??? ????????? ??????? ??????? ?????????????, ???? ???? ???????????? ???????? ?????????? ??? ?? ??????????? ??? ???????? ??? ??????? ?????? ???????? ???? ??????????.

Demosth. Orat. De Foedere Alex. ??? ??? ????????, ?????, ??????? ?? ???????? ?????????, ???????? ???? ?????????????.

A formal motion for declaring war would have brought upon the mover a prosecution under the Graph? Paranom?n. Accordingly, though intimating clearly that he thought the actual juncture suitable, he declined to incur such responsibility without seeing beforehand a manifestation of public sentiment sufficient to give him hopes of a favorable verdict from the Dikastery. The motion was probably not made. But a speech so bold, even though not followed up by a motion, is in itself significant of the state of feeling in Greece during the months immediately following the Alexandrine convention. This harangue is only one among many delivered in the Athenian assembly, complaining of Macedonian supremacy as exercised under the convention. It is plain that the acts of Macedonian officers were such as to furnish ample ground for complaint; and the detention of all the trading ships coming out of the Euxine, shows us that even the subsistence of Athens and the islands had become more or less endangered. Though the Athenians resorted to no armed interference, their assembly at least afforded a theatre where public protest could be raised and public sympathy manifested.

It is probable too that at this time Demosthenes and the other anti-Macedonian speakers were encouraged by assurances and subsidies from Persia. Though the death of Philip, and the accession of an untried youth of twenty, had led Darius to believe for the moment that all danger of Asiatic invasion was past, yet his apprehensions were now revived by Alexander's manifested energy, and by the renewal of the Grecian league under his supremacy. It was apparently during the spring of 335 B. C., that Darius sent money to sustain the anti-Macedonian party at Athens and elsewhere. AEschines affirms, and Deinarchus afterwards repeats --That about this time, Darius sent to Athens 300 talents, which the Athenian people refused, but which Demosthenes took, reserving however 70 talents out of the sum for his own private purse: That public inquiry was afterwards instituted on the subject. Yet nothing is alleged as having been made out; at least Demosthenes was neither condemned, nor even brought to any formal trial. Out of such data we can elicit no specific fact. But they warrant the general conclusion, that Darius, or the satraps in Asia Minor, sent money to Athens in the spring of 335 B. C., and letters or emissaries to excite hostilities against Alexander.

Diodorus, xvii. 7.

AEschines adv. Ktesiph. p. 634; Deinarchus adv. Demosth. s. 11-19, p. 9-14. It is AEschines who states that the 300 talents were sent to the Athenian people, and refused by them.

Three years later, after the battle of Issus, Alexander in his letter to Darius accuses that prince of having sent both letters and money into Greece, for the purpose of exciting war against him. Alexander states that the Lacedaemonians accepted the money, but that all the other Grecian cities refused it . There is no reason to doubt these facts; but I find nothing identifying the precise point of time to which Alexander alludes.

That Demosthenes, and probably other leading orators, received such remittances from Persia, is no evidence of that personal corruption which is imputed to them by their enemies. It is no way proved that Demosthenes applied the money to his own private purposes. To receive and expend it in trying to organize combinations for the enfranchisement of Greece, was a proceeding which he would avow as not only legitimate but patriotic. It was aid obtained from one foreign prince to enable Hellas to throw off the worse dominion of another. At this moment, the political interests of Persia coincided with that of all Greeks who aspired to freedom. Darius had no chance of becoming master of Greece; but his own security prescribed to him to protect her from being made an appendage of the Macedonian kingdom, and his means of doing so were at this moment ample, had they been efficaciously put forth. Now the purpose of a Greek patriot would be to preserve the integrity and autonomy of the Hellenic world against all foreign interference. To invoke the aid of Persia against Hellenic enemies,--as Sparta had done both in the Peloponnesian war and at the peace of Antalkidas, and as Thebes and Athens had followed her example in doing afterwards--was an unwarrantable proceeding: but to invoke the same aid against the dominion of another foreigner, at once nearer and more formidable, was open to no blame on the score either of patriotism or policy. Demosthenes had vainly urged his countrymen to act with energy against Philip, at a time when they might by their own efforts have upheld the existing autonomy both for Athens and for Greece generally. He now seconded or invited Darius, at a time when Greece single-handed had become incompetent to the struggle against Alexander, the common enemy both of Grecian liberty and of the Persian empire. Unfortunately for Athens as well as for himself, Darius, with full means of resistance in his hands, played his game against Alexander even with more stupidity and improvidence than Athens had played hers against Philip.

While such were the aggressions of Macedonian officers in the exercise of their new imperial authority, throughout Greece and the islands--and such the growing manifestations of repugnance to it at Athens--Alexander had returned home to push the preparations for his Persian campaign. He did not however think it prudent to transport his main force into Asia, until he had made his power and personal ascendency felt by the Macedonian dependencies, westward, northward, and north-eastward of Pella--Illyrians, Paeonians, and Thracians. Under these general names were comprised a number of distinct tribes, or nations, warlike and for the most part predatory. Having remained unconquered until the victories of Philip, they were not kept in subjection even by him without difficulty: nor were they at all likely to obey his youthful successor, until they had seen some sensible evidence of his personal energy.

Strabo speaks of the Thracian ???? as twenty-two in number, capable of sending out 200,000 foot, and 15,000 horses .

Accordingly, in the spring, Alexander put himself at the head of a large force, and marched in an easterly direction from Amphipolis, through the narrow Sapaean pass between Philippi and the sea. In ten days' march he reached the difficult mountain path over which alone he could cross Mount Haemus Here he found a body of the free Thracians and of armed merchants of the country, assembled to oppose his progress; posted on the high ground with waggons in their front, which it was their purpose to roll down the steep declivity against the advancing ranks of the Macedonians. Alexander eluded this danger by ordering his soldiers either to open their ranks, so as to let the waggons go through freely--or where there was no room for such loose array, to throw themselves on the ground with their shields closely packed together and slanting over their bodies; so that the waggons, dashing down the steep and coming against the shields, were carried off the ground, and made to bound over the bodies of the men to the space below. All the waggons rolled down without killing a single man. The Thracians, badly armed, were then easily dispersed by the Macedonian attack, with the loss of 1500 men killed, and all their women and children made prisoners. The captives and plunder were sent back under an escort to be sold at the seaports.

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