Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/353

Rh PIIOCION. ging the king to leave him no less honest than he found him, and only so far availed himself of the royal favour as to request the liberty of certain prisoners at Sardis, which was immediately granted to him. In b. c. 325, when Harpalus fled to Athens for refuge, he endeavoured, but of course in vain, to buy the good offices of Phocion, who more- over refused to support or countenance his own son-in-law, Charicles, when the latter was after- wards brought to trial for having taken bribes from the fugitive. When, however, Antipater and Phi- loxenus required of the Athenians the surrender of Harpalus, Phocion joined Demosthenes in ad- vising them to resist the demand ; but their efforts were unsuccessful, and the rebel was thrown into prison till Alexander's pleasure should be known [Harpalus]. After the death of Harpalus, ac- cording to Plutarch, a daughter of his by his mistress Pythionice was taken care of and brought up by Charicles and Phocion. When the tidings of Alexander's death reached Athens, in B. c. 323, Phocion fruitlessly attempted to moderate the impatient joy of the people ; and the proposal which soon followed for war with An- tipater, he opposed vehemently, and with all the caustic bitterness which characterised him. Thus, to Hypereldes, who asked him tauntingly when he would advise the Athenians to go to war, he an- swered, " When I see the young willing to keep their ranks, the rich to contribute of their wealth, and the orators to abstain from pilfering the public money ; " and he rebuked the confidence of the newly-elected general, Leosthenes, with the remark, " Young man, your words are like cypress trees ; stately and high they are, but they bear no fruit." In the same spirit he received the news of the first successes of the confederate Greeks, exclaiming sarcastically, " When shall we have done conquer- ing ? " It is no wonder then that, on the death of Leosthenes before Lamia, the Athenians shrunk from appointing Phocion to conduct the war, and elected Antiphilus in preference. Shortly after this he restrai^gd his countrymen, with difficulty and at the peril of his life, from a rash expedition they were anxious to make against the Boeotian towns, which sided with Macedonia ; and in the same year (323) he defeated Micion, a Macedo- nian officer, who had made a descent on the coast of Attica, and who was slain in the battle. In b. c. 322, the victory gained over the Greeks at Cranon in Thessaly, by the Macedonian forces, placed Athens at the mercy of Antipater ; and Phocion, as the most influential man of the anti-national party, was sent, with Demades and others, to the conqueror, then encamped in the Cadmeia, to obtain the best terms they could. Among these there was one, viz. the admission of a Macedonian garrison into Munychia, which Phocion strove, but to no purpose, to induce Antipater to dispense with. The garrison, however, was commanded by Me- nyllus, a good and moderate man, and a friend of Phocion 's ; and the latter, by his influence with the new rulers of his country, contrived to soften in several respects her hard lot of servitude. Thus he prevailed on Antipater to recall many who had gone into exile, and to grant the Athenians a longer time for the payment of the expenses of the war, to which the terms of the capitulation bound them. At the same time he preserved, as he had always done, his own personal integrity unshaken. He refused all the presents offered him by Me- PHOCION. 341 nyllus, with the remark that Menyllus was not a greater man than Alexander, whose gifts he had before declined ; and he told Antipater, when he required of him some unbefitting action, that he could not have in him at once a friend and a flatterer. On the death of Antipater in b. c. 319, Cassan- der, anxious to anticipate his rival Polysperchon in making himself master of Athens, sent Nicanor to supersede Menyllus in Munychia, as if by An- tipater's authority, and when the real state of the case became known, Phocion did not escape the suspicion of having been privy to the deceit. He certainly gave a colour to the charge by his inti- macy with Nicanor, with whom however, as before with Menyllus, he used his influence in behalf of his fellow-citizens. But the discontent which his conduct had excited in them was still further in- creased by his obstinate refusal to distrust Nicanor or to take any steps against him, when the latter, instead of withdrawing the garrison in obedience to the decree of Polysperchon, continued to delude the Athenians with evasions and pretences, till he at length succeeded in occupying the Peiraeeus as well as Munchyia, and then declared openly that he meant to hold them both for Cassander. Shortly after this, Alexander, the son of Polysperchon, arrived at Athens, with the supposed intention of delivering it from Nicanor, and re-establishing de- mocracy. Many Athenian exiles came with him, as well as a number of strangers and disfranchised citizens, and by the votes of these in the assembly Phocion was deposed from his office. He then, according to Diodorus, persuaded Alexander that he could not maintain his hold on the city without seizing Munychia and the Peiraeeus for himself, a design, however, which Alexander had doubtless already formed before any communication with Phocion. But the Athenians at any rate regarded the latter as the author of it ; and their suspicions being further roused by the private conferences of Alexander with Nicanor, Phocion was accused of treason by Agnonides and fled, with several of his friends, to Alexander, who sent them with letters of recommendation to Polysperchon, then encamped at Pharygae, a village of Phocis. Hither there came also at the same time an Athenian embassy, with Agnonides at the head of it, to accuse Phocion and his adherents. Polysperchon, having doubt- less made up his mind to sacrifice them as a peace- oifering to the Athenians, whom he meant still to curb with a garrison, listened with favour to the charges, but would not hear the reply of the ac- cused, and Phocion and his friends were sent back in waggons to Athens for the people to deal with them as they would. Here again, in an assembly mainly composed of a mixed mob of disfranchised citizens, and foreigners, and slaves, Phocion strove in vain to obtain a hearing. By some it was even proposed that he should be tortured ; but this was not tolerated even by Agnonides. The sentence of death, however, was carrie by acclamation, and appears to have been executed forthwith. To the last, Phocion maintained his calm, and digni- fied, and somewhat contemptuous bearing. When some wretched man spat upon him as he passed to the prison, " Will no one," said he, " check this fellow's indecency.^" To one who asked him whether he had any message to leave for his son Phocus, he answered, " Only that he bear no grudge against the Athenians." And when the z 3