Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/249

Rh securing himself against the surrounding tribes of Epirus and Thrace.

By the exertions of Demosthenes—who was throwing all the weight of his eloquence into the opposition to Philip—a number of states, from Byzantium and Perinthus in the East to Corcyra in the West, had allied themselves with Athens to resist his further aggrandisement, and the Persian satraps had been induced to give their aid. For a brief space there seemed some hope, for Philip failed in his attack both on Perinthus and Byzantium. But in B.C. 337 the Amphictyons proclaimed another "sacred war" against the Locrians of Amphissa on the old charge of cultivating the sacred Cirrhaean plain, and summoned Philip to assist. He snatched at the opportunity, and in the winter of B.C. 339–338 marched southward. But instead of proceeding to Amphissa he seized Elateia, which commanded the plain of Boeotia. This produced such a feeling of alarm throughout Greece that Demosthenes was able to induce Thebes to join the alliance, and a mercenary army of some fifteen thousand men was got together besides forces sent from Athens and other towns. The details of the campaign that followed are not known, except that Demosthenes says that the Greeks won two battles. But the upshot was that about August 1st, B.C. 338, Philip, having already taken Amphissa and annihiliated a large force of mercenaries, won a decisive victory