Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/319

 DEMOSTHENES INVADES -ETOLIA. 07 lions, 1 more worthy of the large force which he commanded than the, mere reduction of Leukas. The various tribes of JEtoliaus, rude, brave, active, predatory, and unrivalled in the use of the javelin, which they rarely laid out of their hands, stretched across the country from between Parnassus and CEta to the eastern bank of the Achelous. The scheme suggested by the Messenians was, that Demosthenes should attack the great central jEtolian tribes, the Apodoti, Ophioneis, and Eurytancs : if they were conquered, all the remaining continental tribes between the Ambrakian gulf and Mount Parnassus might be invited or forced into the alliance of Athens, the Akarnanians being already included in it. Having thus got the command of a large continental force, 2 Demosthenes contemplated the ulterior scheme of marching at the head of it on the west of Parnassus, through the territory of the Ozolian Lokrians, inhabiting the north of the Corinthian gulf, friendly to Athens, and enemies to the .^Eto- lians, whom they resembled both in their habits and in their fighting, until he arrived at Kytinium, in Doris, in the upper portion of the valley of the river Kephisus. He would then easily descend that valley into the territory of the Phocians, who were likely to join the Athenians if a favorable opportunity oc- curred, but who might at any rate be constrained to do so. From Phocis, the scheme was to invade from the northward the conter- minous territory of Boeotia, the great enemy of Athens : which might thus perhaps be completely subdued, if assailed at the same time from Attica. Any Athenian general, who could have executed this comprehensive scheme, would have acquired at home a high and well-merited celebrity. But Demosthenes had been ill-informed, both of the invincible barbarians and the path- less country comprehended under the name of JEtolia : some of 1 Thucyd. iii, 95. ^Tjfioadevrjf <5' uvaTrel&erai Kara rbv xpovov TOVTOV iiirb M.eaaj]vi2o rjTreipuTiicdv rd ravTy. None of the tribes properly called Epirots, would be comprised in this expression : the name ifxeipu-ai is here a general name, not a proper name, as Poppo and Dr. Arnold remark. Demosthenes would calculate on getting under his orders the Akarnanians and JEtolians, and some other tribes besides ; but what other tribes, it is not easy to specify : perhaps the Agnei, cast of Am ohilochipi, among them. 13*