Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/399

 CHARIDEMUS IN THE CHERSONESE 377 commander, Kephisodotus, visited him, with a small squadron of ten triremes, in order to ask for the fulfilment of those fair promises which Charidemus had made in his letter from Asia. But Cha- ridemus treated the Athenians as enemies, attacked by surprise the seamen on shore, and inflicted upon them great damage. He then pressed the Chersonese severely for several months, and marched even into the midst of it, to protect a nest of pirates whom the Athenians were besieging at the neighboring islet on its western coast Alopekonnesus. At length, after seven months of unpro- fitable warfare (dating from the death of Kotys), he forced Kephi- sodotus to conclude with him a convention so disastrous and dis- honorable, that as soon as known at Athens, it was indignantly repudiated. 1 Kephisodotus, being recalled in disgrace, was put upon his trial, and fined ; the orator Demosthenes (we are told), who had served as one of the trierarchs in the fleet, being among his accusers. 2 Among the articles of this unfavorable convention, one was that 1 Demosthen. cont. Aristokrat. p. 674-676, s. 193-199. In sect. 194, are the words, TJKE de Kt} taodorog crrpar7?ywv, irpbf ov avrbf (Charidemus) inep^E r?)v iTciaTohr/v sKeivrjv, Kal at rpirjpeis, ai,, or' fyv adriT^a ril rye auTTjpiae airw, Kal pj avyxupovvrof 'ApTa(3aov au&tv {fie^ov O.VTOV. The verb rjKe refers, in my judgment not to the first coming out of Ke- phisodotus from Athens to take the command, as Weber (Comment, ad Demosth. cont. Aristokrat. p. 460) and other commentators think, but to the coming of Kephisodotus with ten triremes to Perinthus, near which place Charidemus was, for the purpose of demanding fulfilment of what the latter had promised ; see s. 196. When Kephisodotus came to him at Perinthus (napovrof TOV aTparriyou Trpof ov TT)V kniaTo'Xrjv en-Tr6ftei s. 195) to make this demand, then Charidemus, instead of behaving honestly, acted like a traitor and an enemy. The allusion to this antecedent letter from Charidemus to Kephisodotus, shows that the latter must have been on the spot for some time, and therefore that rjKs cannot refer to his first com- ing out. The teiTn knrd /ifjvac (s. 196) counts, I presume, from the death of Kotys, p, 384, c. 20. Demosthenes himself may probably have been among the trierarchs cal, led before the dikastery as witnesses to prove what took place at Perinthus and Alopekonnesus (Demosth. cont. Aristokrat. p. 676, s. 200) ; Euthykles the speaker of the discourse against Aristokrates, had been himself also among the officers serving (p. 675, s. 196; p. 683, s. 223).
 * Demosthen. cont. Aristokrat. p. 676, s. 199 ; JEschines cont. Ivtesiphont.