Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/262

 23 G HISTORY OF GREECE. with Athens, because the Olynthians had conceived serious alarm from his conquest of Amphipolis, and had sent to negotiate a treaty of amity and alliance with the Athenians. Such an alli- ance, had it been concluded, would have impeded the farther schemes of Philip. But his partisans at Athens procured the dis- missal of the Olynthian envoys, by renewed assurances that the Macedonian prince was still the friend of Athens, and still dis- posed to cede Amphipolis as her legitimate possession. They represented, however, that he had good ground for complaining that Athens continued to retain Pydna, an ancient Macedonian sea- port. 1 Accordingly they proposed to open negotiations with him for the exchange of Pydna against Amphipolis. But as the Pydnseans were known to be adverse to the transfer, secrecy was indispensable in the preliminary proceedings, so that Antiphon and Charidemus, the two envoys named, took their instructions from the Senate and made their reports only to the Senate. The public assembly being informed that negotiations, unavoidably secret, were proceeding, to ensure the acquisition of Amphipolis was persuaded to repel the advances of Olynthus, as well as to look upon Philip still as a friend. 2 The proffered alliance of the Olynthians was thus rejected, as the entreaty of the Amphipolitans for aid had previously been. Athens had good reason to repent of both. The secret negotia- tion brought her no nearer to the possession of Amphipolis. It ended in nothing, or in worse than nothing, as it amused her with delusive expectations, while Philip opened a treaty with the Olyn- thians, irritated, of course, by their recent repulse at Athens. As yet he had maintained pacific relations with the Athenians, even while holding Amphipolis contrary to his engagement. But he now altered his policy, and contracted alliance with the Olynthians ; whose friendship he purchased not only by ceding to them the district of Anthemus (lying between Olynthus and Therma, and disputed by the Olynthians with former Macedonian kings), but also by 1 Thucyd. i. 61, 137 ; Diodor. xiii. 49. Pydna had been acquired to Athens by Timotheus. alluded to briefly by Demosthenes, and appears to have been fully noticed by Theopompus (Demosthenes, Olynth. ii. p. 19. s. 6. with the comment* of Ulpian ; Theopompus, Fr. 189, ed. Didot).
 * This secret negotiation, about the exchange of Pydna for Amphipolis, is