Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/320

 294 HISTORY OF GREECE. forward be held under his dependence. Onomarchus accordingly joined him in Thessaly with a large array, said to consist of twen- ty thousand foot and five hundred cavalry. But he found on this occasion, within the country, more obstinate resistance than before ; for the cruel dynasty of Pheroe had probably abused their previ- ous victory by aggravated violence and rapacity, so as to throw into the arms of their enemy a multitude of exiles. On Philip's coming into Thessaly with a new army, the Thessalians embraced his cause so warmly, that he scon found himself at the head of an army of twenty thousand foot and three thousand horse. On- omarchus met him in the field, somewhere near the southern coast of Thessaly ; not diffident of success, as well from his recent vic- tories, as from the neighborhood of an Athenian fleet under Chares, cooperating with him. Here a battle was joined, and obstinately contested between the two armies, nearly equal in numbers of in- fantry. Philip exalted the courage of his soldiers by decorating them with laurel wreaths, 1 as crusaders in the service of the god against the despoilers of the Delphian temple ; while the Thessa- lians also, forming the best cavalry in Greece and fighting with earnest valor, gave decisive advantage to his cause. The defeat of the forces of Onomarchus and Lykophron was complete. Six thousand of them are said to have been slain, and three thousand to have been taken prisoners; the remainder escaped either by flight, or by throwing away their arms, and swimming off to the Athenian ships. Onomarchus himself perished. According to one account, he was slain by his own mercenaries, provoked by his cowardice : according to another account, he was drowned being carried into the sea by an unruly horse, and trying to escape to the ships. Philip caused his dead body to be crucified, and drowned all the prisoners as men guilty of sacrilege. 2 1 This fact is mentioned by Justin (vii. 2), and seems likely to be true, from the severity with which Philip, after his victory, treated the Phokian prisoners. But the farther statement of Justin is not likely to be true that the Phokians, on beholding the insignia of the god, threw away their amis and fled without resistance. Evang. viii. p. 392. Diodorus states that Chares with the Athenian fleet was sailing by, accidentally. But this seems highly improbable. It cannot cut be supposed that he was destined to cooperate with the Phokians.
 * Diodor. xvi. 55 ; Pausan. x. 2, 3 ; Philo Judaeus apud Euscbium Pnep