Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/331

 PHILIP'S CRUISERS. 305 with what he already possessed at Amphipolis and elsewhere, made him speedily annoying, if not formidable, to Athens, even at sea. His triremes showed themselves everywhere, probably in small and rapidly moving squadrons. He levied large contribu- tions on the insular allies of Athens, and paid the costs of war greatly out of the capture of merchant vessels in the JEgean. His squadrons made incursions on the Athenian islands of Lem- nos and Imbros, carrying off several Athenian citizens as prison- ers. They even stretched southward as far as Gerosstus, the southern promontory of Euboea, where they not only fell in with and captured a lucrative squadron of corn-ships, but also insulted the coast of Attica itself in the opposite bay of Marathon, towing off as a prize one of the sacred triremes. 1 Such was the mischief cision ; the Thcssalians passed a vote to remonstrate with Philip ; it is not probable that they actually hindered him. And if he afterwards " gave to them Magnesia," as we are told in a later oration delivered 344 B. c. (Phi- lippic ii. p. 71. s. 24), he probably gave it with reserve of the fortified posts to himself; since we know that his ascendency over Thessaly was not only not relaxed, but became more violent and compressive. The value which the Macedonian kings always continued to set, from this time forward, upon Magnesia and the recess of the Pagasaean Gulf, is shown in the foundation of the city of Demetrias in that important position, by Demetrius Poliorketcs, about sixty years afterwards. Demetrias, Chal- kis, and Corinth came to be considered the most commanding positions in Greece. This fine bay, with the fertile territory lying on its shores under Mount Pelion, are well described by colonel Leake, Travels in Northern Greece, vol. iv. ch. 41. p. 373 seqq. I doubt whether either Ulpian (ad Demosthen. Olynth. i. p. 24) or colonel Leake (p. 381) are borne out in supposing that there was any town called Magnesia on the shores of the Gulf. None such is mentioned either by Strabo or by Skylax ; and I apprehend that the pas sages above cited from Demosthenes mean Magnesia the region inhabited by the Magnetes; as in Demosthenes cont. Neaeram. p. 1382. s. 141. 1 Demosthenes, Philippic i. p. 46. s. 25. del yap, e%ovTOf EKELVOV VUVTIKOV, Kai ra^eiuv Tpiqptiv rj/ilv, OTTUC uff0/Uif rj dvvafiif TrAq? p. 49. s. 38. Hpti rov fiev, rbv fteyiarov TUV EKEIVOV iropuv u^aiprjascr&e' larl (5' otirof rif, iirij TUV vfifrepuv iifilv irofafisl aufifiu^uv, ayuv nal tyepuv roi)f TrAeovraf TTJV iJuAaffaav. "EiTEira, ri Trpbf TOVTO ; rov ^aa^eiv avroi /ca/cwf Ifu ni)% uaiiEp TOV TrapeTifiovTa %povov eif AJJ/J.VOV /cot "Ififipov e[4pa?MV Tovf Tro/Uraf vuerepovf ^.'er' aywv, Trpdf r etc - We can hardly be certain that th 3 Sacred Trireme thus taken was eit-M 26*