Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/333

 PHILIP IN THRACE. 30? was in Thrace besieging Herseon Teichos ; a place so near to the Chersonese, 1 that the Athenian possessions and colonists in that peninsula were threatened with considerable danger. So great was the alarm and excitement caused by this news, that a vote was immediately passed in the public assembly to equip a fleet of forty triremes, to man it with Athenian citizens, all persons up to the age of forty-five being made liable to serve on the expedi- tion, and to raise sixty talents by a direct property tax. At first active steps were taken to accelerate the armament. But before the difficulties of detail could be surmounted, before it could be determined, amidst the general aversion to personal service, what citizens should go abroad, and how the burthen of trierarchy should be distributed, fresh messengers arrived from the Cher- sonese, reporting first that Philip had fallen sick, next that he was actually dead. 2 The last-mentioned report proved false ; but the sickness of Philip was an actual fact, and seems to have been severe enough to cause a temporary suspension of his military operations. Though the opportunity became thus only the moro 1 Demosthenes, Olynth. iii. p. 29. s. 5 (delivered in the latter half of 350 B. C.) aTri7yyt'/.i9;/ 4>i/U7T7rof v/j.iv Iv QpaKtj, rpl-ovfi Teraprov eYof rovrt/Hpat ov Ttl%of nohiopKuv, TOTS roivvv fitjv (lev TJV MatfiaKTripitiv, etc. This Thracian expedition of Philip (alluded to also in Demosthenes, Olynth. i. p. 13. s. 13) stands fixed to the date of November 352 B.C., on rea- sonably good grounds. That the town or fortress called 'Hpalov Teixof was near to the Cher- sonese, cannot be doubted. The commentators identify it with 'Hpatop, mentioned by Herodotus (iv. 90) as being near Perinthus. But this hypo- thesis is open to much doubt. 'Hpalov Tft^of is not quite the same as 'Hpalov ; nor was the latter place very near to the Chersonese ; nor would Philip be yet in a condition to provoke or menace so powerful a city as Pe- rinthus though he did so ten years afterwards. (Diodor. xvi. 74). I cannot think that we know where 'Hpatov Tslxof was situated ; except that it was in Thrace, and near the Chersonese. 1 Demosthenes, Olynth. iii. p. 29, 30. 6Tepa), etc. These reports of the sickness and death of Philip in Thrace are alluded to in the first Philippic, p. 43. s. 14. The expedition of Philip threatening the Chersonese, and the vote pas-sed by the Athenians when they first heard of this expedition, are also alluded to in the first Philippic, p. 44. s. 20. p. 51. s. 46. nal vpelf, uv kv Xe/jpovr/oy irvdrio-&e QiAnrnuv, ticeiae 8orj&eiv ijjTiQifro&e, etc. When Philip was be sieging 'Hpalov TE^OJ, he was said to be