Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/334

 508 HISTORY OF GREECK. favorable fur attacking Philip, yet the Athenians, no longei spurred on by the fear of farther immediate danger, relapsed into their former languor, and renounced or postponed their intended armament. After passing the whole ensuing summer in inaction, they could only be prevailed upon, in the month of September 351, lo despatch to Thrace a feeble force under the mercenary chief Charidemus ; ten triremes, without any soldiers aboard, and with no more than five talents in money.' At this time Charidemus was at the height of his popularity, It was supposed that he could raise and maintain a mercenary band by his own ingenuity and valor. His friends confidently averred, before the Athenian assembly, that he was the only man capable of putting down Philip, and conquering Amphipolis. 3 One of these partisans, Aristokrates, even went so far as to pro- pose that a vote should be passed ensuring inviolability to hL> person, and enacting that any one who killed him should be seized wherever found in the territory of Athens or her allies. This proposition was attacked judicially by an accuser named Euthy- kles, who borrowed a memorable discourse from the pen of Demosthenes. It was thus that the real sickness, and reported death, of Philip which ought to have operated as a stimulus to the Athenians by exposing to them their enemy during a moment of peculiar weak- ness, proved rather an opiate exaggerating their chronic lethargy, and cheating them into a belief that no farther efforts were needed. That belief appears to have been proclaimed by the leading, best-known, and senior speakers, those who gave the tone to the public assembly, and who were principally relied upon for advice. These men, probably Eubulus at their head, and Phokion, so constantly named as general, along with him, either did not feel, or could not bring themselves to proclaim, the painful necessity of personal military service and increased taxa- tion. Though repeated debates took place on the insults offered to Athens in her maritime dignity, and on the sufferings of those Demosthenes, Olynth. iii. p. 30. s. 6. 1 Demosthenes cont. Aristokrat. p. 625. a. 14. p. 682, 683. This oration, delivered between Midsummer 352 and Midsummer 351 B. c., seems to have been prior to November 352 B c., when the news reached Atheni that Philip was besieging 'Hpaiov