Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/348

 322 HISTORY OF GREECE. voke his wruth, we are not informed ; but such tragedies were not uufrequent in the Macedonian regal family. While Olynthus was friendly and grateful to Philip, these exiles would not have resorted thither; but they were now favorably received, and may perhaps have held out hopes that in case of war they could raise a Mace- donian party against Philip. To that prince, the reception of his fugitive enemies served as a plausible pretence for war which he doubtless would under all circumstances have prosecuted against Olynthus ; and it seems to have been so put forward in his public declarations. 1 But Philip, in accomplishing his conquests, knew Avell how to blend the influences of deceit and geduction with those of arms, and to divide or corrupt those whom he intended to subdue. To such insidious approaches Olynthus was in many ways open. The power of that city consisted, in great part, in her position as chief of a numerous confederacy, including a large proportion, though probably not all, of the Grecian cities in the peninsula of Chalki- dike. Among the different members of such a confederacy, there was more or less of dissentient interest or sentiment, which acci- dental circumstances might inflame so as to induce a wish for sepa- ration. In each city moreover, and in Olynthus itself, there were ambitious citizens competing for power, and not scrupulous as to the means whereby it was to be acquired or retained. In each C f them, Philip could open intrigues, and enlist partisans ; in some, rf his exploits, while it inspired alarm in some quarters, raised Vopes among disappointed and jealous minorities. If, through fcUch predisposing circumstances, he either made or found partisans and traitors in the distant cities of Peloponnesus, much more was this practicable for him in the neighboring peninsula of Chalki- dike. Olynthus and the other cities were nearly all contermin- ous with the Macedonian territory, some probably with boundaries not clearly settled. Perdikkas II. had given to the Olynthiana 1 Justin, viii. 3 ; Orosius, iii. 12. Justin states this as the cause of the at-. tack made by Philip on Olynthus which I do not believe. But I see no ground for doubting the fact itself or for doubting that Philip laid hold of it as a pretext. He found the halfrbrothera in Olynthus when the city wai taken, and put both of them to death,.
 * e would probably receive invitations to do so ; for the greatness