Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/377

 CONQUEST OF OLYNTHUS. 831

the town to aid in the defence ; * so that the Olynthians might reasonably calculate that Athens would strain eveiy nerve tc guard her own citizens against captivity. But their hopes were disappointed. How long the siege lasted, or whether there was time for Athens to send farther reinforcement, we cannot say. The Olynthinans are said to have repulsed several assaults of Philip with loss ; but according to Demosthenes, the philippiz- ing party, headed by the venal Euthykrates and Lasthenes, brought about the banishment of their chief opponent Apollonides, nulli- fied all measures for energetic defence, and treasonably surren- dered the city. Two defeats were sustained near its walls, and one of the generals of this party, having five hundred cavalry under his command, betrayed them designedly into the hands of the invader. 2 Olynthus, with all its inhabitants and property, at length fell into the hands of Philip. His mastery of the Cbalki- dic peninsula thus became complete towards the end of winter, 348-347 B. c. Miserable was the ruin which fell upon this flourishing penin- sula. The persons of the Olynthians, men, women and chil- dren, were sold into slavery. The wealth of the city gave to Philip the means of recompensing his soldiers for the toils of the war ; the city itself he is said to have destroyed, together with Apollonia, Methone, Stageira, etc., in all, thirty-two Chalki- dic cities. Demosthenes, speaking about five years afterwards, says that they were so thoroughly and cruelly ruined as to leave their very sites scarcely discernible. 3 Making every allowance for exaggeration, we may fairly believe that they were dismantled, and bereft of all citizen proprietors ; that the buildings and visible marks of Hellenic city-life were broken up or left to decay ; that the remaining houses, as well as the villages around, were ten- anted by dependent cultivators or slaves, now working for the benefit of new Macedonian proprietors, in great part non- resident, and probably of favored Grecian grantees also. 4 Though 1 ^Eschines, Fals. Leg. p. 30. 2 Demosth. Philipp. iii. p. 125-128; Fals. Leg. p. 426 ; Diodor. xvi. 53. 3 Demosth. Philipp. iii. p. 117 ; Justin, viii. 3. 4 Demosthenes, (Fals. Leg. p.386) says, that both Philokrates and JEschi- nes received from Philip, not only presents of timber and corn, but 'also grants of productive and valuable farms in the Olynthian territory. He