Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/427

 CONDUCT OF DEMOSTHENES. 401 strong protest against abandoning the Phokians, which threatened to send Antipater home in disgust and intercept the coming peace, the more so as Demosthenes, if he called in question the as- surances of JEschines as to the projects of Philip, would have no positive facts to produce in refuting them, and would be con- strained to take the ground of mere scepticism and negation j 1 of which a public, charmed with hopeful auguries and already dis- armed through the mere comfortable anticipations of peace, would be very impatient. Nevertheless, we might have expected from a statesman like Demosthenes, that he would have begun his ener- getic opposition to the disastrous treaty of 346 B. c., at that mo- ment when the most disastrous and disgraceful portion of it, the abandonment of the Phokians, was first shuffled in. After the assembly of the 25th Elaphebolion, Antipater ad- ministered the oaths of peace and alliance to Athens and to all her other allies (seemingly including the envoy of Kersobleptes) in the Board-room of the Generals. 2 It now became the duty of the ten Athenian envoys, with one more from the confederate synod, the same persons who had been employed in the first embassy, to go and receive the oaths from Philip. Let us see how this duty was performed. The decree of the assembly, under which these envoys held their trust, was large and comprehensive. They were to receive an oath, of amity and alliance with Athens and her allies, from Philip as well as from the chief magistrate in each city allied with hi n. They were forbidden (by a curious restriction) to hold any 1 Demosth. Fals. Leg. p. 355. rpa^euf d ' v JMUV TCJ " pride IT poa fi o K&V'' a %6v r uv, etc. (the Athenian public were displeased with De mosthenes when he told them that he did not expect the promises of JEs- chines to be realized ; this was after the second embassy, but it illustrates the temper of the assembly even before the second embassy) ibid. p. 349. rif -/up uv Tjveoxero, Trj^iKavra Koi rotavra eaecr&ai irpoadoKuv uyotfu, i) rav&' uf OVK larai Aeyovrof rtvof, 37 Karrj-yopovvrof -uv ne- xpaynsvuv TOVTOIS ; How unpopular it was to set up mere negative mistrust against glowing promises of benefits to come, is here strongly urged by Demosthenes. Respecting the premature disarming of the Athenians, see Demosth. D Corona, p. 234. ^Eschincs, Tills. Leg. p. 39. c. 27. 34*