Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/431

 DELAY OF THE ENVOYS. 40o entire Grecian world. Ambassadors were already there from Thebes, Sparta, Eubcea, and Phokis ; moreover a large Matedo- nian army was assembled around, ready for immediate action. At length the Athenian envoys, after so long a delay of their own making, found themselves in the presence of Philip. And ve should have expected that they would forthwith perform their special commission by administering the oaths. But they still went on postponing this ceremony, and saying nothing about the obligation incumbent on him, to restore all the places captured since the day of taking the oaths to Antipater at Athens ; l places, which had now indeed become so numerous, through waste of time on the part of the envoys themselves, that Philip was not likely to yield the point even if demanded. In a conference held with his colleagues, JEschines assuming credit to himself for a view larger than that taken by them, of the ambassadorial duties treated the administration of the oath as merely secondary ; he insisted on the propriety of addressing Philip on the subject of the intended expedition to Thermopylae (which he was on the point of undertaking, as was plain from the large force mustered near Pella), and exhorting him to employ it so as to humble Thebes and reconstitute the Breotian cities. The envoys (he said) ought not to be afraid of braving any ill-will that might be manifested by the Thebans. Demosthenes (according to the statement of JEs- chines) opposed this recommendation insisting that the envoys ought not to mingle in disputes belonging to other parts of Greece, but to confine themselves to their special mission and declared that he should take no notice of Philip's march to Thermopylae. 2 At length, after much discussion, it was agreed among the envoys, that each of them, when called before Philip, should say what he thought fit, and that the youngest should speak first. TO ipqfj>iff/ua avTov (Philip) t^opKuauvruv, a. fiev eihfjtyei rrjf TroAewf, uTrodcj- aeiv, TUV Je AotTraJv uEe0&ai ij ftr) irotovvrof ravra inray yeAetvj^uuceii- 9(?&>f 6evpo, etc. 8 JEschines, Fals. Leg. p. 42. c. 33. iropeverai $i%nruo<; elf HtJ/laf kyd <!' tyKahvKTOfiai, etc. This is the language which JEschines affirms to have been held by Demosthenes during the embassy. It is totally at variance with all that Demosthenes affirms, over and over again, respecting his own proceedings; anl (in my judgment) with all the probabilities of the case.
 * Demosth. Fals. Leg. p. 388. ^ y&p itapovruv (we the envoys) KOL Kuril