Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/440

 tU IIISTOR-Y OF GREECE. own, that Philip is vigorously prosecuting the siege of Theboa You will find that he will capture and break up that city that he will exact from the Thebans compensation for the treasure ravished from Delphi and that he will restore the subjugated communities of Plataea and Thespice. Nay more you will hear of benefits still more direct, which we have determined Philip to confer upon you, but which it would not be prudent as yet to particularize. Euboea will be restored to you as a compensation for Amphipolis : the Eubo3ans have already expressed the great- est alarm at the confidential relations between Athens and Philip, and the probability of his ceding to you their island. There are other matters too, on which I do not wish to speak out fully, be cause I have false friends even among my own colleagues." These last ambiguous allusions were generally understood, and proclaimed by the persons round the orator, to refer to Oropus, the ancient possession of Athens, now in the hands of Thebes. 1 Such glowing promises, of benefits to come, were probably crowned by the announcement, more worthy of credit, that Philip had engaged to send back all the Athenian prisoners by the com- ing Panathenaic festival, 9 which fell during the next month He katombzeon. 1 I have here condensed the substance of what is stated by Demosthe nes, Fals. Leg. p. 347, 348, 351, 352, 3G4, 411, etc. Another statement, to the same effect, made by Demosthenes in the Oration De Pace (delivered only a few months after the assembly here described, and not a judicial ac- cusation against JEschines, but a deliberative harangue before the public sssembly), is even better evidence than the accusatory speech De FalsA iiCgatione rjviKa rot)f opkov^ roiif irepl rrjq eipffvrjf inrei^,ri6TEf f/Kottev oi 7r0(T/3ef, TOTS Gecnuuf nvuv Kal IIAaratuf inria^vovfievuv otKio&Tiaea&ai, Kal Tovf HEV i?i,imrov, uv yivTjTO.1 Kvptof, auaeiv, TTJV 6s Qrjfiaiuv -irokiv dioiKislv, Kal TOV 'Qpuirbv ifj.lv VTrupgeiv, Kal rr/v Ev/?otav uvr' 'AprtftovE)ETE, 6ri TCIVTCL OVTE olda ovTe TrpoadoKtJ, voftifa 6s Tot 3cyovra Tijjpelv (De Pace, p. 59). Compare also Philippic ii. p. 72, 73, where Demosthenes repeats the like assertion; also De Chersonese, p. 105; De CoronA, p. 236, 237. u.iroTrt-fril>eiv) that he received this assurance from Philip, while he was busy- Ing himself during the mission in efforts to procure the ransom or libora
 * Demosthenes states (Fals. Leg. p. 394. de TO. Y.ava$T]vaia fy'rjaai