Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/445

 POSITION OP THE PHOKIANS. 415,- thousand Lacedaemonian auxiliaries. 1 The defensive force thus assembled was amply sufficient against Philip by land ; but that important pass could not be held without the cooperation of a su- perior fleet at sea. 2 Now the Phokians had powerful enemies even within the pass the Thebans ; and there was no obstacle, except the Athenian fleet under Proxenus at Oreus, 3 to prevent Philip from landing troops in the rear of Thermopylae, joining the The- bans, and making himself master of Phokis from the side towards Boeotia. To the safety of the Phokians, therefore, the continued mari- time protection of Athens was indispensable ; and they doubtless watched with trembling anxiety the deceitful phases of Athenian diplomacy during the winter and spring of 347-346 B. c. Their deputies must have been present at Athens when the treaty was concluded and sworn in March 346 B. c. Though compelled to endure not only the refusal of Antipater excluding them from the oath, but also the consent of their Athenian allies, tacitly acted upon without being formally announced, to take the oath without them, they nevertheless heard the assurances, confidently ad- dressed by Philokrates and .JEschines to the people, that this refusal was a mere feint to deceive the Thessalians and Thebans, that Philip would stand forward as the protector of the Pho- kians, and that all his real hostile purposes were directed against Thebes. How the Phokians interpreted such tortuous and con- tradictory policy, we are not told. But their fate hung upon the determination of Athens ; and during the time when the Ten 1 Demosth. Fals. Leg. p. 365; Diodor. xvi. 59. Xerxes, the Grecian fleet at Artemisiura was not less essential than the land force of Leonidas encamped in the pass itself. 3 That the Phokians could not maintain Thermopylae without the aid of Athens and that Philip could march to the frontier of Attica, with- out any intermediate obstacle to prevent him, if Olynthus were suffered to fall into his hand is laid down emphatically by Demosthenes in ths first Olynthiac, nearly four years before the month of Skirrophorion, 346 B. c. cl, tl HTJ hiav niKftiv elrcelv, Kal avveia^a^ovaiv iToi/.iu. 'A/i/la 4>u/ce?f ; oi rtjv oiKeiav ov% oloi re ovref tyvhaTreiv, iuv UTJ (3oT]&7ia&' iifieif (Demosth. Olynth. i. p. 16).
 * For the defence of Thermopylae, at the period of the inTasion of
 * Av 6' iKelva $i7i,nr7ro Tia/By, rig aiirbv KU^VGEI devpo (3adi&iv; QTjjBaloi;