Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/456

 430 HISTORY OF GREECE. the Hellenic world ; first, in the new position of Philip both a* master of the keys of Greece and as recognized Amphiktyonic leader, with means of direct access and influence even on the in- most cities of Peloponnesus ; next, in the lowered banner, and uncovered frontier, of Athens, disgraced by the betrayal both of her Phokian allies and of the general safety of Greece, and iccompensed only in so far as she regained her captives. How came the Athenians to sanction a peace at once dishonora- ble and ruinous, yielding to Philip that important pass, the com- mon rampart of Attica and of Southern Greece, which he could never have carried in war at the point of the sword? Doubtless, the explanation of this proceeding is to be found, partly in the general state of the Athenian mind ; repugnance to military cost and effort, sickness and shame at their past war with Philip, alarm from the prodigious success of his arms, and pressing anxiety to recover the captives taken at Olynthus. But the feel- ings here noticed, powerful as they were, would not have ended in such a peace, had they not been seconded by the deliberate dis- honesty of .ZEschines and a majority of his colleagues ; who de- ceived their countrymen with a tissue of false assurances as to the purposes of Philip, and delayed their proceedings on the second embassy in such a manner that he was actually at Thermopylae before the real danger of the pass was known at Athens. Making all just allowance for mistrust of Demosthenes as a wit ness, there appears in the admissions of JEschines himself sufficiea evidence of corruption. His reply to Demosthenes, though suc- cessfully meeting some collateral aggravations, seldom touches, and never repels, the main articles of impeachment against himself The dilatory measures of the second embassy, the postpone- ment of the oath-taking until Philip was within three days' march of Thermopylae, the keeping back of information about the danger of that pass, until the Athenians were left without leisure for deliberating on the conjuncture, all these grave charges re- main without denial or justification. The refusal to depart at once on the second embassy, and to go straight to Philip in Thraco for the protection of Kersobleptes, is indeed explained, but in a manner which makes the case rather worse than better. And the gravest matter of all. the false assurances given to the Athenian