Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/486

 460 HISTORY OF GREECE. night, which was very near succeeding. The Byzantines de- fended themselves bravely, and even defeated his fleet ; but they too were rescued chiefly by foreign aid. The Athenians now acting under the inspirations of Demosthenes, who exhorted them to bury in a generous oblivion all their past grounds of offence against Byzantium sent a still more powerful fleet to the rescue, under the vigorous guidance of Phokion l instead of the loose and rapacious Chares. Moreover the danger of Byzantium called forth strenuous efforts from the chief islanders of the JEgean Chians, Rhodians, Koans, etc., to whom it was highly important that Philip should not become master of the great passage for im- ported corn into the Grecian seas. The large combined fleet thus assembled was fully sufficient to protect Byzantium. 3 Compelled to abandon the siege of that city as well as of Perinthus, Philip was farther baffled in an attack on the Chersonese. Phokion not only maintained against him the full security of the Propontis and its adjoining straits, but also gained various advantages over him both by land and sea. 3 These operations probably occupied the last six months of 340 B. c. They constituted the most important success gained by Athens, and the most serious reverse experienced by Philip, since the commencement of war between them. Coming as they did immediately after the liberation of Eubcea in the previous year, they materially improved the position of Athens against Philip. Phokion and his fleet not only saved the citizens of Byzantium from all the misery of a capture by Macedonian soldiers, but 1 Plutarch, Phokion, c. 14 ; Plutarch, Vit. X. Orat. p. 848-851. To this fleet of Phokion, Demosthenes contributed the outfit of a trireme, while the orator Hyperides sailed with the fleet as trierarch. See Boeckh, Urkunden iiber das Attische See-Wesen, p. 441, 442, 498. From that source the ob- becomes certain that the expedition of Chares began during the archonship of Nichomaclides ; that is, in the year before Midsummer 340 B. c. ; while the expedition of Phokion and Kephisophon began in the year following; after Midsummer 340 B. c. See some anecdotes respecting this siege of Byzantium by Philip, collectrxl from later authors (Dionysius Byzantinus, Hesychius Milesius, and otheisj by the diligence of Bohnecke Forschungen, p. 470 seqq. ' ' Plutarch, Phokion, c. 14.
 * cnre chronology of the period now before us derives some light ; since it
 * Diodor. xvi. 77 ; Plutarch, Demosthen. c. 17.