Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/493

 WORKINGS OF THE NEW LAW. 4(J7 of them especially those of Demosthenes, which must have been numerous have not been preserved. Thus were the trierarchic symmories distributed and assessed anew upon each man in the ratio of his wealth, and theiefore most largely upon the Three Hundred richest. 1 How long the law remained unchanged, we do not know. But it was found to work admirably well ; and Demosthenes boasts that during the entire war (that is, from the renewal of the war about August 340 B. c., to the battle of Chaeroneia in August 338 B. c.) all the trierarchs named under the law were ready in time without com- plaint or suffering ; while the ships, well-equipped and exempt from the previous causes of delay, were found prompt and effec- tive for all exigencies. Not one was either left behind, or lost at sea, throughout these two years. 2 Probably the first fruits of the Demosthenic reform in Athe- nian naval administration, was, the fleet equipped under Phokion, which acted so successfully at and near Byzantium. The opera- tions of Athenians at sea, though not known in detail, appear to have been better conducted and more prosperous in their general effect than they had ever been since the Social War. But there arose now a grave and melancholy dispute in the interior of Greece, which threw her upon her defence by land. This new disturbing cause was nothing less than another Sacred War, de- clared by the Amphiktyonic assembly against the Lokrians of Amphissa. Kindled chiefly by the Athenian jEschines, it more than compensated Philip for his repulse at Byzantium and his later years, after it became a law. But I am unable to see the reason for so restricting its meaning. The rich men would surely bribe most highly, and raise most opposition, against the first passing of the law, as they were then most likely to be successful ; and jEschines, whether bribed or not bribed, would most naturally as well as most effectively stand out against the novelty introduced by his rival, without waiting to see it actually be- come a part of the laws of the State. 1 See the citation from Hyperides in Harpokrat. v. "Lvuuopia. The Sym- mories are mentioned in Inscription xiv. of Boeckh's Urkunden iiber das Attische Seewesen (p. 465), which Inscription bears the date of 325 B. c. Many of these Inscriptions name individual citizens, in different numbers thr'e. five, or six, as joint trierarchs of the same vessel. 1 Demosth. De Corona, p. 262.