Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/509

 SEIZURE OF THEBES 4&) faiit town to the Thessalians, who were thoroughly in his depen- dence. His march from Thermopylae, whether to Delphi and Amphis- sa, or into Boaotia, lay through Phokis. That unfortunate terri- tory still continued in the defenceless condition to which it had been condemned by the Amphiktyonic sentence of 346 B. c., with- out a single fortified town, occupied merely by small dispersed villages and by a population scanty as well as poor. On reaching Elateia, once the principal Phokian town, but now dismantled, Philip halted his army, and began forthwith to reestablish the walls, converting it into a strong place for permanent military oc- cupation. He at the same time occupied Kytinium, 1 the princi- pal town in the little territory of Doris, in the upper portion of the valley of the river Kephissus, situated in the short mountain road from Thermopylae to Amphissa. The seizure of Elateia by Philip, coupled with his operations for reconstituting it as a permanent military post, was an event of the gravest moment, exciting surprise and uneasiness throughout a large portion of the Grecian world. Hitherto he had pro- claimed himself as general acting under the Amphiktyonic vote of nomination, and as on his march simply to vindicate the Del- phian god against sacrilegious Lokrians. Had such been his real purpose, however, he would have had no occasion to halt at Elateia, much less to re-fortify and garrison it. Accordingly it now became evident that he meant something different or at least something ulterior. He himself indeed no longer affected to conceal his real purposes. Sending envoys to Thebes, he announced that he had come to attack the Athenians, and earnestly invited her coopera- tion as his ally, against enemies odious to her as well as to him self. But if the Thebans, in spite of an excellent opportunity tj crush an ancient foe, should still determine to stand aloof he claimed of them at least a free passage through Boootia, that he might invade Attica with his own forces. 2 1 Philochorus ap. Dionys. Hal. ad Amnueum, p. 742 bellum Athcniensibus infert." This expression is correct in the sense, that Philip, who had hitherto pretended to be on his march against Amphissa, disclosed his real purpose to be against -Athens at the moment when h
 * Demosthen. De Corona, p. 293-299. Juitin, ix. 3, "diu dissimulatum