Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/514

 488 HISTORY OF GREECE. against it. Demosthenes himself, being named chief of tlir> ten envoys, proceeded forthwith to Thebes; while the military force of Attica was at the same time marched to the frontier. passed in the months Elaphebolion and Munychion, and bear the name of the archon Heropythus; while the decree cited, p. 289, bears date the 16th of Skirrophorion, and the name of a different archon, Nausikles. Now if the decrees were genuine, the events which arc described in both mast have happened under the same archon, at an interval of about six weeks be- tween the last day of Munychion and the 16th of Skirrophorion. It is impossible to suppose an interval of one year and six weeks between them. It appears to me, on reading attentively the words of Demosthenes him- self, that the falsarius or person who composed these four first documents, has not properly conceived what it was that Demosthenes caused to bo read by the public secretary. The point which Demosthenes is here mak- ing, is to show how ably he had managed, and how well he had deserved of his country, by bringing the Thebans into alliance with Athens imme- diately after Philip's capture of Elatcia. For this purpose he dwells upon the bad state of feeling between Athens and Thebes before that event. brought about by the secret instigations of Philip through corrupt parti- sans in both places. Now it is to illustrate this hostile feeling between Athens and Thebes, that he causes the secretary to read certain decrees and answers EV oZf 6' }]Te ff6r] TU Trpbg a AA^/lo vc, TOVTUVI TUV fyrityiais.u.Tuv UKOV aavTEf Kal ruv uTtOKpioeuv eloea&e. Kal /wi /it'j'e ravra ?.a{3<Jv. . . .(p. 282) The documents here announced to be read do not bear upon the relation* between Athens and Philip (which were those of active warfare, needing nc illustration) but to the relation between Athens and Thebes. There had plainly been interchanges of bickering and ungracious feeling between tin two cities, manifested in public decrees or public answers to complaints or remonstrances. Instead of which, the two Athenian decrees, which we now read as following, are addressed, not to the Thebans, but to Philip ; the first of them does not mention Thebes at all ; the second mentions Thebes only to recite as a ground of complaint against Philip, that he was trying to put the two cities at variance ; and this too, among other grounds of complaint, much more grave and imputing more hostile purposes. Theu follow two answers which are not answers between Athens and Thebes, as they ought to be but answers from Philip, the first to the Athenians, the second to the Thebans. Neither the decrees, nor the answers, as they here stand, go to illustrate the point at which Demosthenes is aiming the bad feeling and mutual provocations which had been exchanged a little before between Athens and Thebes. Neither the one nor the other justify the words of the orator immediately after the documents havo teen read OVTU 5*a$f 6 $'i,hnriroc ruf Trd/lfif Trpdf uAX^/laf <*id rovruv ./Eschines ?nd his supporters), Kal rovroif ^Traotfefr o?f