Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/516

 490 .U.STORY OF GREECE. of that country, jostead of being impoverished b baring Bceolia as the seat of war." 1 All these topics were so thoroughly in harmony With the pre- vious sentiments of the Thebans, that they must have made lively impressiot. How Demosthenes replied to them, we are not permitted to know. His powers of oratory most have been severely tasked ; for the preestablished feeling was all adverse, and he had nothing to work upon, except fear, on the part of Thebes, of too near contact with the Macedonian arms com- bined with her gratitude for the spontaneous and unconditional tender of Athens. And even as to fears, the Thebans had only to choose between admitting the Athenian army or that of Philip : a choice in which all presumption was in favor of the latter, as present ally and recent benefactor against the former, as stand- ing rival and enemy. Such was the result anticipated by the hopes of Philip as well as by the fears of Athens. Yet with all the cK^pce thus against him, Demosthenes carried his point in the Theban assembly ; determining them to accept the offered alliance of Athens and to brave the hostility of Philip. He boasts wiih good reason, of such a diplomatic and oratorical triumph ; a by which he not only obtained a powerful ally against Philip, but also a benefit yet more important rescued Attica from being overrun by a united Macedonian and Theban army. Justly does the contemporary historian Theopompus extol the un- rivalled eloquence whereby Demosthenes kindled in the bosoms of the Thebans a generous flame of Pan-hellenic patriotism. But it was not simply by superior eloquence 3 though that doubtless was an essential condition that his triumph at Thebes was achieved. It was still more owing to the wise and generous offer which he carried with him, and which he bad himself prevailed on the Athenians to make of unconditional alliance without any Deferences to the jealousies and animosities of the past, and on 1 Demosdi. De Coroni, p. 298, 299; Arista*. Rhetoric, ii. 23; Dkmj* , uf roi~' ti6m>, zl &y3oloi, *o2 fu&' i-fi&r fyivorsv. etc.
 * ad AmnnMiin, p. 744 ; Diodor. xrL 85.
 * Deatosth. De Cdrcni, p.304-307. A pr* otw pa) ptTtfvuomt *
 * Tbeapompns, Frag. 239, ed. Dsdot ; Hntare'o. Pemostb. <- 18.