Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/362

 33C HISTORY OF GREKCE. From the destruction of Thebes by Alexander in 335 b. c, tf) the Lamian war after his death, the policy of Athens neither was nor could be conducted by Demostlienes. But, condemned as he Avas to comparative inefficacy, he yet rendered material seryice to Athens, in the Harpalian affair of 324 b. c. If, instead of op- posing the alliance of the city Avith Harpalus, he had supported it as warmly as Hyperides — the exaggerated promises of the exile might probably have prevailed, and war would have been de- clared against Alexander. In respect to the charge of having been corrupted by Harpalus, I have already shown reasons for believing him innocent. The Lamian war, the closing scene of his activity, was not of his original suggestion, since he was in exile at its commencement. But he threw himself into it with unreserved ardor, and was greatly instrumental in procuring the large number of adhesions which it obtained from so many Gre- cian states. In spite of its disastrous result, it Avas, like the bat- tle of Choeroneia, a glorious effort for the recovery of Grecian liberty, undertaken under circumstances Avhich promised a fair chance of success. There was no excessive rashness in calcu- lating on distractions in the empire left by Alexander — on mu- tual hostility among the principal officers — and on the proba- bility of having only to make head against Antipater and Mace- donia, Avith little or no reinforcement from Asia. Disastrous as the enterprise ultimately proved, yet the risk was one fairly Avorth incurring, Avith so noble an object at stake ; and could the war have been protracted another year, its termination would proba- bly have been very different. We shall see this presently when Ave come to follow Asiatic events. After a catastrophe so ruin- ous, extinguishmg free speech in Greece, and dispersing the Athe- nian Demos to distant lands, Demosthenes himself could hardly have desired, at the age of sixty-tAvo, to prolong his existence as a fugitive beyond sea. Of the speeches Avhich he composed for priAate litigants, occar sionally also for himself, before the Dikastery — and of the nu- merous stimulating and admonitory harangues., on the public af- tairs of the moment, Avhich he had addressed to his assembled counti-ymen, a few remain for the admiration of posterity. These harangues serve to us, not only as evidence of his unrivalled ex*