Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/392

 360 msTORY oi- gi!i:ece. which still farther darkened the close of his life, without avert- ing from liim, after all, the necessity of facing the restored De- mos. The intense and unanimous wrath of the people against him is an instructive, though a distressing spectacle. It was di- rected, not against the man or the administrator — for in both characters Phokion had been blameless, except as to the last col- lusion with Nikanor in the seizure of the Peirjeus — but against his public policy. It was the last protest of extinct Grecian freedom, speaking as it were from the tomb in a voice of thun- der, against that fatal system of mistrust, inertia, self-seeking, and corruption, which had betrayed the once autonomous Athens to a foreign conqueror. I have already mentioned that Polysperchon with his army was in Phokis when Phokion was bi'ought before him, on his march towards Peloponnesus. Perhaps he may have been de- tained by negotiation with the ^tolians, who embraced his alli- ance. ^ At any rate he was tardy in his march, for before he reached Attica, Kassander arrived at Peirteus to join Nikanor Avith a fleet of thirty-five ships and 4000 soldiers obtained from Antigonus. On learning this fact, Polysperchon hastened his march also, and presented himself under the walls of Athens and Peiraeus with a large force of 20,000 Macedonians, 4000 Greek allies, 1000 cavalry, and sixty-five elephants ; animals which were now seen for the first time in European Greece. He at first besieged Kassander in Peiraeus, but finding it difficult to procure subsistence in Attica for so numerous an army, he marched with the larger portion into Peloponnesus, leaving his son Alexander with a division to make head against Kassander. Either approaching in person the various Peloponnesian towns — or addressing them by means of envoys — he enjoined the subversion of the Antipatrian oligarchies, and the restoration of liberty and free speech to the mass of the citizens.- In most of the towns, this revolution was accomplished ; but in Megalopolis, the oligarchy held out ; not only forcing Polysperchon to besiege the city, but even defending it against him successfully. He made two or three attempts to storm it, by movable towers, by undermining the walls, and even by the aid of elephants ; but
 * Diodor. xix. 35. ^ Diodor. xviii. 63.