Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/408

 376 HISTORY OF GREECh. same time the numerous statues which had been erected in honor of the Phalerean Demetrius during his decennial govern- ment, were overthrown, and some of them even turned to ignoble purposes, in order to cast greater scorn upon the past ruler.^ The demonstrations of servile flattery at Athens, towards Deme- trius Poliorketes, were in fact so extravagantly overdone, that he himself is said to have been disgusted with them, and to have expressed contempt for these degenerate Athenians of his own time.2 In reviewing such degrading proceedings, we must recollect that thirty-one years had now elapsed since the battle of Chcero- neia, and that during all this time the Athenians had been under the practical ascendency, and constantly augmenting pressure, of foreign potentates. The sentiment of this dependence on Mace- donia had been continually strengthened by all the subsequent events — by the capture and destruction of Thebes, and the sub- sequent overwhelming conquests of Alexander — by the deplora- ble conclusion of the Lamian war, the slaughter of the free- spoken orators, the death of the energetic military leaders, and the deportation of Athenian citizens — lastly, by the continued presence of a Macedonian garrison in Peirajus or Munychia. By Phokion, Demetrius Plialereus, and the other leading states- men of this long period, submission to Macedonia had been in- culcated as a virtue, while the recollection of the dignity and grandeur of old autonomous Athens had been effaced or de- nounced as a mischievous dream. The fifteen years between the close of the Lamian war and the arrival of Demetrius Poli- orketes (322-307 B. c), had witnessed no free play, nor public discussion and expression, of conflicting opinions ; the short pe- riod during which Phokion was condemned must be excepted, but that lasted only long enough to give room for the outburst of a preconceived but suppressed antipathy. During this thirty years, of which the last half had been an aggravation of the first, a new generation cf Athenians had grown up, accustomed to an altered phase of poUtical existence. ' l^iogen. Laert. v. 77. Among the numerous literary works (all lost) of the rhalerean Demetrius, one was ea'.itled 'A'&rjvtic^v Ka-adpofiij (ib v. 82) '• Demochares ap. Athenaeum, vi. p 253.