Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/420

 388 mSTORi OF GREECE. he had left at Athens, was sent away by the Athenians under an honorable escort to Megara, while some ships of war which he had left in the Peirjeus were also restored to him. Demetrius, indignant at this unexpected defection of a city which had re- cently heaped upon him such fulsome adulation, was still farther mortified by the loss of most of his other possessions in Greece.** His garrisons were for the most part expelled, and the cities passed into Kassandrian keeping or dominion. His fortunes were indeed partially restored by concluding a peace with Se- leukus, who married his daughter. This alUance withdrew De- metrius to Syria, while Greece appears to have fallen more and more under the Kassandrian parties. It was one of these parti- sans, Lachares, who, seconded by Kassander's soldiers, acquired a despotism at Athens such as had been possessed by the Phale. rean Demetrius, but employed in a manner far more cruel and oppressive. Various exiles driven out by his tyranny invited Demetrius Poliorketes, Avho passed over again from Asia into Greece, recovered portions of Peloponnesus, and laid siege to Athens. He blocked up the city by sea and land, so that the pressure of famine presently became intolerable. Lachares hav- ing made his escape, the people opened their gates lo Demetrius, Qot without great fear of the treatment awaiting them. But he behaved with forbearance, and even with generosity. He spared them all, supplied them with a large donation of corn, and con- tented himself with taking military occupation of the city, nam- ing his own friends as magistrates. He put garrisons, however, not" only into Peiraeus and Munychia, but also into the hill called Museum, a part of the walled circle of Athens itself'^ (b. c. 298). While Demetrius was thus strengthening himself in Greece, he lost all his footing both in Cyprus, Syria, and Kilikia, which 1 Plutardi, Denietr. 31. ■■* Plutarch, Demetr. 34, 35 ; Pausan. i. 25, 5. Pausanias states (i. 26, 2] that a gallant Athenian named Olympiodorus (we do not know when) encouraged his fellow-citizens to attack the Museum, Munychia, and Peiraeus ; and expelled the Macedonians from all of them. If this be cor- rect, Munychia and Peiraeus must have been afterwards reconquered by the Macedonians: for they were garrisoned (as well as Salamis and Snnium) by Antigonus Gonatus (Pausanias, ii. B, 5; Plutarch, Aratus, 34).