Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/79

 INFLUENCE OF PHOKIGN. 47 It was indeed no part of Alexander's plan to undertake ? siege of Athens, -which might prove long and difficult, since the Athenians had a superior naval force, with the sea open to them, and the chance of effective support from Persia. When there- fore he saw, that his demand for the ten orators Avould be firmly resisted, considerations of policy gradually overcame his wrath, and induced him to relax. Phokion returned to Athens as the bearer of Alexander's concessions, thus relieving the Athenians from extreme anxiety and peril. His influence — already great and of long standing, since for years past he had been perpetually re-elected general — became greater than ever, while that of Demosthenes and the other anti-Macedonian orators must have been lowered. It Avas no mean advantage to Alexander, victorious as he was, to secure the incorruptible Phokion as leader of the macedonizing party at Athens. His projects against Persia were mainly exposed to failure from the possibility of opposition being raised against him in Greece by the agency of Persian money and ships. To keep Athens out of such combinations, he had to rely upon the personal influence and party of Phokion, whom he knew to have always dissuaded her from resistance to the ever-growing ag- grandizement of his father Philip. In his conversation with tion of tlic ten citizens. Ho (Arrian) affirms that immediately on hearing: iJie capture of Tiiebes, the Athenians passed a vote, on the motion of Demades, to send ten envoys, for the purpose of expressing satisfaction that Alexander had come home safely from the Illyrians, and that he had punished the Thebans for their revolt. Alexander (according to Arrian) received this mission courteously, but replied by sending a letter to the Athenian people, insisting on the surrender of the ten citizens. Now both Diodorus and Plutarch represent the mission of Demades as jiosterioi- to the demand made by Alexander for the ten citizens ; and tha: it was intended to meet and deprecate that demand. In my judgment, Arrian's tale is the less credible of the two. I think it highly improbable that the Athenians would by public vote express satis- faction that Alexander had punished the Thebans for their revolt. If the macedonizing party at Athens was strong enough to carry so ignominious iX vote, they would also have been strong enough to carry the subsequent jM-oposition of Phokion — that the ten citizens demanded should be surren- dered. The fact, that the Athenians afforded willing shelter to the Theban fugitives,' is a farther reason for disbelieving this alleged vote.