Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
suspect, barricaded their gates, blocked up their havens, brought
in from the country their cattle, slaves, wives, and children, and
put them in garrison; but upon Phocion's arrival, they went out to
welcome him in their private boats and barges, with streamers
and garlands, and received him at landing with every demonstration
of joy and pleasure.
When king Philip was effecting his entry into Euboea, and was
bringing over troops from Macedonia, and making himself master of
the cities, by means of the tyrants who ruled in them, Plutarch of
Eretria sent to request aid of the Athenians for the relief of the
island, which was in imminent danger of falling wholly into the
hands of the Macedonians. Phocion was sent thither with a handful
of men in comparison, in expectation that the Euboeans themselves
would flock in and join him. But when he came, he found all
things in confusion, the country all betrayed, the whole ground,
as it were, undermined under his feet, by the secret pensioners of
king Philip, so that he was in the greatest risk imaginable. To
secure himself as far as he could, he seized a small rising
ground, which was divided from the level plains about Tamynae by a
deep watercourse, and here he enclosed and fortified the choicest
of his army. As for the idle talkers and disorderly bad citizens
who ran off from his camp and made their way back, he bade his
officers not regard them, since here they would have been not only
useless and ungovernable themselves, but an actual hindrance to
the rest; and further, being conscious to themselves of the
neglect of their duty, they would be less ready to misrepresent
the action, or raise a cry against them at their return home.
When the enemy drew nigh, he bade his men stand to their arms,
until he had finished the sacrifice, in which he spent a
considerable time, either by some difficulty of the thing itself,
or on purpose to invite the enemy nearer. Plutarch, interpreting
this tardiness as a failure in his courage, fell on alone with the
mercenaries, which the cavalry perceiving, could not be contained,
but issuing also out of the camp, confusedly and in disorder,
spurred up to the enemy. The first who came up were defeated, the
rest were put to the rout, Plutarch himself took to flight, and a
body of the enemy advanced in the hope of carrying the camp,
supposing themselves to have secured the victory. But by this
time, the sacrifice being over, the Athenians within the camp came
forward, and falling upon them put them to flight, and killed the
greater number as they fled among the entrenchments, while
Phocion ordering his infantry to keep on the watch and rally those
who came in from the previous flight, himself, with a body of his
best men, engaged the enemy in a sharp and bloody fight, in which
all of them behaved with signal courage and gallantry. Thallus,
the son of Cineas, and Glaucus, of Polymedes, who fought near the
general, gained the honors of the day. Cleophanes, also, did good
service in the battle. Recovering the cavalry from its defeat,
and with his shouts and encouragement bringing them up to succor
the general, who was in danger, he confirmed the victory obtained
by the infantry. Phocion now expelled Plutarch from Eretria, and
possessed himself of the very important fort of Zaretra, situated
where the island is pinched in, as it were, by the seas on each
side, and its breadth most reduced to a narrow girth. He released
all the Greeks whom he took out of fear of the public speakers at
Athens, thinking they might very likely persuade the people in
their anger into committing some act of cruelty.
This affair thus dispatched and settled, Phocion set sail
homewards, and the allies had soon as good reason to regret the
loss of his just and humane dealing, as the Athenians that of his
experience and courage. Molossus, the commander who took his
place, had no better success than to fall alive into the enemy's
hands. Philip, full of great thoughts and designs, now advanced
with all his forces into the Hellespont, to seize the Chersonesus
and Perinthus, and after them, Byzantium. The Athenians raised a
force to relieve them, but the popular leaders made it their
business to prefer Chares to be general, who, sailing thither,
effected nothing worthy of the means placed in his hands. The
cities were afraid, and would not receive his ships into their
harbors, so that he did nothing but wander about, raising money
from their friends, and despised by their enemies. And when the
people, chafed by the orators, were extremely indignant, and
repented having ever sent any help to the Byzantines, Phocion rose
and told them they ought not to be angry with the allies for
distrusting, but with their generals for being distrusted. "They
make you suspected," he said, "even by those who cannot possibly
subsist without your succor." The assembly being moved with this
speech of his, changed their minds on the sudden, and commanded
him immediately to raise another force, and go himself to assist
their confederates in the Hellespont; an appointment which, in
effect, contributed more than anything to the relief of
Byzantium.
For Phocion's name was already honorably known; and an old
acquaintance of his, who had been his fellow-student in the
Academy, Leon, a man of high renown for virtue among the
Byzantines, having vouched for Phocion to the city, they opened
their gates to receive him, not permitting him, though he desired
it, to encamp without the walls, but entertained him and all the
Athenians with perfect reliance, while they, to requite their
confidence, behaved among their new hosts soberly and
inoffensively, and exerted themselves on all occasions with the
greatest zeal and resolution for their defense. Thus king Philip
was driven out of the Hellespont, and was despised to boot, whom
till now, it had been thought impossible to match, or even to
oppose. Phocion also took some of his ships, and recaptured some
of the places he had garrisoned, making besides several inroads
into the country, which he plundered and overran, until he
received a wound from some of the enemy who came to the defense,
and, thereupon, sailed away home.
The Megarians at this time privately praying aid of the Athenians,
Phocion, fearing lest the Boeotians should hear of it, and
anticipate them, called an assembly at sunrise, and brought
forward the petition of the Megarians, and immediately after the
vote had been put, and carried in their favor, he sounded the
trumpet, and led the Athenians straight from the assembly, to arm
and put themselves in posture. The Megarians received them
joyfully, and he proceeded to fortify Nisea, and built two new
long walls from the city to the arsenal, and so joined it to the
sea, so that having now little reason to regard the enemies on the
land side, it placed its dependence entirely on the Athenians.
When final hostilities with Philip were now certain, and in
Phocion's absence other generals had been nominated, he on his
arrival from the islands, dealt earnestly with the Athenians, that
since Philip showed peaceable inclinations towards them, and
greatly apprehended the danger, they would consent to a treaty.
Being contradicted in this by one of the ordinary frequenters of
the courts of justice, a common accuser, who asked him if he durst
presume to persuade the Athenians to peace, now their arms were in
their hands, "Yes," said he, "though I know that if there be war,
I shall be in office over you, and if peace, you over me." But
when he could not prevail, and Demosthenes's opinion carried it,
advising them to make war as far off from home as possible, and
fight the battle out of Attica, "Good friend," said Phocion, "let
us not ask where we shall fight, but how we may conquer in the
war. That will be the way to keep it at a distance. If we are
beaten, it will be quickly at our doors." After the defeat, when
the clamorers and incendiaries in the town would have brought up
Charidemus to the hustings, to be nominated to the command, the
best of the citizens were in a panic, and supporting themselves
with the aid of the council of the Areopagus, with entreaties and
tears hardly prevailed upon the people to have Phocion entrusted
with the care of the city. He was of opinion, in general, that
the fair terms to be expected from Philip should be accepted, yet
after Demades had made a motion that the city should receive the
common conditions of peace in concurrence with the rest of the
states of Greece, he opposed it, till it were known what the
particulars were which Philip demanded. He was overborne in this
advice, under the pressure of the time, but almost immediately
after, the Athenians repented it, when they understood that by
these articles, they were obliged to furnish Philip both with
horse and shipping. "It was the fear of this," said Phocion,
"that occasioned my opposition. But since the thing is done, let
us make the best of it, and not be discouraged. Our forefathers
were sometimes in command, and sometimes under it; and by doing
their duty, whether as rulers or as subjects, saved their own
country and the rest of Greece."
Upon the news of Philip's death, he opposed himself to any public
demonstrations of joy and jubilee, saying it would be ignoble to
show malice upon such an occasion, and that the army that had
fought them at Chaeronea, was only diminished by a single man.
When Demosthenes made his invectives against Alexander, now on his
way to attack Thebes, he repeated those verses of Homer, --
"Unwise one, wherefore to a second stroke
His anger be foolhardy to provoke?"
and asked, "Why stimulate his already eager passion for glory?
Why take pains to expose the city to the terrible conflagration
now so near? We, who accepted office to save our fellow-citizens,
will not, however they desire it, be consenting to their
destruction."
After Thebes was lost, and Alexander had demanded Demosthenes,
Lycurgus, Hyperides, and Charidemus to be delivered up, the whole
assembly turning their eyes to him, and calling on him by name to
deliver his opinion, at last he rose up, and showing them one of
his most intimate friends, whom he loved and confided in above all
others, told them, "You have brought things amongst you to that
pass, that for my part, should he demand this my friend Nicocles,
I would not refuse to give him up. For as for myself, to have it
in my power to sacrifice my own life and fortune for the common
safety, I should think the greatest of good fortune. Truly," he
added, "it pierces my heart to see those who are fled hither for
succor from the desolation of Thebes. Yet it is enough for Greece
to have Thebes to deplore. It will be more for the interest of
all that we should deprecate the conqueror's anger, and intercede
for both, than run the hazard of another battle."
When this was decreed by the people, Alexander is said to have
rejected their first address when it was presented, throwing it
from him scornfully, and turning his back upon the deputation, who
left him in affright. But the second, which was presented by
Phocion, he received, understanding from the older Macedonians how
much Philip had admired and esteemed him. And he not only gave
him audience and listened to his memorial and petition, but also
permitted him to advise him, which he did to this effect, that if
his designs were for quietness, he should make peace at once; if
glory were his aim, he should make war, not upon Greece, but on
the barbarians. And with various counsels and suggestions,
happily designed to meet the genius and feelings of Alexander, he
so won upon him, and softened his temper, that he bade the
Athenians not forget their position, as if anything went wrong