CHAP. XCV.] ALLIANCE OF GREEKS FOR LIBERATION. 421 trying to check the intended movement throughout Greece. lians and Leosthenes, aided by some money and arms from The EtoAthens, put himself at the head of the mercenaries many other assembled at Tænarus, and passed across the Gulf the confede Greeks join into Ætolia. Here he was joined by the Ætolians racy for and Akarnanians, who eagerly entered into the activity league with Athens for expelling the Macedonians nian Leo liberation of the Athe envoys sent invite co from the Greeks. from Greece. Proceeding onward towards Ther- general. Ther-sthenes as mopyla and Thessaly, he met with favour and Athenian encouragement almost everywhere. The cause of round to Grecian freedom was espoused by the Phokians, operation Lokrians, Dorians, Ænianes, Athamantes, and Do- various lopes; by most of the Malians, Etæans, Thessalians, and Achæans of Phthiôtis; by the inhabitants of Leukas, and by some of the Molossians. Promises were also held out of cooperation from various Illyrian and Thracian tribes. In Peloponnesus, the Argeians, Sikyonians, Epidaurians, Trozenians, Eleians, and Messenians, enrolled themselves in the league, as well as the Karystians in Euboea'. These adhesions were partly procured by Hyperides and other Athenian envoys, who visited the several cities; while Pytheas and other envoys were going round in like manner to advocate the cause of Antipater. The two sides were thus publicly argued by able pleaders before different public assemblies. In these debates, the advantage was generally on the side of the Athenian orators, whose efforts moreover were powerfully seconded by the voluntary aid of Demosthenes, then living as an exile in Peloponnesus. 1 Diodor. xviii. 11; Pausanias, i. 25, 4. Assistance lent to the To Demosthenes the death of Alexander, and the new prospect of organizing an anti-Macedonian envoys by confederacy with some tolerable chance of success, Athenian Demosthe in exile. He is recalled to nes, though came more welcome than to any one else. He gladly embraced the opportunity of joining and Athens, and assisting the Athenian envoys, who felt the full receives an value of his energetic eloquence, in the various enthusiastic welcome. Peloponnesian towns. So effective was the service which he thus rendered to his country, that the Athenians not only passed a vote to enable him to return, but sent a trireme to fetch him to Peiræus. Great was the joy and enthusiasm on his arrival. The archons, the priests, and the entire body of citizens, came down to the harbour to welcome his landing, and escorted him to the city. Full of impassioned emotion, Demosthenes poured forth his gratitude for having been allowed to see such a day, and to enjoy a triumph greater even than that which had been conferred on Alkibiades on returning from exile; since it had been granted spontaneously, and not extorted by force. His fine could not be remitted, consistently with Athenian custom; but the people passed a vote granting to him fifty talents as superintendent of the periodical sacrifice to Zeus Soter; and his execution of this duty was held equivalent to a liquidation of the fine'. What part Demosthenes took in the plans or details of the war, we are not permitted to know. Vigorous operations were now carried on, under the military command of Leosthenes. The confederacy against Antipater included a larger assemblage of Hellenic states than that which had re1 Plutarch, Demosth. 27. CHAP. XCV.] GREEK OPERATIONS AGAINST ANTIPATER. 423 autumn. Large Gre federacy neverthe out Sparta. strongly in in- the Mace donian Leosthenes army into Thes sisted Xerxes in 480 B.C. Nevertheless, the name B.c. 323, of Sparta does not appear in the list. It was a melancholy drawback to the chances of Greece, in cian conthis her last struggle for emancipation, that the against force of Sparta had been altogether crushed in the Antipater, gallant but ill-concerted effort of Agis against An- less withtipater seven years before, and had not since reco- Baotia vered. The great stronghold of Macedonian terest, in the interior of Greece, was Boeotia. Pla- interest. tæa, Orchomenus, and the other ancient enemies with the of Thebes, having received from Alexander the confederate domain once belonging to Thebes herself, were well marches aware that this arrangement could only be upheld saly. by the continued pressure of Macedonian supremacy in Greece. It seems probable also that there were Macedonian garrisons in the Kadmeia-in Corinth-and in Megalopolis; moreover, that the Arcadian and Achæan cities had been macedonized by the measures taken against them under Alexander's orders in the preceding summer'; for we find no mention made of these cities in the coming contest. The Athenians equipped a considerable land-force to join Leosthenes at Thermopyla; a citizen force of 5000 infantry and 500 cavalry, with 2000 mercenaries besides. But the resolute opposition of the Boeotian cities hindered them from advancing beyond Mount Kitharon, until Leosthenes himself, marching from Thermopyla to join them with a part of his army, attacked the Boo 1 1 See the fragments of Hyperides, p. 36, ed. Babington. kaì πepì TOÛ τοὺς κοινοὺς συλλόγους ̓Αχαιῶν τε καὶ ̓Αρκάδων...... We do not know what was done to these district confederacies, but it seems that some considerable change was made in them, at the time when Alexander's decree for restoring the exiles was promulgated. tian troops, gained a complete victory, and opened the passage. He now proceeded with the full Hellenic muster, including Etolians and Athenians, into Thessaly to meet Antipater, who was advancing from Macedonia into Greece at the head of the force immediately at his disposal-13,000 infantry and 600 cavalry-and with a fleet of 110 ships of war cooperating on the coast'. Antipater was probably not prepared for this rapid and imposing assemblage of the combined Greeks at Thermopylæ, nor for the energetic movements of Leosthenes. Still less was he prepared for the defection of the Thessalian cavalry, who, having always formed an important element in the Macedonian army, now lent their strength to the Greeks. He despatched urgent messages to the Macedonian commanders in Asia-Kraterus, Leonnatus, Philotas, &c., soliciting reinforcements; but in the mean time, though inferior in numbers, he thought it expedient to accept the challenge of Leosthenes. In the battle which ensued, however, he was completely defeated, and even cut off from the possibility of retreating into Macedonia; so that no resource was left to him except the fortified town of Lamia (near to the river Spercheius, beyond the southern border of Thessaly), where he calculated on holding out until relief came from Asia. Leosthenes immediately commenced the siege of Lamia, and pressed it with the utmost energy, making several attempts to storm the town; but its fortifications were strong, with a garrison ample and efficient so that he was repulsed with considerable loss. 'Diodor. xviii. 13. CHAP. XCV.] DEATH OF LEOSTHENES. 425 Unfortunately he possessed no battering train nor engineers, such as had formed so powerful an element in the military successes of Philip and Alexander. He therefore found himself compelled to turn the siege into a blockade, and to adopt systematic measures for intercepting the supply of provisions. In this he had every chance of succeeding, and of capturing the person of Antipater. Hellenic prospects looked bright and encouraging; nothing was beard in Athens and the other cities except congratulations and thanksgivings'. Phokion, on hearing the confident language of those around him, remarked-" The stadium (or short course) has been done brilliantly; but I fear we shall not have strength to hold out for the long course." At this critical moment, Leosthenes, in inspecting the blockading trenches, was wounded on the head by a large stone, projected from one of the catapults on the city-walls, and expired in two days. A funeral oration in his honour, as well as in that of the other combatants against Antipater, was pronounced at Athens by Hyperides, on whom the people devolved that duty in preference to Demosthenes. of the Leosthenes. Antiphilus The death of this eminent general, in the full Misfortune tide of success, was a hard blow struck by fortune death of at the cause of Grecian freedom. For the last Leo generation, Athens had produced several excellent is named in orators, and one who combined splendid oratory Relaxed with wise and patriotic counsels. But during all that time, none of her citizens, before Leosthenes, 'Plutarch, Phokion, 23, 24. Plutarch, Phokion, c. 23; Plutarch, Reip. Ger. Præcept. p. 803. 3 Diodor. xviii. 12, 13. his place. efforts of the Gre cian army. |