Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/273

IPHIKRATES IN MACEDONIA. 251 to assist th) family in their present emergency, leminding him that Amyntas had not only throughout his life been a faithful ally of Athens, but had also adopted him (Iphikrates) as his son, and had thus constituted him brother to the two young princes- Plac- ing Perdikkas in his hands, and causing Philip to embrace his knees, she appealed to his generous sympathies, and invoked his aid as the only chance of restoration, or even of personal safety, to the family. Iphikrates, moved by this affecting supplication, declared in her favor, acted so vigorously against Pausanias as to expel him from Macedonia, and secured the sceptre to the family of Amyntas ; under Ptolemy of Alorus as regent for the time. This striking incident is described by the orator -ZEschines 1 in an oration delivered many years afterwards at Athens. The boy, who then clasped the knees of Iphikrates, lived afterwards to overthrow the independence, not of Athens alone, but of Greece generally. The Athenian general had not been sent to meddle in the disputes of succession to the Macedonian crown. Never- theless, looking at the circumstances of the time, his interference may really have promised beneficial consequences to Athens ; so that we have no right to blame him for the unforeseen ruin which it was afterwards found to occasion. Though the interference of Iphikrates maintained the family of Amyntas, and established Ptolemy of Aldrus as regent, it did not procure to Athens the possession of Amphipolis ; which was not in the power of the Macedonian kings to bestow. Amphipolis was at that time a free Greek city, inhabited by a population in the main seemingly Chalkidic, and in confederacy with Olynthus. a Iphikrates prosecuted his naval operations on the coast of Thrace and Macedonia for a period of three years (368-365 B. c.). We make out very imperfectly what he achieved. He took into his service a general named Charidemus, a native of Oreus in Eu- 1 ^Eschines, Fals. Leg. c. 13, 14, p. 249, 250 ; Cornelius Nepos, Iphicrates, c. 3. 2 Demosthen. cont. Aristokrat. p. 669, s. 150. . . . .[iiafiol ira'Aiv avrbv (Charidemus) rolf 'OTivv&ioic, role {yzei-epotf e%- dpolc; no! rolf exovaiv 'A^iTro/Uv Kara TOVTOV rdv %povov. Demosthenes is here speaking of the time when Timotheus superseded Iphikrates in the command, that is, a/iout 365-364 B. c. But we are fairly entitled to presume that the same is true of 369 or 368 B. c.