Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/351

OLYNTHIAN WAR 323 ing Persia. These were terrible times ; suitably illustrated in their cruel details by the gangs of enslaved Chalkidic Greeks ol both sexes, seen passing even into Peloponnesus ' as the property of new grantees who extolled the munificence of the donor Philip ; and suitably ushered in by awful celestial signs, showers of fire and blood falling from the heavens to the earth, in testimony of the wrath of the gods. 2 While, however, we make out with tolerable clearness the gen- eral result of Philip's Olynthian war, and the terror which it struck into the Grecian mind we are not only left without infor- mation as to its details, but are even perplexed by its chronology. I have already remarked, that though the Olynthians had con- tracted such suspicions of Philip, even before the beginning of 1 De mosthenes, Fals. Leg. p. 439. ^Eschines himself met a person named Atrcstidas followed by one of these sorrowful troops. We may be sure that this case was only one among many. 2 Pliny, II. N. ii. 27. " Pit et cceli ipsius hiatus, quod vocant chasma. Fit et sanguinea specie (quo nihil terribilius mortalium timori est) incendium ad terras cadens inde ; sicut Olympiadis centesimce septinue anno tertio, cum rex Phiiippus Graxiam quateret. Atque ego haec statis temporibus naturae, ut cetera, arbitror existcre ; non (ut plerique) variis de causis, quas ingenio- rum acumen excogitat. Quippe ingentium malorum fuere prcenuntia ; sed ea accidisse non quia haec facta sunt arbitror, verum haec ideo facta, quia inca- sura erant ilia : raritate antem oecultam eorum esse rationem, ideoquc non eicut exortus supra dictos defectusque et multa alia nosci." The precision of this chronological note makes it valuable. Olymp. 107, 3 corresponds to the year between Midsummer 350 and Midsummer 349 B. C. Taylor, who cites this passage in his Prolegomena ad Dcmosthenem (ap Reiske Oratt. Gr. vol. viii. p. 756), takes the liberty, without any manuscript authority, of altering tertio into quarto; which Bohnecke justly pronounces to be unreasonable (Forschungen, p. 212). The passage as it stands is an evidence, not merely to authenticate the terrific character of the time, but also to prove, among other evidences, that the attack of Philip on the Olyn- thians and Chalkidians began in 350-349 B. C. not in the following Olym- pic year, or in the time after Midsummer 349 B. c. Bohnecke (Forschungen, p. 201-221) has gone into an examination of th dates and events of this Olynthian war, and has arranged them in a man- ner different from any preceding critic. His examination is acute and in- stractive, including however some reasonings of little force or pertinence. I follow him generally, in placing the beginning of the Olynthian war, and the Olynthiacs of Demosthenes, before Olymp. 107, 4. This is the best opin ion which I can form, on matters lamentably unattested and uncertain. VOL. XI. 28