Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/405

ENVOYS SENT TO PHILIP. 373 On the other hand, to Athens, to Sparta, and to the general cause of Pan-Hellenic independence, it was of capital momeni that Philip should be kept on the outside of Thermopylae. And here Athens had more at stake than the rest ; since not merely her influence abroad, but the safety of her own city and territory against invasion, was involved in the question. The Thebans had already invited the presence of Philip, himself always ready even without invitation, to come within the pass ; it was the first inter- est, as well as the first duty, of Athens, to counterwork them, and to keep him out. With tolerable prudence, her guarantee of the past might have been made effective; but we shall find her measures ending only in shame and disappointment, through the flagrant improvidence, and apparent corruption, of her own ne- gotiators. The increasing discouragement as to war, and yearning for peace, which prevailed at Athens during the summer and autumn of 347 B. c., has been already described. We may be sure that the friends of the captives taken at Olynthus would be importu- nate in demanding peace, because there was no other way of pro- curing their release ; since Philip did not choose to exchange them for money, reserving them as an item in political negotia- tion. At length, about the month of November, the public assem- bly decreed that envoys should be sent to Philip to ascertain on what conditions peace could be made ; ten Athenian envoys, and one from the synod of confederate allies, sitting at Athens. The mover of the decree was Philokrates, the same who had moved the previous decree permitting Philip to send envoys if he chose Of this permission Philip had not availed himself, in spite of all that the philippizers at Athens had alleged about his anxiety for peace and alliance with the city. It suited his purpose to have as to matters which do not make against the other, are valuable ; even the misrepresentations, since we have them on both sides, will sometimes afford mutual correction : and we shall often find it practicable to detect a basis of real matter of fact which one or both may seek to pervert, but which neither can venture to set aside, or can keep wholly out of sight. It is indeed deeply to be lamented that we know little of the history except so much as it suits the one or the other of these rival orators, each animated by purposes totally at variance with that of the historian, to make known either by direct notice or oblique allusion.