The Policy of Demosthenes.
Let us note, in the first place, that the efforts of Demosthenes to check Philip fall into two periods divided by the peace of Philocrates in 346 B.C. In the first of these he is acting chiefly with Athens alone; Philip is to him not so much the common enemy of Greece as the dangerous rival of Athens in the north. His whole mind was given to the internal reform of Athens so as to strengthen her against Philip. In her relation to other Greek States he perhaps hardly saw beyond a balance of power; and as Athens alone was far too weak to resist Macedon, this policy in which Demosthenes represents the old patriotism of the πόλις was doomed to certain failure.
It is true that after 346 his Athenian feeling seems to become more distinctly Hellenic.[1] But what could even such a man as Demosthenes do with the Hellas of that day? He could not force on the Greeks a real and permanent union; he could but urge new alliances. His strength was spent in embassies with this object, embassies too often futile. No such alliance could save Greece from the Macedonian power, as subsequent events plainly showed. What was needed was a real federal union between the leading States, with
- ↑ Traces of such a feeling are certainly to be found at an earlier date, e.g. in the speech for the Megalopolitans (352 B.C.); but I believe I am representing rightly the general change in the character of Demosthenes' public orations. See Curtius, Hist. of Greece, vol. v. 251.
