Demosthenes, Speeches 1-17

16. FOR THE MEGALOPOLITANS

introduction Dionysius of Halicarnassus states that this speech was delivered in 353/2.¹ This date is consistent with the recording by the historian Diodorus Siculus (16.39) of a Spartan attack on Megalopolis in the following year, 352/1, although Diodorus’ chronology is often faulty and cannot be relied on. By the middle of the fourth century the three major powers of mainland Greece—Sparta, Thebes, and Athens—were all in a considerably weakened state. Sparta, which had dominated Greece since the end of the Peloponnesian War, had been decisively defeated by Thebes at the battle of Leuctra in 371. As a result of Theban intervention in the Peloponnese, Sparta lost its grip on the peninsula. The Thebans liberated Messenia, which had been a Spartan possession since the seventh century and whose inhabitants had been reduced to the status of publicly owned slaves (“helots ”) of the Spartans. A new city of Messene was founded there, and an independent and staunchly anti-Spartan Messenian state created. Also in the early 360s Megalopolis (literally “great city”) was founded in Arcadia in the central Peloponnese; it became the leader of a new Arcadian Confederation, which looked to Thebes to protect it against Sparta. The Spartans resented both of these developments, and during the 360s and 350s they sought, with little success, to regain their former hegemony of the Peloponnese.¹First Letter to Ammaeus 4. Dionysius gives the speech a slightly different title: On Aid for the Megalopolitans. None of the traditional titles of Demosthenes ’ speeches are original. 16. FOR THE MEGALOPOLITANS ⣠⣠⣠⣠⣠⣠⣠⣠⣠⣠⣠⣠⣠⣠⣠⣠⣠⣠⣠⣠⣠⣠⣠⣠⣠⣠⣠⣠⣠⣠ 16. for the megalopolitans 275 Thebes had in turn dominated the years after Leuctra, and remained the most powerful land power in Greece. But it found it increasingly difficult in the 360s to retain control of its allies in the Peloponnese and became overstretched by involvements in central and northern Greece and in the Aegean region. Then in 356 it got dragged into a draining war (the Third Sacred War) with its neighbor Phocis. The Phocians seized the wealthy sanctuary of Delphi, from which the war took its name, and used its treasures to pay for large numbers of mercenaries. Athens had been an ally of Sparta since 370, when the two states were united in fear of the growing power of Thebes. But Athenian foreign policy was directed mainly towards the maintenance of its naval alliance, to the recovery of its former possessions in the north (Amphipolis and the Chersonese above all), and to the security of its grain route from the Black Sea. Moreover, the Athenians had recently suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of disaffected allies, in the Social War of 357–355, and were hampered by a lack of money to pay for military operations.² In 353/2 Sparta sought to take advantage of Thebes’ entanglement in the Sacred War to reassert itself in the Peloponnese. Its initial aggression was directed against Arcadia and Megalopolis . Megalopolis was allied to Thebes, but it could expect little help from that quarter and so appealed to Athens for support. The Spartans also sent ambassadors to Athens (see 1), either to ask for Athenian support, as Libanius states in his Introduction to the speech, although Sparta’s alliance with Athens was a defensive one only, or to ask them not to get involved. Demosthenes argues in this speech that the Athenians should accept the appeal of the Megalopolitans, on condition that they repudiate their alliance with Thebes (28). In doing so, he is seeking to persuade the Athenians to alter their established policy of support for Sparta and opposition to Thebes. His central claim is that it is in Athens’ interest for Megalopolis to remain independent , since if the Spartans conquer it, they will next move against Messene and thereby regain control of the Peloponnese. This, he²See the Introductions to Dem. 14 and 15. 276 demosthenes argues, would make Sparta dangerously powerful; he even suggests that Athens and Thebes would be in danger (20–21). He denies that accepting the Megalopolitan appeal will provoke a showdown with the Spartans, on the ground that the latter are still allies of the Athenians, and also owe them a debt of gratitude for their support against the Thebans in the 360s. Athenian policy towards Thebes was directed in general towards reducing its power (4–5). Specifically, Athens sought to regain the border town of Oropus, control...