Aeschines

INTRODUCTION: The Life and Times of Aeschines

Name /T1076/T1076_INT 03/29/00 05:14AM Plate # 0-Composite pg 3 # 3 INTRODUCTION The Life and Times of Aeschines the times The Rise of Macedonia To the modern reader at least, the fifth century, for all its intellectual turmoil, looks like an age of political certainty. For much of the century, in a way familiar to anyone whose horizons were formed by the world between the Second World War and the fall of the European communist regimes, the Greek world was largely divided into two power blocks. This configuration ended with the defeat of Athens in the Peloponnesian War against Sparta, which lasted (with intermissions ) from 431 to 404, and which left Sparta temporarily the undisputed leader of the Greek world. Spartan supremacy was not long unchallenged, however, and the first half of the fourth century saw a rapid sequence of changes in the balance of power on the Greek mainland. The least predictable development in this uncertain context was the rise of Macedonia. In retrospect, this process possesses a deceptive appearance of inevitability. But during the fifth and early fourth centuries , Macedonia was at the mercy of the great powers of Greece and its immediate non-Greek (‘‘barbarian’’) neighbors, and in the decades preceding the accession of Philip II to the throne in 359, Macedonian kings could only maintain a precarious hold over their territory. With Philip, all this changed. After consolidating his position within Macedonia , he began to extend his power and influence into neighboring territories, a necessary move if he was to ensure the security of the Macedonian state from foreign interference. Since Athens had possessions, allies, and ambitions in the north, Name /T1076/T1076_INT 03/29/00 05:14AM Plate # 0-Composite pg 4 # 4 friction between the two powers was inevitable. Philip was helped at first by the so-called Social War between Athens and its allies of 357– 355,1 which distracted Athenian interest and energy. Athens was in fact technically at war with Philip from 357, when, with a duplicity that was to serve him well throughout his career, he captured the city of Amphipolis in the far north, which Athens regarded as Athenian property (though Athens had lost control of it over six decades earlier ). But even after the Social War ended, there was little popular appetite in Athens for an adventurous foreign policy, and the dominant political group, headed by the enormously influential Eubulus, pursued a pragmatic policy of ensuring a military capacity to defend Athens’ interests while avoiding commitments that might prove expensive , logistically difficult, and dangerous. There were, however, politicians who favored a more vigorous response to Macedonian expansion. One of these was Demosthenes, who was then in his thirties. An opportunity to thwart Philip came in 349. In the north, the city of Olynthus, which was the head of a confederation of Greek cities, had come into conflict with Philip. The Olynthians appealed to Athens for assistance, and under the influence of Demosthenes and others, Athens sent aid. Philip took the city in 348. The destruction of a potentially valuable ally close to Macedonian territory had serious implications for the future of Athens’ war against Philip. Athens was further isolated in 348 when its attempts to create a Greek coalition against Philip were rebuffed by other Greek states. A further blow came from Athens’ Phocian allies. In 356 Thebes had manipulated the Amphictyonic League, which existed to protect Delphi , into imposing a fine on Phocis. The Phocians responded by seizing the temple of Apollo at Delphi, and thus began the decade-long Third Sacred War, which wore down both Phocis and its enemies, the former more gradually because of its access to the temple treasures as a source of pay for mercenaries. Athens was allied with Phocis (as was Sparta, now considerably weakened by the Theban invasions of the Peloponnese and the liberation of Messenia), while Philip sided with Thessaly, Thebes, and most of the other Amphictyonic states. Phocis 4 aeschines 1 The (to the modern reader) paradoxical title given to this war is derived from the Latin word for ally, ‘‘socius.’’ Name /T1076/T1076_INT 03/29/00 05:14AM Plate # 0-Composite pg 5 # 5 played a vital role in keeping Philip out of central Greece. But after the Phocians had offered in 347 to hand over to Athens several fortified positions controlling the pass at Thermopylae, the gateway to central Greece from...