ON THE CHERSONESE


[_Introduction_. Late in the year 343 (some time after the acquittal of
Aeschines) Philip invaded Epirus, made Alexander, brother of his wife
Olympias, king of the Molossi instead of Arybbas, and so secured, his own
influence in that region. Arybbas was honourably received at Athens.
Philip next threatened Ambracia and Leucas, which were colonies of
Corinth, and promised to restore Naupactus, which was in the hands of the
Achaeans, to the Aetolians. But Athens sent Demosthenes, Hegesippus,
Polyeuctus and others to rouse the Corinthians to resistance, and also
dispatched a force of citizens to Acarnania to help in the defence against
Philip. Philip thereupon returned, captured Echinus and Nicaea on the
Malian Gulf, and established a tetrarch in each division of Thessaly (343
B.C., or early in 342). In 342 Philistides was established, by Philip's
influence, as tyrant at Oreus in Euboea (as Cleitarchus had been at
Eretria in the preceding year), and the democratic leader Euphraeus
committed suicide in prison. The town of Chalcis, however, under
Callias and Taurosthenes, remained friendly to Athens, and made a treaty
of alliance with her.

About the same time a controversy, begun in the previous year, in regard
to Halonnesus, was renewed. This island had belonged to Athens, but had
been occupied by pirates. At some time not recorded (but probably since
the Peace of 346) Philip had expelled the pirates and taken possession of
the island. He now sent a letter, offering to give Halonnesus to Athens,
but not to _give it back_ (since this would concede their right to it); or
else to submit the dispute to arbitration. He also offered to discuss a
treaty for the settlement of private disputes between Athenians and
Macedonians, and to concert measures with Athens for clearing the Aegean
of pirates. He was willing to extend the advantages of the Peace to other
Greek States, but not to agree that he and Athens should respectively
possess 'what was their own', instead of 'what they held'; though he was
ready to submit to arbitration in regard to Cardia and other disputed
places. He again denied having made the promises attributed to him, and
asked for the punishment of those who slandered him. Hegesippus replied in
an extant speech ('On Halonnesus'), while Demosthenes insisted that no
impartial arbitrator could possibly be found. Philip's terms in regard to
Halonnesus were refused, but the Athenian claim to the island was not
withdrawn.

Philip spent the greater part of 342 and 341 in Thrace, mainly in the
valley of the Hebrus, where he endured very great hardships through the
winter, and founded colonies of Macedonian soldiers, the chief of these
being Philippopolis and Cabyle. He also entered into relations with the
Getae, beyond the Haemus, and garrisoned Apollonia on the Euxine. These
operations were all preparatory to his projected attack upon Byzantium.
(Byzantium and Athens were at this time on unfriendly terms, owing to the
part taken by the latter in the Social War.)

But the immediate subject of the present Speech was the state of affairs
in the Chersonese in 342. The Chersonese (with the exception of Cardia)
had been secured for Athens in 357, but had been threatened by Philip in
352, when he made alliance with Cardia, and forced the neighbouring
Thracian Prince Cersobleptes to submit. Soon after the Peace of
Philocrates, Athens sent settlers to the Chersonese under Diopeithes.
Cardia alone refused to receive them, and Diopeithes, with a mercenary
force, prepared to compel the Cardians to admit them; while Philip sent
troops to hold the town, and complained to Athens in threatening terms of
the actions of Diopeithes, and more particularly of an inroad which
Diopeithes had made upon Philip's territory in Thrace. Diopeithes had been
ill-supported with money and men by Athens, and had had recourse to
piratical actions, in order to obtain supplies, thus arousing some
indignation at Athens; but the prospect of the heavy expenditure which