Phocion

But the result in this case was the opposite, owing to a certain ruthlessness and hatred of goodness in Antipater. For, in the first place, he would not salute Xenocrates, although he greeted the other ambassadors; at which Xenocrates is said to have remarked: Antipater does well to feel shame before me alone of his ruthless designs against our city. And again, when the philosopher began to speak, Antipater would not listen to him, but angrily contradicted him and forced him into silence.

But when Phocion had made his plea, Antipater replied that the Athenians could be his friends and allies on condition that they delivered up Demosthenes and Hypereides, reverted to their earlier constitution with its basis of property qualification, received a garrison into Munychia,[*](The acropolis of Peiraeus.) and, in addition, paid the costs of the war and a fine.

The rest of the ambassadors were satisfied with these terms and considered them humane, with the exception of Xenocrates, who said that Antipater dealt with them moderately if he held them to be slaves, but severely if he held them to be freemen. Phocion, however, besought Antipater to spare them the garrison, to which Antipater, as we are told, replied: O Phocion, we wish to gratify thee in all things, except those which will ruin thee and us.

But some tell a different story, and say that Antipater asked whether, in case he indulged the Athenians in the matter of the garrison, Phocion would go surety that his city would abide by the peace and stir up no trouble; and that when Phocion was silent and delayed his answer, Callimedon, surnamed Carabus,[*](Stag-beetle.) an arrogant man and a hater of democracy, sprang to his feet and cried: But even if the fellow should prate such nonsense, Antipater, wilt thou trust him and give up what thou hast planned to do?

Thus the Athenians were obliged to receive a Macedonian garrison, which was under the command of Menyllus, an equitable man and a friend of Phocion. But the measure was held to be an arrogant one, and rather a display of power which delighted in insolence than an occupation due to stress of circumstance. And it came at a time which added not a little to the distress of the people. For the garrison was introduced on the twentieth of the month Boëdromion, while the celebration of the mysteries was in progress, on the day when the god Iacchus is conducted from the city to Eleusis, so that the disturbance of the sacred rite led most men to reflect upon the attitude of the heavenly powers in earlier times and at the present day.

For of old the mystic shapes and voices were vouchsafed to them in the midst of their most glorious successes, and brought consternation and affright upon their enemies;[*](See the Themistocles, xv. 1.) but now, while the same sacred ceremonies were in progress, the gods looked down with indifference upon the most grievous woes of Hellas, and the profanation of the season which had been most sweet and holy in their eyes made it for the future give its name to their greatest evils. Indeed, a few years before this the Athenians had received an oracle from Dodona bidding them guard the summits of Artemis,[*](Artemis was the patron goddess of Munychia.) that strangers might not seize them;