shadow at Delphi: i.e. the empty privilege (as Demosthenes here chooses to represent it) of membership of the Amphictyonic League and Council, now claimed by Philip.
THE SECOND PHILIPPIC
§ 1. sympathetic: i.e. towards other Greek states, desirous of securing independence.
§ 2. Alexander, &c. Alexander of Macedon was sent by Mardonius, the Persian commander, to offer Athens alliance with Persia on favourable terms. Demosthenes has confused the order of events, and speaks as if this message was brought before the battle of Salamis. The Athenians left the city twice, before the battle of Salamis and before that of Plataeae; it was after Salamis that Alexander was sent (Herod. viii. 140, &c.).
§ 14. fortify Elateia. This would be a menace to Thebes (cf. Speech on the Crown, §§ 174, 175). Elateia commands the road from Thermopylae to Thebes.
§ 19. well-balanced ([Greek: _s_ophronousi_]), or 'free from passion', i.e. not liable to be carried away by ambition or cupidity as the Thebans were. This is different from mere 'good sense' ([Greek: syphronein, noun echea]). For Theban 'stupidity', see Speech on Peace, § 15 (and n.).
§ 22. Council of Ten ([Greek: dekadarchian]). It is clear that some sort of oligarchical government, nominated by Philip, is referred to; but the relation of this to the tetrarchies mentioned in the Speech on the Chersonese, § 26, as established by Philip, is uncertain. These corresponded to the four tribes or divisions of Thessaly (Thessaliotis, Phthiotis, Pelasgiotis, Histiaeotis); and this is confirmed by a statement in Theopompus' forty-fourth book, to which Harpocration (s.v. [Greek: dekadarchia]) refers. Harpocration states that Philip did not establish a decadarchy in Thessaly; and if he is right, then either (a) Demosthenes purposely used an inaccurate word, in order to suggest to the Messenians the idea of a government like that of the Councils of Ten established some sixty years before by Sparta in the towns subject to her; or (b) the text is wrong, and [Greek: dekadarchian] is a misreading of [Greek: DARCHIAN], in which [Greek: D] was the numeral (= 4), and the whole stood for [Greek: tetrarchian]. As to (a), it is difficult to suppose that the Messenians would not know what had happened in Thessaly so well that the innuendo would fall flat. There is no evidence that 'decadarchy' could be used simply as a synonym for 'oligarchy'. As to (b), the supposed corruption is possible; but then we are left with [Greek: tetrarchian] where we should expect [Greek: tetrarchias]: for there is no parallel to [Greek: tetrarchia] (sing.) in the sense of 'a system of tetrarchies'. It is, however, quite possible that Demosthenes was thinking especially of the Thessalians of Pherae, and of the particular tetrarchy established over them: and this seems on the whole the best solution. If, on the other hand, Harpocration is wrong, the reference here may be to a Council of Ten, either established previously to the tetrarchies, and superseded by them, or else coexistent with and superior to them; in either case, since the singular is used, this decadarchy must have been a single government over the whole of Thessaly (or perhaps of the district about Pherae only), not a number of Councils, one in each city or division of Thessaly. (Theopompus' forty-fourth book probably dealt with 342 B.C., two years after the present speech, though before the Speech on the Chersonese; but we are not told that he assigned the establishment of the tetrarchies to that year.)
§ 25. find yourselves slaves: lit. 'find your master.'
§ 28. by yourselves: i.e. in the absence of the ambassadors from Philip and other States.
who conveyed the promises: i.e. Ctesiphon, Aristodemus, and Neoptolemus (see Speech on Embassy, §§ 12, 94, 315, &c.): but Demosthenes has probably Aeschines also in view.