Böhnecke (Forschungen, p. 201-221) has gone into an examination of the dates and events of this Olynthian war, and has arranged them in a manner different from any preceding critic. His examination is acute and instructive, including however some reasonings of little force or pertinence. I follow him generally, in placing the beginning of the Olynthian war, and the Olynthiacs of Demosthenes, before Olymp. 107, 4. This is the best opinion which I can form, on matters lamentably unattested and uncertain.
[702] Demosth. Philipp. iii. p. 113. That Philip not only attacked, but even subdued, the thirty-two Chalkidic cities, before he marched directly and finally to assail Olynthus—is stated in the Fragment of Kallisthenes ap. Stobæum, Eclog. Tit. vii. p. 92.
Kallisthenes, whose history is lost, was a native of Olynthus, born a few years before the capture of the city.
[703] Some remarks will be found on the order of the Olynthiacs, in an [Appendix] to the present chapter.
It must be understood that I always speak of the Olynthiacs as first, second, and third, according to the common and edited order; though I cannot adopt that order as correct.
[704] Dionys. Hal. ad Ammæ. p. 736. μετὰ γὰρ ἄρχοντα Καλλίμαχον, ἐφ᾽ οὗ τὰς εἰς Ὄλυνθον βοηθείας ἀπέστειλαν Ἀθηναῖοι, πεισθέντες ὑπὸ Δημοσθένους, etc.
He connects the three Olynthiacs of Demosthenes, with the three Athenian armaments sent to Olynthus in the year following Midsummer 349 B. C.; for which armaments he had just before cited Philochorus.
[705] This is evident from the sneers of Meidias: see the oration of Demosthenes cont. Meidiam, p. 575, 576. (spoken in the year following—349-348 B. C.)
I observe, not without regret, that Demosthenes himself is not ashamed to put the like sneers into the mouth of a client speaking before the Dikastery—against Lakritus—“this very clever man, who has paid ten minæ to Isokrates for a course of rhetoric, and thinks himself able to talk you over as he pleases,” etc. (Demosth. adv. Lakrit. p. 938).
[706] An orator of the next generation (Deinarchus cont. Demosthen. p. 102, s. 99) taunts Demosthenes as a mere opposition-talker, in contrast with the excellent administration of the finances and marine under Eubulus—ποῖαι γὰρ τριήρεις εἰσὶ κατεσκευασμέναι διὰ τοῦτον (Demosthenes) ὥσπερ επὶ Εὐβούλου, τῇ πόλει; ἢ ποῖοι νεώσοικοι τούτου πολιτευομένου γεγόνασι; The administration of Eubulus must have left a creditable remembrance, to be thus cited afterwards.