Compare p. 43. c. 36. p. 46. c. 41. p. 52. c. 54—also p. 31-41—also the speech against Ktesiphon, p. 65. c. 30. ὡς τάχιστα εἴσω Πυλῶν Φίλιππος παρῆλθε καὶ τὰς μὲν ἐν Φωκεῦσι πόλεις παραδόξως ἀναστάτους ἐποίησε, etc.
[929] Demosth. Fals. Leg. p. 373, 374. I translate the substance of the argument, not the words.
[930] Æschines, Fals. Leg. p. 43. c. 36. In rebutting the charge against him of having betrayed the Phokians to Philip, Æschines (Fals. Leg. p. 46, 47) dwells upon the circumstance, that none of the Phokian exiles appeared to assist in the accusation, and that some three or four Phokians and Bœotians (whom he calls by name) were ready to appear as witnesses in his favor.
The reason, why none of them appeared against him, appears to me sufficiently explained by Demosthenes. The Phokians were in a state far too prostrate and terror-stricken to incur new enmities, or to come forward as accusers of one of the Athenian partisans of Philip, whose soldiers were in possession of their country.
The reason why some of them appeared in his favor is also explained by Æschines himself, when he states that he had pleaded for them before the Amphiktyonic assembly, and had obtained for them a mitigation of that extreme penalty which their most violent enemies urged against them. To captives at the mercy of their opponents, such an interference might well appear deserving of gratitude; quite apart from the question, how far Æschines as envoy, by his previous communications to the Athenian people, had contributed to betray Thermopylæ and the Phokians to Philip.
[931] Demosth. Fals. Leg. p. 376.
[932] Demosth. Fals. Leg. p. 375, 376, 377, 386
[933] Diodor. xvi. 63. ὑπὸ τοῦ θείου πυρὸς κατεφλέχθησαν, etc.
[934] Diodor. xvi. 61, 62, 63.
[935] Diodor. xvi. 64; Justin, viii. 2. “Dignum itaque qui a Diis proximus habeatur, per quem Deorum majestas vindicata sit.”