POLITICAL PARTIES IN 350 B.C. 355 urges Athens to help a democratic rising in Rhodes, in the hope of recovering part of her lost influence in the -<Egean. Eubulus was against intervention. In the speech For Megalopolis (?353 B.C.) Demosthenes merely objects to taking a definite side in favour of Sparta. It would have been impossible at the time to give active help to Megalopolis ; though perhaps it would have prevented one of the most fatal combinations of the ensuing years, the reliance of the anti-Spartan parts of the Peloponnese upon Philip's support. In 352 Philip had attempted to pass Thermopylae into Lower Greece ; Eubulus, for once vigorous, had checked him. But the danger had become obvious and acute, and Demosthenes presses it in the First PJiilippic. The king retired northwards and laid siege to Olynthus. Athens knew the immense value of that place, and acted energetically ; but the great diplomat paralysed her by stirring up a revolt in Euboea at the critical moment. Demosthenes, in his three Olynthiacs, presses unhesitat- ingly for the relief of Olynthus. The government took the common-sense or unsanguine view, that Euboea, being nearer, must be saved first. Euboea was saved ; but Olynthus fell, and Athens was unable to continue the war. When Philocrates introduced proposals of peace, Demosthenes supported him, and was given a place on the commission of ten sent to treat with Philip for terms. He was isolated among the com- missioners. The most important of these, after Philo- crates, was ^SCHINES of Kothokidaj (389-314 B.C.). He was a man of high culture and birth, though the distresses of the war compelled all his family to earn their own livelihood. His father turned schoolmaster ; his mother did religious work in connection with some
