P H O P H O 799 PHOCAS, emperor of the East from 602 to 610, was a Cappadocian of humble origin, and was still but a cen turion when chosen by the army of the Danube to lead it against Constantinople. A revolt within the city soon afterwards resulted in the abdication of the reigning em peror MAURICE ( /.#.) and in the speedy elevation of Phocas to the vacant throne (23d November 602). The secret of his popularity is hard to discover, but perhaps it is to be sought in the sheer recklessness of his audacity ; courage is nowhere imputed to him, and he is known to have been ignorant, brutal, and deformed. " Without assuming the office of a prince he renounced the profession of a soldier ; and the reign of Phocas afflicted Europe with ignominious peace, and Asia with desolating war." By the representa tions of Theodosius, Maurice s supposed son, and of Narses, the Byzantine commander-in-chief on the Persian frontier, Chosrocs (Khosrau) II. was induced to take up arms against the emperor in 604 (see PERSIA, above, p. 614). The failures of the generals of Phocas could not but tend to weaken his always insecure tenure of the imperial crown, and the appearance of the Persian armies as far west as Chalcedon in 609-610 made his deposition by HERACLIUS ( /. .) an easy task. He was beheaded by his successful rival on 4th October 610. PHOCION, an Athenian statesman, whose private virtues Avon him the surname of " the Good," but whose mistaken policy fatally contributed to the downfall of Athens, was born about 402 B.C. His father, Phocus, was a pestlemaker, but would seem to have been a man of means, for Phocion in his youth was a pupil of Plato. If Plutarch is right in saying that he afterwards studied under Xenocrates, this implies that he kept up his philo sophical studies in later life, for Xenocrates was his junior and did not succeed to the headship of the Academy until 339. As men of kindred character, they may well have been friends ; we find them on one occasion serving on the same embassy. It was perhaps from the Academic philosophy that Phocion learned that contempt for luxury and that truly Socratic simplicity and hardiness which characterized him throughout life. From Plato too he may have caught that scorn for the Athenians of his day which he often betrayed a scorn harmless, perhaps, in the study, but fatal in the council and the camp. His words, though few, were pithy and forcible, his wit keen and caustic. Many of his trenchant sayings have been pre served by Plutarch. He was the only orator whom Demosthenes feared; when Phocion rose to speak Demo sthenes used to whisper to his friends, " Here comes the chopper of my speeches." Gruff in manner, he was kind at heart, ever ready to raise the fallen and succour those in peril, even when they were his enemies. Being once reproached for pleading the cause of a bad man, he replied that the good had no need of help. When other generals were sent by Athens to the allies, the people closed their gates against them and prepared for a siege, but if it was Phocion they went out to meet him and conducted him in joyful procession into their midst. In his youth he saw service under the distinguished general Chabrias, whose temper, by turns sluggish and impetuous, he alternately stimulated and repressed. He thus won the regard of his good-natured commander, and was introduced by him to public notice and employed on important services. When Chabrias defeated the Spartans in the sea-fight off Naxos (September 376) Phocion commanded with distinction the left wing of the Athenian fleet. After the death of Chabrias (357) Phocion cared for the relatives of his patron, patiently endeavouring to train to virtue his wild and wayward son. A consistent advocate of peace, he was yet a good officer, and held the annual office of general no less than forty-five times, though he never sought election. He was amongst the last of the Athenian leaders who combined the characters of statesman and soldier. In 351 Phocion and Evagoras, lord of the Cyprian Salamis, were sent by Idrieus, prince of Caria, with a military and naval force to put down a revolt which had broken out against the Persians in Cyprus. The task was successfully accomplished. Next year 1 Phocion commanded a force which the Athenians sent to Eubcea in support of the tyrant Plutarch of Eretria. For a time the Athenians were in a dangerous position, but Phocion extricated him self and defeated the enemy on the heights above Tamynas. After the battle he humanely dismissed all his Greek prisoners, fearing the vengeance which the Athenians too often wreaked on their fallen foes. In 341 he returned to the island and put down Clitarchus, whom Philip, king of Macedonia, had set up as tyrant of Eretria. Demo sthenes had long warned the Athenians against Philip, but there is nothing to show that in this he was backed by Phocion. On the contrary, from the opposition which he so often offered to Demosthenes, as well as from his subse quent policy, we may infer that Phocion discredited rather than corroborated the warnings of his contemporary. But, when Philip laid siege to Byzantium, the Athenians, at last thoroughly aroused to their danger, sent Chares with an expedition to relieve it. He failed to do so, and Phocion took his place (340). The Byzantines had refused to admit Chares into their city, but they welcomed Phocion. Athenians and Byzantines fought side by side, and Philip was compelled to raise the siege and retire from the Hellespont. Phocion afterwards retaliated on the king s territory by raids, in one of which he was wounded. When the Megarians appealed to Athens for help, 2 Phocion promptly marched to their aid, fortified the port Nisaea, and connected it with the capital by two long walls, thus securing Megara and its port against attacks by land. 3 In spite of the successful issue of his expedition to Byzantium Phocion advised the Athenians to make peace with Philip. But the war party led by Demosthenes prevailed, and the battle of Chaeronea (August 338), in which Philip over threw the united armies of Athens and Thebes, converted Greece into a province of Macedonia. This brought Phocion and the peace party into power, but Phocion consulted the dignity of Athens so far as to advise the people not to take part in the congress of the Greek states summoned by Philip to meet at Corinth until they knew what terms Philip meant to propose. The Athenians soon had reason to regret that they did not follow this advice. W T iien the 1 Diodorus (xvi. 46) speaks of Phocion as still in Cyprus in 350. But this can hardly be true if Phocion led the expedition to Eubcea in Anthesterion (end of February and beginning of March) 350. See next note. 2 The dates and even the order of the events from the Cyprian down to the Megarian expedition are variously given by modern writers. The order in the text is that of Plutarch and Diodorus. The dates assigned to the Cyprian, second Eubcean, and Megarian expeditions are those of Diodorus. The first expedition to Eubcea (as to the date of which see Clinton s Fasti llellenici, vol. ii. ) and that to Megara are not mentioned by Diodorus. Plutarch mentions the Megarian after the Byzantine expedition. But the siege of Byzantium was not raised till the earlier half of 339, and Pliocion afterwards spent some time in Macedonian waters. Thus he could hardly have been at Megara before midsummer 339. But Elatea was seized by Philip in the winter of 339/338, and its seizure was the occasion of a league between Athens and Thebes. Hence, as the motive assigned for the Megarian expedition was distrust of Thebes, that expedition cannot have taken place after the seizure of Elatea. But the six months between midsummer and winter 339 would hardly suffice for the con struction of the Long Walls. Perhaps, then, Plutarch has misplaced the expedition to Megara, and it ought to be dated earlier. Thirlwall assigns it to 343. 3 The Athenians had rendered the same service to the Megarians nipre than a century before, but these first Long Walls had been destroyed by the Megariaus themselves in the Peloponuesian War (424).
