THE 1'IIOKIANS RESIST. 24a Among Ins assembled countrymen, he protested against the gross injustice of the recent sentence, amercing them in an enormous sum exceeding their means ; when the strip of land, where they were alleged to have trespassed on the property of the god, was at best narrow and insignificant. Nothing was left, now, to avert from them utter ruin, except a bold front and an obstinate resistance , which he (Philomelus) would pledge himself to conduct with suc- cess, if they would intrust him with full powers. The Phokians (he contended) were the original and legitimate administrators of the Delphian temple a privilege of which they had been wrong- fully dispossessed by the Amphiktyonic assembly and the Del- phians. " Let us reply to our enemies (he urged) by re-asserting our lost rights and seizing the temple ; we shall obtain support and countenance from many Grecian states, whose interest is the iame as our own, to resist the unjust decrees of the Amphiktyons. 1 Our enemies the Thebans (he added) are plotting the seizure of the temple for themselves, through the corrupt connivance of an Amphiktyonic majority : let us anticipate and prevent their injustice." 2 1 Diodor. xvi. 23, 24; Pausanias, x. 2, 1. 2 That this design, imputed to the Thebans, was a part of the case mads out by the Phokians for themselves, we may feel assured from the passage in Demosthenes, Fals. Leg. p. 347. s. 22. Demosthenes charges ^Eschines with having made false promises and statements to the Athenian assembly, on returning from his embassy in 346 B. c. ^iEschines told the Athenians (so Demosthenes affirms) that he had persuaded Philip to act altogether in the interest and policy of Athens ; that the Athenians would very pre- sently see Thebes besieged by Philip, and the BoBOtian towns restored ; and furthermore, T> i?eu 6e TU ^pf/ftara elairpaTTo/ieva., oil napa QUKEUV, aTJiu Trapa Qij /? aiuv TUV (3ovhevauvTuv TTJV KaTuTir/ip iv TOV iepov JiduaKeiv -yiip avrbf fyq rbv QiTinrirov OTI oidev TJTTOV fyae /3?j Kaa iv d fie povhevKoref ruv rate x E Pl ffpa^avruv , nal dia. ravra %py [laW kavru Toijf QT]fiaiov<; iTUKeKrjpvxevat. How far ^Eschines really promised to the Athenians that which Demos- thenes here alleges him to have promised is a matter to be investigated when we arrive at the transactions of the year 346 B. c. But it seems to me clear that the imputation (true or false) against the Thebans, of having been themselves in conspiracy to seize the temple, must have emanated first from the Phokians, as part of the justification of their own proceed ings. If the Thebans ever conceived such an idea, it must have been before the actual occupation of the temple b/ the Phokians , if they 21*
