PLANS OF PHII IP. 41 1 10 leave as little time as possible either to the Phokiaus 01 to Athens for organizing defence. The oath, which ought tc have been administered in Thrace, but at any rate at Pella. was not taken until Philip had got as near as possible to the important pass ; nor had the envoys visited one single city among his allies in execution of their mandate. And as .ZEs- c Junes was well aware that this would provoke inquiry, he look the precaution of bringing with him a letter from Philip to the Athenian people, couched in the most friendly terms ; wherein Philip took upon himself any blame which might fall upon the envoys, affirming that they themselves had been anxious to go and visit the allied cities, but that he had detained them in order that they might assist him in accommodating the difference be- tween the cities of Halus and Pharsalus. This letter, affording farther presumption of the connivance between the envoys and Philip, was besides founded on a false pretence ; for Halus was (either at that very time or shortly afterwards) conquered by his arms, given up to the Phirsalians, and its population sold or ex- pelled. 1 In administering the oaths at Pheras to Philip and his allies, JEschines and the majority of the Athenian envoys had formally and publicly pronounced the Phokians to be excluded and out of the treaty, and had said nothing about Kersobleptes. This was, if not a departure from their mandate, at least a step beyond it; for the Athenian people had expressly rejected the same exclusion when proposed by Philokrates at Athens ; though when the Mace- donian envoy declared that he could not admit the Phokians, the Athenians had consented to swear the treaty without them. avruv oTrwf pj uTTiu/itv IK. Ma/c(5oi>iaf f ru. T?J<; arpa-eiaf rr/g kirl roiig <baKae evrpeTT?/ iroiijaatTO, etc. 1 Demosthen. Fals. Leg. p. 352,353; ad Philipp. Epistol. p. 152. De- mosthenes affirms farther that JEschincs himself wrote the letter in Philip's name. jEschines denies that he -wrote it, and sustains his denial upon sufficient grounds. But he does not deny that he brought it (..Eschines, Fals. Leg. p. 44. c. 40, 41 ). The inhabitants of Pharsalus were attached to Philip ; while those of Pherae were opposed to him as much as they dared, and even refused (ao cording to Demosthenes, Fals. Leg. p. 444) to join his army on this expe Ution. The, old rivalry between the two cities here again appears.
