450 HISTORY OF GREECK. At Eretria, Kleitarchus with others carried on the like conspiracy Having expelled their principal opponents, and refused admission to Athenian envoys, they procured a thousand Macedonian troops under Hipponikus; they thus mastered Eretria itself, and de- stroyed the fortified seaport called Porthmus, in order to break the easy communication with Athens. Oreus and Eretria are repre- sented by Demosthenes as suffering miserable oppression under these two despots, Philistides and Kleitarchus. 1 On the other hand, Chalkis, the chief city in Euboea, appears to have been still free, and leaning to Athens rather than to Philip, under the pre- dominant influence of a leading citizen named Kallias. At this time, it appears, Philip was personally occupied witL operations in Thrace ; where he passed at least eleven months and probably more, 2 leaving the management of affairs in Eubosa to his commanders in Phokis and Thessaly. He was now seem- ingly preparing his schemes for mastering the important outlets from the Euxine into the JEgean the Bosphorus and Hel- lespont and the Greek cities on those coasts. Upon these straits depended the main supply of imported corn for Athens and a large part of the Grecian world ; and hence the great value of the Athenian possession of the Chersonese. Respecting this peninsula, angry disputes now arose. To pro tect her settlers there established, Athens had sent Diopeithes with a body of mercenaries unprovided with pay, however, and left to levy contributions where they could ; while Philip had taken under his protection and garrisoned Kardia a city situated within the peninsula near its isthmus, but ill-disposed to Athens, asserting independence, and admitted at the peace of 346 B. c., by JEschines and the Athenian envoys, as an ally of Philip to take part in the peace-oaths. 3 In conjunction with the Kardians, 1 The general state of things, as here given, at Oreus and Eretria, ex- isted at the time when Demosthenes delivered his two orations the third Philippic and the oration on the Chersonese ; in the late spring and sum- wer of 341 B. c. De Chersoneso, p. 98, 99, 104; Philipp. iii. p. 112, 115, 125, 126. . . . dovhewvai ye fiaoTiyovfiEvoi Kal orpt/J/lotyiEvoi (the people of Eretria uraier Kleitanhus, p. 128). 2 Demosth. De Chersoneso, p. 99. 8 Demosth. cont. Aristokrat. p 677 , De Fals. Leg. p. 39G ; De Cher onejo, p. 104, 105.
