286 HISTORY OF GREECE. of whom took part with Agis, were now left, without Thebes and Sparta, as the tw^o great military powers of Greece which will appear presently, when we come to the last struggle for Grecian independence — the Lamian war; better combined and more promising, yet not less disastrous in its result. Though the strongest considerations of prudence kept Athens quiet during this anti-Macedonian movement in Peloponnesus, a powerful sympathy must have been raised among her citizens while the struggle was going on. Had Agis gained the victory over Antipater, the Athenians might probably have declared in his favor; and although no independent position could have been permanently maintained against so overwhelming an enemy as Alexander, yet considering that he was thoroughly occupied and far in the interior of Asia, Greece might have held out against Antipater for an interval not inconsiderable. In the face of such eventualities, the fears of the macedonizing statesmen now in power at Athens, the hopes of their opponents, and the recipro- cal antipathies of both, must have become unusually manifest : so that the reaction afterwards, when the Macedonian power became more irresistible than ever, was considered by the ene- mies of Demosthenes to offer a favorable opportunity for ruining and dishonoring him. To the political peculiarity of this juncture Ave owe the ju- dicial contest betw^een the two great Athenian orators ; the memorable accusation of ^schines against Ktesiphon, for having proposed a crown to Demosthenes — and the still more memorable defence of Demosthenes, on behalf of his friend as Avell as of himself. It was in the autumn or winter of 337-336 B. c, that Ktesiphon had proposed this vote of public honor in favor of Demosthenes, and had obtained the probouleuma or pre- liminary acquiescence of the senate ; it was in the same Attio year, and not long afterwards, that JEschines attacked the propo- sition under the Graphe Paranomon, as illegal, unconstitutional, mischievous, and founded on false allegations.^ More than six 1 Among the various documents, real or pretended, inserted in the oration of Demosthenes Do t!orona, there appears one (p. 266) purporting to bo the very decree moved by Ktesiphon ; and another (p. 243) purporting to be the accusation preferred by ^schines. I have already stated that ^
