NIKANOR SEUhb PEIR.EUS. 347 arms. But Phokion as general damped their ardor, and even declined to head them in an attack for the recovery of Peirieud before Nikanor should have had time to strengthen himself in it. He went however, with Konon (son of Timotheus), to remon- strate with Nikanor, and to renew the demand that he should evacuate, under the recent proclamation, all the posts which he held in garrison. But Nikanor would give no other answer, ex- cept that he held his commission from Kassander, to whom they must address their application.^ He thus again tried to bring Athens into communication with Kassander. The occupation of Peiroeus in addition to Munychia was a serious calamity to the Athenians, making them worse off than they had been even under Antipater. Peirjeus, rich, active, and commercial, containing the Athenian arsenal, docks, and muni- ments of war, was in many respects more valuable than Athens itself; for all purposes of war, far more valuable. Kassander had now an excellent place of arms and base, which Munychia alone would not have afforded, for his operations in Greece against Polysperchon ; upon whom therefore the loss fell hardly less severely than upon the Athenians. Now Phokion, in his function as general, had been forewarned of the danger, might Lave guarded against it, and ought to have done so. This was a grave dereliction of duty, and admits of hardly any other ex- planation except that of treasonable connivance. It seems that Phokion, foreseeing his own ruin and that of his friends in the triumph of Polysperchon and the return of the exiles, was desir- ous of favoring the seizure of Peira3us by Nikanor, as a means of constraining Athens to adopt the alliance with Kassander ; which alliance indeed would probably have been brought about, had Kassander reached Peiraeus by sea sooner than the first troops of Polysperchon by land. Phokion was here guilty, at the very least, of culpable neglect, and probably of still more cul- pable treason, on an occasion seriously injuring both Polysper- chon and the Athenians ; a fact which we must not forget, when we come to read presently the bitter animosity exhibited against him.^ ' Diodor. xviii. 64 ; Plutarch, Phokion, 32 ; Cornelius Nopos, Pliokion. 2.
- Cornelius Nepos, Phokion, 2. " Concidit autcm maxime uno crimine:
