ALEXANDER AT CORINTH. 13 denounced this step as a cowardly desertion. No envoy could be so odious to Alexander, or so likely to provoke refusal foi the proposition which he carried, as Demosthenes. To employ him in such a mission would have been absurd ; except for the purpose probably intended by his enemies, that he might be either detained by the conqueror as an expiatory victim,^ or sent back as a pardoned and humiliated prisoner. After displaying his force in vai'ious portions of Peloponnesus, Alexander returned to Corinth, where he convened deputies from the Grecian cities generally. The list of those cities which obeyed the summons is not before us, but probably it included nearly all the cities of Central Greece. We know only that the Lacedaemonians continued to stand aloof, refusing all concur- rence. Alexander asked from the assembled deputies the same appointment Avhich the victorious Philip had required and ob- tained two years before — the hegemony or headship of the Greeks collectively for the purpose of prosecuting war against Persia.^ To the request of a prince at the head of an irresisti- ble army, one ans^ter only was admissible. He was nominated Imperator with full powers, by land and sea. Overawed by the presence and sentiment of Macedonian force, all acquiesced in this vote except the Lacedaemonians. The convention sanctioned by Alexander was probably the same as that settled by and with his father Philip. Its grand and significant feature was, that it recognized Hellas as a confed- eracy under the Macedonian prince as imperator, president, or ' Several years afterwards, Demades himself was put to deatli by Anti- patcr, to whom lie had been sent as envoy from Athens (Diodor. xvlii. ' Arrian, i. i, 2. u'iteIv Trap' avr Sjv t//v yyefiovlav rr/g ijvl roDf Uipaac orpare'ia^, r/vriva <l>£/l£;r7ru f/drj e:6oaav' Kal airf/aavra "kajielv rrapa ■ttuvtciv, ttX^v AaKEi^aifioviui', etc. Arrian speaks as if this request had been addressed only to the Greeks within Peloponnesus ; moreover he mentions no assembly at Corinth, whicii is noticed (though with some confusion) by Diodorus, Justin, and Plutarch. Cities out of Peloponnesus, as well as within it, must have been included ; unless we suppose that the resolution of the Amphiktyonic assembly, which iiad been previously passed, was held to comprehend all the extra-Pelopon- nesian cities, which seems not probabl:. VOt-. xir. 2
