must have designated him for the office. A belief grew, however, that Philip was playing into the hands of the Delians. It was resolved—probably on the motion of Demosthenes—that the final choice of an orator should be referred to the Areopagus. That body selected Hypereides. His speech before the Amphictyonic Council,—famous in antiquity as "the Delian oration,"—traced the history of the island temple to an Athenian origin, while it did not fail to remind the judges of those immemorial ties which linked Athens with Delphi. His ingenious eloquence prevailed: the Amphictyonic tribunal confirmed Athens in the administration of the Delian sanctuary[1]. After this repulse, it might have seemed that Delos was fated to remain in permanent dependence; but the time was at hand when the island was to enter on a new life of freedom and of brilliant prosperity.
III. The Macedonian Period: 322–166 B.C.
An Athenian inscription, presumed to be an inventory of objects preserved at Delos, mentions a gift bearing the date of the archon Polemon, i.e. 312 B.C.[2] It has been inferred that the Athenian domination in Delos still existed then[3] But this
- ↑ Schäfer, Demosth. u. seine Zeit, vol. ii. pp. 346 f.: the fragments of the Δηλιακός of Hypereides in Sauppe, Frag. Or. Att. p. 285.
- ↑ Le Bas, Voy. archéol., Inscr. att. no. 245, l. 31.
- ↑ M. Homolle, Bulletin de Corr. hellén. vol. ii. p. 582. The doubt, which appears to me well-founded, is expressed by M. Lebégue, p. 301, note.
