Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/345

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EFFECTS OF THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER. 313 wailiiko projects, still remained at Athens, and still, apparently, coniinucd in his functions as one of the generals.^ But Pytheas, Kalliraedon, and others of his friends, fled to Antipater, whom they strenuously assisted in trying to check the intended move- ment throughout Greece. Leosthenes, aided by some money and arms from Athens, put himself at the head ol' the mercenaries assembled at Taanarus, and passed across the Gulf into -.Etolia. Here he was joined by the ^tolians and Akamanians, who eagerly entered into the league with Athens for expelUng the Macedonians from Greece. Proceeding onward towai-ds Thermopylae and Thessaly, he met with favor and encouragement almost everywhere. The cause of Grecian freedom was espoused by the Phokians, Lokrians, Dorians, ^nianes, Athamantes, and Dolopes; by most of the Malians, Q^tasans, Thessalians, and Achaeans of PhthiOtis ; by the inhabitants of Leukas, and by some of the Molossians. Pro- mises were also held out of cooperation from various Illyrian and Thracian tribes. In Peloponnesus, the Argeians, Sikyonians. Epidaurians, Troezenians, Eleians, and Messenians, enrolled themselves in the league, as well as the Karystians in Euboea.3 These adhesions were partly procured by Hyperides and other Athenian envoys, who visited the several cities ; while Pytheas and other envoys were going round in like matter to advocate the cause of Antipater. The two sides were thus publicly ar- gued by able pleaders before different public assemblies. In these debates, the advantage was generally on the side of the Athenian orators, whose efforts moreover were powerfully se- conded by the voluntary aid of Demosthenes, then living as an exile in Peloponnesus. To Demosthenes the death of Alexander, and the new pros- pect of organizing an anti-Macedonian confederacy with some tolerable chance of success, came more welcome than to any one else. He gladly embraced the opportunity of joining and assist- ' It is to this season, apparently, that the anecdote (if true) must be referred — The Athenians were eager to invade Boeotia unseasonably; Phokion, as general of eighty years old, kept them back, by calling out the citizens of sixty years old and upwards for service, and offering to march liimsclf at their head (Plutarch, Eeip. Ger. Praecept. p. 818).

  • Diodor. xviii. 11 ; Pausanias, i. 25, 4.

VOL. xii. 27