Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/383

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PIIOKION BEFORE POLYSPERCHON. ,S51 not admit him into the city, but they would not even acquiesce m his separate occupation of Munychia and Peiraeus. On the proposition of Agnonides and Archestratus, they sent a deputation to Polysperchon accusing Phokion and his comrades of high treason ; yet at the same time claiming for Athens the full and undiminished benefit of the late regal proclamation — autonomy and democracy, with restoration of Peiraeus and Munychia free ^nd ungarrisoned.^ The deputation reached Polysperchon at Pharyges in Phokis, '^s early as Phokion's company, which had been detained for some days at Elateia by the sickness of Deinarchus. That de- lay Avas unfortunate for Phokion. Had he seen Polysperchon, and presented the letter of Alexander, before the Athenian ac- cusers arrived, he might probably have obtained a more favora- ble reception. But as the arrival of the two parties was nearly simultaneous, Polysperchon heard both of them at the same au- dience, before King Philip Aridaeus in his throne with the gilt ceiling above it. When Agnonides, — chief of the Athenian deputation, and formerly friend and advocate of Demosthenes in the Harpalian cause — found himself face to face with Phokion and his friends, their reciprocal invectives at first produced nothing but confusion ; until Agnonides himself exclaimed — " Pack us all into one cage and send us back to Athens to re- ceive judgment from the Athenians." The king laughed at this observation, but the bystanders around insisted upon more or- derly proceedings, and Agnonides then set forth the two dcr raands of the Athenians — condemnation of Phokion and his friends, partly as accomplices of Antipater, partly as having be- trayed Peirfeus to Nikanor — and the full benefit of the late re- gal proclamation to Athens.^ Now, on the last of tliese two ' Diodor. xviii. 66. Tlutarch, Phokion, 33; Cornel. Nepos, Phokion, 3. " Ilic (PiiocionJ, ab Agnonide accusatus, quod Pirajum Nicanori prodidisset, ex consilii sen^ tentia, in custodiam conjectus, Athenas deductus est, ut i!)i de eo legibus lieret judicium." Plutarch says that Polysperchon, before he gave this hearing to both pat- ties, ordered the Corinthian Deinarchus to be tortured and to be put to death. Now the person so named cannot be Deinarchus, the logcgrapher — of whom we ha^o some specimens remaining, and who was alivf even as late