18 DEMOSTHENES. and secured them. Not long after, he undei'took an em- bassy through the States of Greece, which he sohcited and so far incensed against Phihp, that, a few only ex- cepted, he brought them all into a general league. So that, besides the forces composed of the citizens them- selves, there was an army consisting of fifteen thousand foot and two thousand horse, and the money to pay these strangers was levied and brought in with great cheerfulness. On which occasion it was, says Theophra- stus, on the allies requesting that their contributions for the war might be ascertained and stated, Crobylus, the orator, made use of the saying, " War can't be fed at so much a day." Now was all Greece up in arms, and in great expectation what would be the event. The Euboe- ans, the Achasans, the Corinthians, the Megarians, the Leucadians, and Corcyra^ans, their people and their cities, were all joined together in a league. But the hardest task was yet behind, left for Demosthenes, to draw the Thebans into this confederacy with the rest. Their country bordered next upon Attica, they had great forces for the war, and at that time they were accounted the best soldiers of all Greece, but it was no easy matter to make them break with Phihp, who, by many good offices, had so lately obliged them in the Phocian war ; especially considering how the subjects of dispute and variance between the two cities were continually renewed and exasperated by petty quarrels, arising out of the proximity of their frontiers. But after Philip, being now grown high and puffed up with his good success at Amphissa, on a sudden surprised Elatea and possessed himself of Phocis, and the Athe- nians were in a great consternation, none durst ven- ture to rise up to speak, no one knew what to say, all were at a loss, and the whole assembly in silence and per- plexity, in this extremity of affairs, Demosthenes was
