Title: Philip's Letter To the AtheniansAuthor: King Philip of Macedon PHILIP'S LETTER TO THE ATHENIANS by Philip, King of Macedon translated by Thomas Leland, D.D. Notes and Introduction by Thomas Leland, D.D.INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION To Philip's Letter to the Athenians, and Demosthenes' Oration on the Letter THE former oration (The Fourth Philippic) inspired the Athenianswith the resolution of sending succors to all the cities that werethreatened by Philip's arms; and their first step was to despatch tothe Hellespont a convoy with provisions; which weighed anchor inview of Selymbria, a city of the Propontis, then besieged by theMacedonians, and was there seized by Amyntas, Philip's admiral. Theships were demanded by the Athenians, and returned by Philip, but withdeclarations sufficiently alarming. The obstinate valor of the Perinthians had forced Philip to turn thesiege into a blockade. He marched off with a considerable body ofhis army to attack other places, and made an incursion into theterritories of Byzantium. The Byzantines shut themselves up withintheir city, and despatched one of their citizens to Athens to desirethe assistance of that state; who, with some difficulty, prevailedto have a fleet of forty ships sent out, under the command of Chares. As this general had not the same reputation in other places as atAthens, the cities by which he was to pass refused to receive him:so that he was obliged to wander for some time along the coasts,extorting contributions from the Athenian allies; despised by theenemy, and suspected by the whole world. He appeared at last beforeByzantium, where he met with the same mortifying treatment as in otherplaces, and was refused admission; and shortly after was defeated byAmyntas in a naval engagement, in which a considerable part of hisfleet was either sunk or taken. Philip had for some time perceived, that, sooner or later, he mustinevitably come to a rupture with the Athenians. His partisans were nolonger able to lull them into security. Their opposition to hisdesigns, however imperfect and ineffectual, was yet sufficient toalarm him. He therefore determined to endeavor to abate that spiritwhich now began to break through their inveterate indolence; and forthis purpose sent them a letter, in which, with the utmost art, helaid open the causes of complaint he had against them, andthreatened them with reprisals. This letter was not received at Athenstill after the news of Chares's defeat. Philip had now laid siege to Byzantium, and exerted all hisefforts to make himself master of that city. On the other hand, theAthenians were disheartened by the ill-success of their commander, andbegan to repent of having sent any succors, when Phocion, who alwaysassumed the liberty of speaking his sentiments freely, assured them,that for once they themselves had not been in fault; but that theirgeneral only was to blame. He was immediately desired to take onhimself the charge of relieving Byzantium; and set sail with anumerous body of forces. He was received with the greatestdemonstrations of joy; and his whole conduct expressed the utmostwisdom and moderation. Nor was his valor less conspicuous: hesustained many assaults with an intrepidity worthy of the early agesof the commonwealth, and at last obliged Philip to raise the siege. Phocion then departed amid the general acclamations of the peoplewhom he had saved. He proceeded to the relief of the colonies of theChersonesus, who were ever exposed to the attacks of the Cardians.In this way he took some vessels laden with arms and provisions forthe enemy, and obliged the Macedonians, who had attempted Sestos, toabandon their enterprise, and shut themselves up in Cardia. And thus, after various expeditions highly honorable both to himselfand to his country, Phocion returned home, where he found theAthenians engaged in a debate on Philip's letter: on which occasionDemosthenes pronounced his last oration against Philip. To haveanswered the letter particularly would have been very difficult;for, though Athens had the better cause, yet many irregularities hadreally been committed, which Philip knew how to display in theirfull force. The orator therefore makes use of his art to extricatehimself from the difficulty; avoids all former discussions of facts,and applies himself at once to raise the lively passions: affects toconsider this letter as an open declaration of war; inflames theimaginations of his hearers with this idea; and speaks only of themeans to support their arms against so powerful an enemy.LETTER_TO_THE_ATHENIANS PHILIP'S LETTER TO THE ATHENIANS PHILIP, to the Senate and People *(1) of Athens- Greeting: As theembassies I have frequently sent to enforce those oaths anddeclarations by which we stand engaged have produced no alterationin your conduct, I thought it necessary thus to lay before you theseveral particulars in which I think myself aggrieved. Be notsurprised at the length of this letter; for, as I have many causesof complaint, it is necessary to explain them all distinctly. First, then, when Nicias the herald *(2) was forcibly taken out ofmy own territory; instead of punishing the author of this outrage,as justice required, you added to his wrongs by keeping him ten monthsin prison; and the letters entrusted to him by us *(3) you readpublicly in your assembly. Again, when the ports of Thassus wereopen *(4) to the Byzantine galleys, nay, to any pirates thatpleased, you looked on with indifference; although our treatiesexpressly say that such proceedings shall be considered as an actualdeclaration of war. About the same time it was that Diopithes made adescent on my dominions, carried off in chains the inhabitants ofCrobyle and Tiristasis, *(5) ravaged all the adjacent parts of Thrace,and at length proceeded to such a pitch of lawless violence as toseize Amphilocus, *(6) who went in quality of an ambassador, totreat about the ransom of prisoners; whom, after he had reduced him tothe greatest difficulties, he compelled to purchase his freedom, atthe rate of nine talents: and this he did with the approbation ofhis state. Yet the violation of the sacred character of heralds andambassadors is accounted, by all people, the height of impiety: norhave any expressed a deeper sense of this than you yourslves; for,when the Megareans had put Anthemocritus to death, *(7) the peopleproceeded so far as to exclude them from the mysteries, anderected *(8) a statue before the gates as a monument of their crime.And is not this shocking, to be avowedly guilty of the very samecrimes for which your resentment fell so severely on others, when youyourselves were aggrieved? In the next place, Callias your general hath made himself masterof all the towns on the bay of Pagasae, though comprehended in thetreaty made with you, and united in alliance to me. Not a vessel couldsteer its course towards Macedon but the passengers were all treatedby him as enemies, and sold; and this his conduct hath beenapplauded by the resolutions of your council! So that I do not see howyou can proceed further if you actually declare war against me. For,when we were at open hostilities, you did but send out yourcorsairs, make prize of those who were sailing to my kingdom, assistmy enemies, and infest my territories. Yet now, when we areprofessedly at peace, so far have your injustice and rancor hurriedyou, that you have sent ambassadors to the Persian, *(9) to persuadehim to attack me; which must appear highly surprising; for, beforethat prince had subdued Egypt and Phoenicia, it was resolved, *(10)that if he attempted any new enterprises, you would invite me, as wellas all the other Greeks, to an association against him. But now,with such malice am I pursued, that you are, on the contrary,confederating with him against me. In former times, I am told, yourancestors objected it as a heinous crime to the family *(11) ofPisistratus that they had led the Persian against the Greeks: andyet you are not ashamed to commit the very same action for which youwere continually inveighing against those tyrants! But your injustice hath not stopped here. Your decrees command me topermit Teres and Cersobleptes to reign *(12) unmolested in Thrace,as being citizens of Athens. I do not know that they were includedin our treaty, that their names are to be found in the records ofour engagements, or that they are Athenians. But this I know, thatTeres served in my army against you; and that when Cersobleptesproposed to my ambassadors to take the necessary oaths, in order to beparticularly included in the treaty, your generals prevented him, bydeclaring him an enemy to the Athenians. And how is this equitableor just: when it serves your purposes, to proclaim him the enemy ofyour state; when I am to be calumniated, to give him the title of yourcitizen: when Sitalces was slain, *(13) to whom you granted theprivileges of your city, instantly to enter into an alliance withhis murderer; yet to engage in a war with me on account ofCersobleptes?- and this, when you are sensible that not one of theseyour adopted citizens has ever shown the least regard to your lawsor determinations! But to bring this affair to a short issue. Yougranted the rights of your community *(14) to Evagoras ofCyprus, *(15) to Dionysius the Syracusan, and to their descendants.Prevail, therefore, on the men who have dispossessed each of these torestore them to their dominions, and you shall recover from me allthose territories of Thrace *(16) which Teres and Cersobleptescommanded. But if you have nothing to urge against those who expelledthem, and yet are incessantly tormenting me, am not I justly warrantedto oppose you? I might urge many other arguments on this head, but Ichoose to pass them over. The Cardians, *(17) I freely declare, I am determined to support, asmy engagements to them are prior to our treaty, and as you refusedto submit your differences with them to an arbitration, thoughfrequently urged by me: nor have they been wanting in the likesolicitations. Should not I, therefore, be the basest of mankind toabandon my allies, and to show greater regard for you, my inveterateopposers, than for my constant and assured adherents? Formerly (for I cannot pass this in silence) you contentedyourselves with remonstrating on the points above mentioned. Butlately, on the bare complaint of the Peparethians that they had beenseverely treated by me, you proceeded to such outrage, as to sendorders to your general to revenge their quarrel. Yet the punishmentwhich I inflicted was no way equal to the heinousness of theircrime; as they had in time of peace seized Halonesus: nor could beprevailed on by all my solicitations to give up either the island orthe garrison. The injuries I received from the Peparethians were neverthought of; but their punishment commanded all your attention, as itafforded a pretence for accusing me; although I did not take theisland either from them or from you, but from the pirate Sostratus.If, then, you confess that you delivered to Sostratus, you confessyourselves guilty of sending out pirates: if he seized it without yourconsent, how have I injured you by taking possession of it, and byrendering it a secure harbor? Nay, so great was my regard to yourstate, that I offered to bestow on you this island: but this was notagreeable to your orators: they *(18) would not have it accepted,but resumed. So that, if I complied with their directions, Iproclaimed myself a usurper: if I still kept possession of theplace, I became suspected to the people. I saw through theseartifices, and therefore proposed to bring our differences to ajudicial determination: and if sentence was given for me, to presentyou with the place; if in your favor, to restore it to the people.This I frequently desired: you would not hear it: the Peparethiansseized the island. What then was I to do? Should I not punish theviolators of oaths? Was I tamely to bear such an audacious insult?If the island was the property of the Peparethians, what right havethe Athenians to demand it? If it is yours, why do you not resenttheir usurpations? So far, in short, have our animosities been carried, that, when Ihad occasion to despatch some vessels to the Hellespont, I was obligedto send a body of forces through the Chersonesus to defend themagainst your colonies, who are authorized to attack me by a decreeof Polycrates, *(19) confirmed by the resolutions of your council.Nay, your general has actually invited the Byzantines to join him, andhas everywhere publicly declared that he has your instructions tocommence hostilities at the first favorable opportunity. All thiscould not prevail on me to make any attempt on your city, or yournavy, or your territories, although I might have had success inmost, or even all of them. I chose rather to continue my solicitationsto have our complaints submitted to proper umpires. And which, thinkye, is the fittest decision- that of reason or of the sword? Who areto be judges in your cause- yourselves or others? What can be moreinconsistent than that the people of Athens, who compelled theThassians and Maronites *(20) to bring their pretensions to the cityof Stryma to a judicial decision, should yet refuse to have theirown disputes with me determined in the same manner? particularly, asyou are sensible that if the decree be against you, still you losenothing; if in your favor, it puts you in possession of my conquests. But what appears to me most unaccountable is this: when I sent youambassadors, chosen from all the confederated powers, on purpose to bewitnesses of our transactions; when I discovered the sincerestintentions of entering into reasonable and just engagements with youin relation to the affairs of Greece, you even refused to hear theseambassadors on that head. It was then in your power to remove alltheir apprehensions who suspected any danger from my designs, or tohave openly convicted me of consummate baseness. This was the interestof the people; but the orators could not find their account in it; forthey are a set of men to whom (if I may believe those that areacquainted with your polity) peace is war, and war is peace; *(21)as they are always sure to make a property of the generals, eitherby aiding their designs, or by malicious prosecutions. Then theyneed but throw out some scandalous invectives against persons of worthand eminence, citizens or foreigners, and they at once acquire thecharacter of patriots among the many. I could have easily silencedtheir clamors against me by a little gold, and even have convertedthem into praises; but I should blush to purchase your friendship fromsuch wretches. To such insolence have they proceeded on otheroccasions, that they even dared to dispute my title to Amphipolis,which is founded, I presume, on reasons beyond their power toinvalidate: for, if it is to belong to those who first conquered it,what can be juster than our claim? Alexander, our ancestor, was theoriginal sovereign; *(22) as appears from the golden statue *(23)which he erected at Delphos from the first-fruits of the Persianspoils taken there. But if this admits of contest, and it is tocontinue the property of those who were last in possession, it is mineby this title too (for I took it from the Lacedaemonian inhabitants,who had dispossessed you); *(24) and all cities are held either byhereditary right or by the right of conquest. And yet you, who neitherwere the original possessors, nor are now in possession, presume tolay claim to this city, under pretence of having held it for someshort time; and this when you have yourselves given the strongesttestimony in my favor; for I frequently wrote to you on this head, andyou as often acknowledged me the rightful sovereign: and, by thearticles of our late treaty, the possession of Amphipolis and youralliance were both secured to me. What title, therefore, can be betterestablished? It descended to us from our ancestors; it is ours byconquest; and, lastly, you yourselves have acknowledged the justice ofour pretensions; you, who are wont to assert your claim even when itis not supported by right. I have now laid before you the grounds of my complaints. Since youhave been the first aggressors; since my gentleness and fear ofoffending have only served to increase your injustice, and toanimate you in your attempts to distress me, I must now take uparms; and I call the gods to witness to the justice of my cause, andthe necessity of procuring for myself that redress which you deny me!NOTES NOTES To Philip's Letter to the Athenians *(1) This letter is a masterpiece in the original: it has a majesticand persuasive vivacity; a force and justness of reasoning sustainedthrough the whole; a clear exposition of facts, and each followed byits natural consequence; a delicate irony: in short, a noble andconcise style, made for kings who speak well, or have taste anddiscernment at least to make choice of those who can make them speakwell. If Philip was himself the author of this letter, as it is butjust to believe, since we have no proof to the contrary, we mayreasonably pronounce of him as was said of Caesar, "that he wrote withthat spirit with which he fought." Eodem animo dixit, quo bellavit. *(2) Probably he had been seized on his journey from Thrace toMacedon by Diopithes, at the time of his invading Philip's Thraciandominions, as mentioned in the preface to the Oration on the Stateof the Chersonesus. *(3) The Athenians hoped, by opening this packet, to get somelight into Philip's secret schemes and practices against them. Therewere found in it some letters directed to Olympias, Philip's queen,which they treated with a most scrupulous respect, and took care sheshould receive them in the same condition in which they had beenintercepted. *(4) Athenians had engaged, by an article of their treaty, thatthe Thassians, who were their subjects, should not receive any shipsthat committed piracies on the subjects or allies of Philip. Thisarticle had not been strictly observed; perhaps on account of Philip'sown infidelity. *(5) The first of these places is quite unknown. Tiristasis isplaced by Pliny in the Thracian Chersonesus. *(6) It is impossible to save the honor of Diopithes but bydenying the fact; at least in the manner that Philip represents it. *(7) Philip here beats the Athenians with their own weapons, andcites, very much to the purpose, the example of a memorablevengeance which they had taken about an age before on the Megareans.They had accused this people of favoring a revolt of their slaves, andof profaning a tract of consecrated land; and on this account excludedthem from all advantages of commerce in the ports and markets ofAthens. Thucydides stops here; but Pausanias adds, thatAnthemocritus went from Athens in quality of a herald to summon theMegareans to desist from their sacrilege, and that for answer they puthim to death. The interest of the gods served the Athenians for apretence; but the famous Aspasia, whom Pericles was so violently inlove with, was the true cause of their rupture with Megara. Some youngAthenians, heated by wine, had taken away from Megara a remarkablecourtesan called Simaetha; and the Megareans, by way of reprisal,seized two Athenian ladies of the same character that were inAspasia's train. Pericles espoused his favorite's quarrel; and, withthe power which he then possessed, easily persuaded the people towhatever he pleased. They thundered out a decree against theMegareans, forbidding all commerce with them on pain of death: theydrew up a new form of an oath, by which every general obligedhimself to invade the territories of Megara twice every year. Thisdecree kindled the first sparks of contention, which at lengthflamed out in the Peloponnesian War: it was the work of threecourtesans. The most illustrious events have sometimes as shamefulan origin. *(8) All the Greeks had ordinarily a right to be initiated into whatwere called the lesser mysteries, which the Athenians celebrated atEleusis in honor of Ceres and Prosperine; but on the death ofAnthemocritus the Megareans were excluded, and a statue or tomberected in honor of this herald on the road leading from Athens toEleusis, near the gate called Dipylon. According to Aristophanes theMegareans denied this murder, and threw the whole blame of it onAspasia and Pericles. *(9) Diodorus informs us that about this time the satraps of theLesser Asia had obliged Philip to raise the siege of Perinthus. Thehistorian does not say that the Athenians invited them; but Philipcomplains of it here: and Pausanias observes, that in thisexpedition the Persian forces were commanded by Apollodorus, anAthenian general. We may observe with what disrespect Philip (whoseancestors in their greatest prosperity never aspired higher than tothe alliance of some satrap) here speaks of the great king- "thePersian!" *(10) Artaxerxes Ochus, who governed Persia at that time, before hisreduction of these revolted provinces had marched into the Lesser Asiaagainst Artabazus, a rebellious satrap. The approach of the Persiansalarmed the Greeks; and Athens conceived a design of attacking them intheir own country. This gave occasion to the oration of Demosthenesentitled Peri ton Summorion. Philip pretends that they had resolved toadmit him into the confederacy which was then forming in favor ofthe Greeks, with whom he affects to rank, and by his expressionsremoves every idea of foreigner and barbarian, which are therepresentations that the orator frequently makes of him. *(11) The comparison which Philip makes here, between the sons ofPisistratus and the orators who advised an alliance with Persia, isfounded on a history too well known to be enlarged on. It isundoubtedly by no means just: for, in different conjunctures, the goodcitizen may employ the same forces to save his country that the wickedone had formerly employed to destroy it. However, the turn he gives itwas the fittest in the world to affect the people, who thought ittheir greatest honor to express an inveterate hatred to the Persians. *(12) History speaks only of Cersobleptes. They had suffered himto be overthrown by Philip; and when they found how nearly theythemselves were affected by his fall, employed those decrees toendeavor to restore him. *(13) This Sitalces was the grandfather of Cersobleptes. In thebeginning of the Peloponnesian War he rendered the Athenians suchimportant services, that they, by way of acknowledgment, admittedhis son Sadocus into the number of their citizens. In the eighthyear of this war Sitalces was killed in a battle against the Triballi.His nephew Seuthes seized the kingdom, in prejudice of his children;and hence became suspected of being the cause of his death. Philipargues from this suspicion as if it were an undoubted truth. *(14) What idea must we form of the splendor of that city, whereeven kings solicited for the rank of private citizens! The otherstates of Greece affected the same kind of grandeur. At a time whenambassadors from Corinth were congratulating Alexander on hisvictories, they made him an offer of the freedom of their city, as thegreatest mark of honor possible. Alexander, now in the full splendorof his fortune, disdained to return them any answer but a contemptuoussmile. This stung the ambassadors to the quick; and one of them wasbold enough to say, "Know, sir, that the great Hercules and you arethe only persons whom Corinth has ever deigned to distinguish inthis manner." This softened the prince: he received them with allpossible marks of respect, and accepted of a title which had been sodignified. *(15) The Athenians erected a statue to Evagoras, the elder ofthat name, and declared him a citizen of Athens, for having assistedConon in restoring their liberty. He caused Salamis to revolt from thePersians, and subdued most part of the island of Cyprus; but wasafterward reduced, and fell by the hand of Nicocles. His son, Evagorasthe Younger, however, asserted his claim to the kingdom of Cyprus, andwas supported by the Athenians against Protagoras, the successor ofNicocles. But his attempts were not successful. Protagorassupplanted him at the court of Persia, where he had been in fullfavor. He was cited to answer to some heads of an accusation; and uponhis justifying himself, he obtained a government in Asia well worthhis little kingdom. But his bad conduct soon obliged him toabdicate, and fly into Cyprus, where he perished wretchedly. *(16) In the original, ten Thraken, osen, etc. By the ironicalpomp of this expression he sets their dominions (which were reallyinconsiderable) in the most contemptuous light. *(17) See the introduction to the Oration on the State of theChersonesus. *(18) Demosthenes in particular opposed their receiving arestitution under the name of a present. *(19) This orator had great credit at Athens, and on manyoccasions favored the designs of Philip. Possibly he acted otherwiseon this occasion, the better to conceal his attachment; or that hemight afterward sell his integrity at a dearer rate. *(20) The first of these peoples inhabited an island in the EgeanSea, the other a maritime place in Thrace. The Thassians had foundedStryma, according to Herodotus; but as it was in the neighborhood ofMaronea, probably the Maronites had, in quality of protectors, orbenefactors, acquired some pretensions to it. *(21) Aristotle quotes this (nearly) as an example of an agreeableantithesis; which, joined to the force, and, what is more, to theorder of the arguments contained in this letter, inclines me tothink that Aristotle was his secretary on this occasion. But myconjecture, whether well or ill founded, does not detract fromPhilip in point of genius and spirit. The true talent of a king isto know how to apply the talents of others to the best advantage:and we do not want other proofs of Philip's abilities in writing;witness his letter to Aristotle on the birth of Alexander. *(22) Philip asserts boldly, without giving himself much troubleeven to preserve probability: for in the time of Alexander, thecontemporary of Xerxes, there was no city, nor any fortified post inthe place where Amphipolis was afterward raised; nor was it tillthirty years after the defeat of the Persians that Agnon founded it. *(23) Herodotus speaks of this statue, and places it near thecolossal statue which the Greeks raised, according to custom, out ofthe Persian spoils. The proximity of these statues serves Philip asa foundation for giving his ancestors an honor which really belongedto the Greeks. Solinus mentions that Alexander, a very rich prince,made an offering of a golden statue of Apollo in the temple ofDelphos, and another of Jupiter in the temple of Elis; but not thatthe Persian spoils were any part of these offerings. This Alexander,surnamed philellen, friend of Greeks, had the reputation of an ablepolitician, but not of a good soldier or great commander. He servedthe Persians a long time, rather by force than inclination; and beforethe battle of Salamis declared of a sudden for the Greeks. *(24) Brasidas, the Lacedaemonian general, took Amphipolis fromthe republic of Athens; and by the assistance of Sparta it afterwardmaintained its independence until it fell into the power of Philip. THE END OF PHILIP'S LETTER TO THE ATHENIANS