=252.= Athens was now the only power in Greece capable of opposing the Macedonian king, and Athens was no longer possessed of a Miltiades, a Conon, or a Themistocles. A great orator, however, had arisen, and when Olynthus sent envoys to implore aid against the invader, who was now attacking the Chalcidian cities, the eloquence of Demosthenes aroused some faint show of their former spirit. The attempted rescue was defeated, however, by treachery within the walls; and, in 347, Olynthus fell. The threefold peninsula was now in the power of Philip, and he was able to push his interests throughout Greece rather by intrigue than force. Even in Athens a powerful party, sustained by his bribes, labored to undermine the efforts of the true patriots, of whom Demosthenes was chief. Æs´chines was the mouth-piece of the Macedonian party, an orator second only to Demosthenes himself, and won to Philip’s side, probably, more by flatteries than gifts. He constantly urged peace with the king, while Demosthenes, as soon as he perceived the extent of Philip’s designs, opposed them with all the unsparing vehemence of his nature. His _Philippics_ are the most forcible examples in any language of bold and eloquent opposition to an unjust usurpation of power. [Sidenote: B. C. 339.] =253.= In 340, war was declared on account of the aggressions of Philip on the Bosphorus; and the Second Sacred War, which broke out in the following year, gave him a reason for again passing Thermopylæ. He was now appointed general-in-chief of the Amphictyonic forces, and thus gained a position in the very heart of Greece, which he did not fail to use for his own advantage. [Sidenote: Aug. 7, B. C. 338.] =254.= The Thebans, in alarm, applied to Athens for aid, which was not refused. The armies met in battle at Chæronea, and the victory of Philip gave the death-blow to Grecian independence. All the states except Sparta acknowledged his sovereignty, and he was made generalissimo of the Hellenic forces in the war now projected against Persia. To overawe the hostility of Sparta, he marched through the Peloponnesus to the southern extremity, and returned by the western coast, meeting no serious opposition. Philip’s death by assassination interrupted the movement against the Persians, and for a moment revived the hopes of the patriots; but the Macedonian party prevailed under the youthful Alexander, who surpassed his father both as general and as king. RECAPITULATION.