DEMOSTHENES.--The Athenians had placed themselves at the head of an _Aegean League_, and, had they managed with more spirit and prudence, they might have checked Philip. There was one man, worthy of the best days of Greece, who penetrated the designs of Philip, and exerted his great powers to stimulate his countrymen to a timely resistance. This was _Demosthenes_ (385-322 B.C.). He was the prince of the school of orators who had sprung up in these troublous times. Overcoming natural obstacles, he had trained himself with such assiduity that a place at the head of all orators, ancient and modern, is generally conceded to him. He was a great statesman, moved by a patriotic spirit: his speeches were for the welfare and salvation of the state. In 358 B.C., a war broke out between Athens and its maritime allies, in which Athens was unsuccessful. It was on the conquest of Thessaly by Philip, that _Demosthenes_ made against him the first of that series of famous speeches known as _Philippics_ (351 B.C.). In vain he urged the Athenians to rescue Olynthus. The inefficiency of the aid rendered, enabled Philip to conquer and destroy that city, and to sell its inhabitants as slaves (348 B.C.). Thirty cities he destroyed, and annexed all _Chalcidice_ to Macedon. A Macedonian party was formed at Athens, the foremost leader of which was _Aeschines_, not a good citizen, but an orator only second in rank to Demosthenes. They contended that it was futile to resist the advance of the Macedonian power. Demosthenes went at the head of an embassy to the Peloponnesian states which had taken sides with Philip, but his efforts to dissuade them from this suicidal policy were unavailing. What he wanted was a union of all Greeks against the common enemy, who was bent on robbing them of their liberty. He gathered, at length, a strong party about him at Athens. The overtures of peace from Philip, who was prosecuting his conquests in Thrace, were rejected. Athenian forces obliged the king to give up the siege of _Byzantium_ (341 B.C.). The consequent enlarged influence of Demosthenes was used by him to secure an increase of the fund for carrying on the war. But Philip had his paid supporters in all the Greek states. _Aeschines_ at Athens proved an efficient helper. A deputy at the _Amphictyonic Council_, in 338 B.C., he contrived to bring about another "holy war" against _Amphissa_ in Locris, the end being to give Philip the command. Philip seized _Elatea_, in the east of Phocis, which commanded the entrance to Boeotia and Attica. Dismay spread through Greece. _Demosthenes_ roused the Athenian assembly, where all were silent through fear, to confront Philip boldly, and himself went to Thebes, which he induced to form an alliance with Athens. But the allies were defeated at the fatal battle of _Chaeronea_ (August, 338 B.C.), where _Alexander_, Philip's youthful son, decided the fortune of the day by vanquishing the Theban "sacred band." Philip