Instead of advancing into Attica, Alexander stopped to parley, and agreed to abstain from hostilities on condition that the Athenians should promptly expel the Theban fugitives, and also should surrender to him the men who had been lately responsible for the anti-Macedonian direction of the government. It is to the credit of the Athenians that the first condition was without a negative rejected; and as to the second there were many of the anti-democratic faction who would have been glad to get rid of their opponents by agreeing to this indirect demand of the Macedonian king that the government of the city should be handed over to his partisans. Phokion, one of the distinguished and revered members of the oligarchic group, was willing to accept the condition unreservedly; but Demosthenes and Demades, another popular leader, successfully urged the assembly of the people to vote against it, and even Phokion agreed to head an embassy to acquaint Alexander with the decision of the Athenian citizens. The king showed himself ready to compromise, for the success of his schemes against Asia depended largely on the good will of Athens and its fleet. It was finally arranged that the Athenian anti-Macedonian military leader Charidemos should be banished, a proposal to which it was all the easier for the Athenians to accede, because he was not a native Athenian. This officer and several others withdrew to Asia and took service under Darius. III THE CONQUEST OF PERSIA Now that the pacification of Greece was effected by the restoration of Athens as a member of the Macedonian confederacy, Alexander, without visiting that city, marched to the isthmus of Corinth to arrange for the various Greek contingents for his expedition to Asia, and after receiving from the oracle at Delphi a reply encouraging him to carry out his grandiose scheme of conquest, he retired to Macedonia to spend the winter before setting out on his march against the Persian Empire.