Phocion

When his friends chided him for pleading the cause of some worthless man, he said that good men needed no aid. Again, when Aristogeiton the public informer, who was under condemnation, sent and asked him to come to him, he obeyed the summons and set out for the prison; and when his friends sought to prevent him, he said: Let me go, my good men; for where could one take greater pleasure in meeting Aristogeiton?

And certainly the allies and the islanders regarded envoys from Athens under the conduct of any other general as enemies, barricading their gates, obstructing their harbours, and bringing into their cities from the country their herds, slaves, women and children; but whenever Phocion was the leader, they went far out to meet him in their own ships, wearing garlands and rejoicing, and conducted him to their homes themselves.

When Philip was stealing into Euboea and bringing a force across from Macedonia and making the cities his own by means of tyrants and when Plutarch the Eretrian called upon the Athenians and begged them to rescue the island from its occupation by the Macedonian, Phocion was sent out as general with a small force,[*](In 350 B.C.) in the belief that the people of the island would rally readily to his aid.

But he found the whole island full of traitors, disaffected, and honeycombed with bribery, and was therefore in a position of great peril. So he took possession of a crest of ground which was separated by a deep ravine from the plains about Tamynae, and on this assembled and held together the best fighting men of his force.

To the disorderly and worthless triflers who ran away from the camp and made their way home he bade his officers give no heed, for in the camp their lack of discipline would make them useless and harmful to the fighting men, while at home their accusing consciences would make them less liable to cry down their commander, and would keep them entirely from malicious accusations.