Phocion

His opinion did not prevail, owing to the crisis, and yet as soon as he saw that the Athenians were repenting of their course, because they were required to furnish Philip with triremes and horsemen, This is what I feared, said he, when I opposed your action; but since you agreed upon it, you must not repine or be dejected, remembering that our ancestors also were sometimes in command, and sometimes under command, but by doing well in both these positions saved both their city and the Greeks.

And on the death of Philip,[*](19In 336 B.C. See the Demosthenes, chapter xxii.) he was opposed to the peoples offering sacrifices of glad tidings; for it was an ignoble thing, he said, to rejoice thereat, and the force which had been arrayed against them at Chaeroneia was diminished by only one person.

Again, when Demosthenes was heaping abuse upon Alexander, who was already advancing against Thebes, Phocion said:

Rash one, why dost thou seek to provoke a man who is savage,

And when Thebes had been destroyed[*](In 335 B.C.) and Alexander was demanding the surrender of Demosthenes, Lycurgus, Hypereides, Charidemus, and others, and the assembly turned their eyes upon Phocion and called upon him many times by name, he rose up, and drawing to his side one of his friends, whom he always cherished, trusted, and loved most of all, he said: These men have brought the city to such a pass that I, for my part, even if this Nicocles should be demanded, would urge you to give him up.

For if I might die myself in behalf of you all, I should deem it a piece of good fortune for me. And I feel pity, said he, men of Athens, for those also who have fled hither from Thebes; but it is enough that the Greeks should have the fate of Thebes to mourn. Therefore it is better to supplicate and try to persuade the victors for both you and them, and not to fight.