Phocion

Leosthenes, who had plunged the city into the Lamian war[*](323-322 B.C. So named because the confederate Greeks held Antipater and his forces for some time besieged in Lamia, a city of S. E. Thessaly (§ 4).) much to Phocion’s displeasure, once asked him derisively what good he had done the city during the many years in which he had been general. No slight good, said Phocion, in that its citizens are buried in their own sepulchres.

Again, when Leosthenes was talking very boldly and boastfully in the assembly, Phocion said: Thy speeches, young man, are like cypress-trees, which are large and towering, but bear no fruit. And when Hypereides confronted him with the question, When, then, O Phocion, wilt thou counsel the Athenians to go to war? Whenever, said Phocion, I see the young men willing to hold their places in the ranks, the rich to make contributions, and the orators to keep their thievish hands away from the public moneys.

When many were admiring the force got together by Leosthenes, and were asking Phocion what he thought of the city’s preparations, They are good, said he, for the short course;[*](The short course in the foot-races was straight away, the length of the stadium; the long course was ten times back and forth.) but it is the long course which I fear in the war, since the city has no other moneys, or ships, or men-at-arms.

And events justified his fear. For at first Leosthenes achieved brilliant successes, conquering the Boeotians in battle, and driving Antipater into Lamia. Then, too, they say that the city came to cherish high hopes, and was continuously holding festivals and making sacrifices of glad tidings. Phocion, however, when men thought to convict him of error and asked him if he would not have been glad to have performed these exploits, replied: By all means; but I am glad to have given the advice I did. And again, when glad tidings came in quick succession by letter and messenger from the camp, When, pray, said he, will our victories cease?