Philip’s Letter

Furthermore, about the same date, Diopithes[*](See Dem. 8. Crobyle is not mentioned elsewhere; Tiristasis was in the Chersonese.) attacked Crobyle and Tiristasis and enslaved the inhabitants, laying waste the adjacent parts of Thrace. But his crowning act of lawlessness was the arrest of Amphilochus, the ambassador sent to negotiate for the captives; he subjected him to the severest torture and wrung from him a ransom of nine talents. And this he did with the approval of your Assembly.

Yet violation of the rights of heralds and ambassadors is regarded by all men as an act of impiety, and by none more than by you, if I may judge from the fact that, when the Megarians arrested Anthemocritus,[*](The incident is narrated by Plutarch (Plut. Per. 30). A. was sent to remonstrate with the Megarians for cultivating sacred ground. The statute was still to be seen in the time of Pausanias (Paus. 1.36.3).) your Assembly went to the length of excluding them from the celebration of the mysteries, and actually erected a statue before the city gates to commemorate the outrage. Yet is it not monstrous that you are now yourselves notoriously guilty of acts which, when you were the victims, excited in you such detestation of the perpetrators.

Again, your general, Callias,[*](Of Chalcis in Euboea. Originally an ally of Philip, he changed sides and helped Phocion’s expedition in 341, which cleared Oreus and Eretria of tyrants. The captured cities, as allies of Philip, were included in the Peace of Philocrates (346).) captured the cities on the Pagasaean Gulf, every one of them, though they were protected by treaty with you and were in alliance with me all merchants sailing to Macedonia he regarded as enemies and sold them into slavery. And for this you passed him a vote of thanks! So I am at a loss to say what difference it will make if you admit that you are at war with me, for when we were openly at variance, then too you used to send out privateers, enslave merchants trading with us, help my adversaries, and lay waste my territory.