take along attendants and wives or concubines, and he used horses rather than the
slower more cumbersome oxen for the carrying of supplies, thus facilitating the
movement of his troops and their supply chain. He was personally courageous and
daring in battle, but also a considerable tactician. He was also a consummate
diplomat and politician, knowing how to further his interests by making opportune
alliances and friendships (including several marriages) and fostering pro-Macedonian
factions within neighbouring powers. Although he was a warrior king, his court at
Pella was attractive enough to be home to visiting artists and intellectuals like
Aristotle, who became the tutor of his son Alexander.
The Athenians were divided in their response to the rise of Macedonian power,
There had long been a peace party that urged necessary accommodation with Philip.
To some, his rise offered a positive opportunity. Isocrates saw in Philip the possible
agent who could make his Pan-Hellenic dream a reality, and in an open letter to him
written after the peace in 346 urged Philip to lead the Greek states in a united
campaign against Persia.
When Athens held the principal power among the Greeks, and similarly when
Sparta did, I do not think anything of the sort could have been attained, because
each side could easily have frustrated the attempt. Now, however, I no longer take
that view. All the states have, I know, been reduced by misfortune to one level,
and I think they will be much more inclined to accept the benefits of unanimity
than the old competitiveness.
(Philip, 40)The opposing view that Philip had to be stopped at all costs found a powerful
advocate in the person of Demosthenes.
The opposition of Demosthenes
Demosthenes’ speeches to the Athenian assembly against Philip are among the most
famous in the history of oratory. Indeed the title given to four of them, Philippic, has
gone into general consciousness to mean a vigorous harangue. Though Philip is
denounced, it is the Athenians who are harangued for their inactivity.
‘Philip is dead’ comes one report. ‘No, he is only ill’ from another. What difference
does it make? Should anything happen to Philip, Athens, in her present frame of
mind, will soon create another Philip. This one’s rise was due less to his own power
than to Athenian apathy.
(Philippic, I, 11)HISTORY 75