Speech of Chlaeneas
"And why need I speak in detail of how the successors
of this king have treated the Greeks? For surely there is
no man living, so uninterested in public affairs, as not to have
heard how Antipater in his victory at
Lamia treated the unhappy
Athenians, as well as the other Greeks; and how he
went so far in violence and brutality as to institute man-hunters, and send them to the various
cities to catch all who had ever spoken against,
or in any way annoyed, the royal family of
Macedonia: of whom some were dragged by force from the
temples, and others from the very altars, and put to death
with torture, and others who escaped were forced to leave
Greece entirely; nor had they any refuge save the Aetolian
nation alone.
Battle of Crannon, ending the Lamian war, 7th Aug., B. C. 322. |
For the Aetolians were the only people in
Greece who withstood Antipater in behalf of those unjustly
defrauded of safety to their lives: they alone faced the invasion of Brennus and his barbarian army:
and they alone came to your aid when called
upon, with a determination to assist you in
regaining your ancestral supremacy in
Greece.
1
Who again is ignorant of the deeds of Cassander, Demetrius,
and Antigonus Gonatas? For owing to their recency the
knowledge of them still remains distinct. Some of them by
introducing garrisons, and others by implanting despots in the
cities, effectually secured that every state should share the
infamous brand of slavery. But passing by all these I will
now come to the last Antigonus,
2 lest any of you, viewing his
policy unsuspiciously, should consider that you are under an
obligation to the Macedonians. For it was with no purpose
of saving the Achaeans that he undertook the war against
you, nor from any dislike of the tyranny of Cleomenes inducing him to free the Lacedaemonians. If any man among you
holds this opinion, he must be simple indeed. No! It was
because he saw that his own power would not be secure if
you got the rule of the
Peloponnese; and because he saw that
Cleomenes was of a nature well calculated to secure this
object, and that fortune was splendidly seconding your efforts,
that he came in a tumult of fear and jealousy, not to help
Peloponnesians, but to destroy your hopes and abase your
power. Therefore you do not owe the Macedonians so much
gratitude for not destroying your city when they had taken it,
as hostility and hatred, for having more than once already
stood in your way, when you were strong enough to grasp the
supremacy of
Greece.
