a,
the chief town in the eastern part of Phocis, thus showing clearly
enough that his real design was against Boeotia and Attica.
Intelligence of this event reached Athens at night, and caused
extraordinary alarm, In the following morning Demosthenes pressed upon
the assembly the necessity for making the most vigorous preparations
for defence, and especially recommended them to send an embassy to
Thebes, in order to persuade the Thebans to unite with them against the
common enemy.

The details of the war that followed are exceedingly obscure. Philip
appears to have again opened negotiations with the Thebans, which
failed; and we then find the combined Theban and Athenian armies
marching out to meet the Macedonians. The decisive battle was fought
on the 7th of August, in the plain of Chaeronea in Boeotia, near the
frontier of Phocis (B.C. 338). In the Macedonian army was Philip's
son, the youthful Alexander, who was intrusted with the command of one
of the wings; and it was a charge made by him on the Theban sacred band
that decided the fortune of the day. The sacred band was cut to
pieces, without flinching from the ground which it occupied, and the
remainder of the combined army was completely routed. Demosthenes, who
was serving as a foot-soldier in the Athenian ranks, has been absurdly
reproached with cowardice because he participated in the general flight.

The battle of Chaeronea crushed the liberties of Greece, and made it in
reality a province of the Macedonian monarchy. To Athens herself the
blow was almost as fatal as that of AEgospotami. But the manner in
which Philip used his victory excited universal surprise. He dismissed
the Athenian prisoners without ransom, and voluntarily offered a peace
on terms more advantageous than the Athenians themselves would have
ventured to propose. Philip, indeed, seems to have regarded Athens
with a sort of love and respect, as the centre of art and refinement,
for his treatment of the Thebans was very different, and marked by
great harshness and severity. They were compelled to recall their
exiles, in whose hands the government was placed, whilst a Macedonian
garrison was established in the Cadmea.

A congress of the Grecian states was now summoned at Corinth, in which
war was declared against Persia, and Philip was appointed generalissimo
of the expedition.

In the spring of B.C. 336 Philip sent some forces into Asia, under the
command of Attalus, Parmenio, an