Phocion was assailed on every side by the clamours of his enemies,
which prevented his defence; from being heard, and he was condemned to
death by a show of hands. To the last Phocion maintained his calm and
dignified, but somewhat contemptuous bearing. When some wretched man
spat upon him as he passed to the prison, "Will no one," said he,
"check this fellow's indecency?" To one who asked him whether he had
any message to leave for his son Phocus, he answered, "Only that he
bear no grudge against the Athenians." And when the hemlock which had
been prepared was found insufficient for all the condemned, and the
jailer would not furnish more unless he was paid for it, "Give the man
his money," said Phocion to one of his friends, "since at Athens one
cannot even die for nothing." He died in B.C. 317, at the age of 85.
The Athenians afterwards repented of their conduct towards Phocion.
His bones, which had been cast out on the frontiers of Megara, were
brought back to Athens, and a bronze statue was erected to his memory.

Whilst Alexander was negotiating with Nicanor about the surrender of
Munychia, Cassander arrived in the Piraeus with a considerable army,
with which Antigonus had supplied him. Polysperchon was obliged to
retire from Athens, and Cassander established an oligarchical
government in the city under the presidency of Demetrius of Phalerus.

Although Polysperchon was supported by Olympias, the mother of
Alexander the Great, he proved no match for Cassander, who became
master of Macedonia after the fall of Pydna in B.C. 316. In this city
Olympias had taken refuge together with Roxana and her son; but after a
blockade of some months it was obliged to surrender. Olympias had
stipulated that her life should be spared, but Cassander soon
afterwards caused her to be murdered, and kept Roxana and her son in
custody in the citadel of Amphipolis. Shortly afterwards Cassander
began the restoration of Thebes (B.C. 315), in the twentieth year after
its destruction by Alexander, a measure highly popular with the Greeks.

A new war now broke out in the East. Antigonus had become the most
powerful of Alexander's successors. He had conquered Eumenes, who had
long defied his arms, and he now began to dispose of the provinces as
he thought fit. His increasing power and ambitious projects led to a
general coalition against him, consisting of Ptolemy, Seleucus,
Cassander, and Lysimachus, the governor of Thrace. The w