Propontis, an expedition was prepared, and was only abandoned because Philip
himself was forced to desist from his attempt by illness. Similarly, when Philip
appeared likely to cross the Pass of Thermopylae in 352, an Athenian force was
sent (on the proposal of Diophantus, a supporter of Eubulus) to prevent him. The
failure of Eubulus and his party to give effective aid to Olynthus against
Philip was due to the more pressing necessity of attempting to recover control
of Euboea: it had clearly been their intention to save Olynthus, if possible.
But when this had proved impossible, and the attempt to form a Hellenic league
against Philip had also failed, facts had once more to be recognized; and, since
Athens was now virtually isolated, peace must be made with Philip on the only
terms which he would accept--that each side should keep what it _de facto_
possessed at the time.

Demosthenes was generally in opposition to Eubulus and his party, of which
Aeschines (once an actor and afterwards a clerk, but a man of education and
great natural gifts) was one of the ablest members. Demosthenes was inspired by
the traditions of the past, but had a much less vague conception of the moral to
be drawn from them than had the multitude. Athens, for him as for them, was to
be the first state in Hellas; she was above all to be the protectress of
democracy everywhere, against both absolutism and oligarchy, and the leader of
the Hellenes in resistance to foreign aggression. But, unlike the multitude,
Demosthenes saw that this policy required the greatest personal effort and
readiness for sacrifice on the part of every individual; and he devotes his
utmost energies to the task of arousing his countrymen to the necessary pitch of
enthusiasm, and of effecting such reforms in administration and finance as, in
his opinion, would make the realization of his ideal for Athens possible. In the
speeches for the Megalopolitans and the Rhodians, the nature of this ideal is
already becoming clear both in its Athenian and in its Panhellenic aspects. But
so soon as it appeared that Philip, at the head of the half-barbarian
Macedonians, and not Athens, was likely to become the predominant power in the