Athens, under the leadership of Chalcis; Philistides was expelled from
Oreus, about July 341, by the allied forces under Cephisophon; and later
in the summer, Phocion drove Cleitarchus from Eretria. On the motion of
Aristonicus, the Athenians voted Demosthenes a golden crown, which was
conferred on him in the theatre at the Great Dionysia in March 340. The
arrest of Anaxinus of Oreus, and his condemnation as a spy, acting in
Philip's interest, must have occurred about the same time. Not long
afterwards Demosthenes succeeded in carrying out a complete reorganization
of the trierarchic system, by which he made the burden of the expense vary
strictly according to property, and secured a regular and efficient supply
of ships, money, and men.

In the meantime (in 341 or 340) the island of Peparethus was attacked by
Philip's ships, in revenge for the seizure of the Macedonian garrison in
Halonnesus by the Peparethians: and the Athenian admirals were ordered to
retaliate. Philip himself had been pursuing his course in Thrace; and on
the rejection of his request to Byzantium for an alliance, he laid siege
(late in 340) to Perinthus (which lay on his way to Byzantium), sending
part of his forces through the Chersonese. Aided by Byzantine and Persian
soldiers, Perinthus held out, till at last Philip took off most of his
forces and besieged Byzantium itself. He had shortly before this sent to
Athens an express declaration of war, and received a similar declaration
from her, the formal excuse for which was found in the recent seizure by
his ships of some Athenian merchant-vessels. But with help from Athens,
Chios, Rhodes, and Cos, the Byzantines maintained the defence. Philip's
position became serious; but he managed by a ruse to get his ships away
into the open sea, and even to do some damage to the Athenian settlers in
the Chersonese. In the winter he withdrew from Byzantium, and in 339 made
an incursion into Scythia; but, returning through the country of the
Triballi, he sustained some loss, and was severely wounded. Later in the