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Born twenty years before Philip of Macedon, PHOCION outlived Alexander the Great by six years. He was forty-five times elected general without once offering himself as a candidate. A brave and successful soldier, he was the constant advocate of peace. He was perhaps the only Athenian statesman of his time who was believed by his contemporaries to be incorruptible. To have clean hands was indeed rare at Athens. But with Phocion it was but one manifestation of the pure morality and deep sense of duty which marked the whole of his long career. Although he bitterly opposed the expeditions advocated by Demosthenes, that statesman more than once procured his appointment to command them, knowing that he would do his best, and that his uprightness and humanity won the respect of enemies as well as allies.
His opposition to the anti-Macedonian policy of Demosthenes is severely blamed by the admirers of Greek democracy. It is not, however, suggested by any author, ancient or modern, that he took this line from want of patriotism or in a jealous factious spirit. He had made up his mind that there was not in Athens the political virtue, steadfastness, or capacity for self-sacrifice that were indispensable if such a conflict was to be waged, I do not say with success, but even with dignity. The mere prospect of defeat would certainly not have daunted him. If his countrymen had been Romans, he would have encouraged them to die in the last ditch. Old age only deepened his conviction of the unfitness of the Greeks for independence, and in view of the wonderful development of Macedon he saw that they would do well to accept the position of vassal States under her suzerainty. He therefore entirely disapproved of the hopeless rebellion into which Athens and some other States rushed on the death of Alexander. Nevertheless he fought and won his last battle at the age of eighty. Five years later the anti-Macedonian party having again obtained momentary preponderance, the popular assembly, without any forms of law, and without allowing him to speak in his own defense, voted his death. His last message to his son was an injunction to bear no ill-will against the Athenians. As an orator, Phocion was the most formidable rival of Demosthenes, though his speeches were brief, unadorned, and marked by contempt of his audience. Many of his characteristic sayings are recorded.
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| This biography is
reprinted from The New Calendar of Great Men. Ed. Frederic
Harrison. London: Macmillan and Co., 1920. |
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