fubfifting almost entirely upon what came from other parts. Leucon, in his turn, not to be outdone in generosity, exempted the Athenian merchants from the duty of a thirtieth upon all grain exported from his dominions, and granted them the privilege of fupplying themselves with corn in his country, in preference to all other people. That exemption amounted to a confiderable fum; for they brought only from thence two millions of quarters of corn, of which the thirtieth part amounted to almoft feventy thousand. The children of Conon and Chabrias were also granted an immunity from public offices. The names only of thofe illuftrious generals fufficiently justify that liberality of the Athenian people. A perfon, however, called Leptinus, out of a mistaken zeal for the public good, propofed the abrogation, by a new law, of all the grants of that kind, which had been made from immemorial time, except thofe which regarded the pofterity of Harmodius and Ariftogiton; and to enact, that, for the future the people fhould not be capable of granting fuch privileges. Demofthenes ftrongly opposed this law, though with great complacency to the perfon who propofed it; praifing his good intentions, and not fpeaking of him but with esteem; a much more efficacious manner of refuting, than those violent invectives, and that eager and passionate style, which ferve only to alienate the people, and to render an orator fufpected, who decries his caufe himself, and shows its weak fide, by fubftituting injurious terms for reafons, which are alone capable of convincing. After having fhown that fo odious a reduction would prove of little or no advantage to the republic, from the inconfiderable number of the exempted perfons; he goes on to explain its conveniencies, and to fet them in a full light. "It is firft," fays he, " doing injury to the memory of thofe great men, whofe merit the flate intended to acknowledge and reward by such immunities; it is, in fome fome measure calling in question the fervices they have done their country; it is throwing a fufpicion upon their great actions; injurious to, if not deftructive of, their glory. And were they now alive, and present in this affembly, which of us all would prefume to offer them fuch an affront? Should not the refpect we owe their memories make us confider them as always alive and prefent? "But if we are little affected with what concerns them, can we be infenfible to our own intereft? Befides that, cancelling fo ancient a law is to condemn the conduct of our ancestors, what fhame fhall we bring upon ourselves, and what an injury fhall we do our reputation? The glory of Athens, and of every well. governed state, is to value itself upon its gratitude, to keep its word religiously, and to be true to all its engagements. A private perfon, who fails in these reIpects, is hated and abhorred; and who is not afraid of being reproached with ingratitude? And fhall the commonwealth, in cancelling a law that has received the fanction of public authority, and been, in a manner, confecrated by the ufage of many ages, be guilty of fo notorious a prevarication? We prohibit lying in the very markets under heavy penalties, and require truth and faith to be obferved in them; and fhall we re nounce them ourselves by the revocation of grants, paffed in all their forms, and upon which every pri vate man has a right to infift. "To act in fuch a manner, would be to extinguifh, in the hearts of our citizens, all emulation for glory, all defire to diftinguish themselves by great exploits, all zeal for the honour and welfare of their country, which are the great fources and principles of almost all the actions of life. And it is to no purpose to ob. ject the example of Sparta and Thebes, which grant no fuch exemptions; do we repent our not refembling them in many things; and is there any wisdom in propofing their defects, and not their virtues, for our imitation?" Demofthenes Demofthenes concludes, with demanding the law of exemptions to be retained in all its extent, with this exception, that all perfons fhould be deprived of the benefits of it but those who had a just title to them; and that a ftri&t enquiry fhould be made for that pur pose. It is plain, that I have only made a very flight extract, in this place, of an exceeding long difcourfe, and that I defigned to exprefs only the fpirit and sense, without confining myself to the method and expreffions of it. There was a meanness of spirit in Leptinus's defiring to obtain a trivial advantage for the republic, by retrenching the moderate expences that were an honour to it, and no charge to himfelf, whilft there were other abuses of far greater importance to reform. Such marks of public gratitude perpetuated in a family, perpetuate alfo in a ftate an ardent zeal for its happinefs, and a warm defire to diftinguish that paffion by glorious actions. It is not without pain, I find, amongst ourselves, that part of the privileges granted to the family of the Maid of Orleans have been re trenched. Charles VII. had ennobled her, her father, three brothers, and all their defcendants, even by the female line. In 1614, at the request of the attorney. general, the article of nobility by the women was re trenched. Mezerai. BOOK THE HISTORY PHILIP. SECT. I. The Birth and Infancy of Philip. Begin ning of his Reign. His firft Conquefts. The Birth of Alexander. M ACEDON was an hereditary kingdom, fituated in ancient Thrace, and bounded on the fouth by the mountains of Theffaly; on the east by Boeotia and Pieria; on the weft by the Lynceftes; and on the north by Mygdonia and Pelagonia. But after Philip had conquered part of Thrace and Illyrium, this kingdom extended from the Adriatic fea to the river StryEdeffa was at first the capital of it, but afterwards refigned that honour to Pella, famous for giving birth to Philip and Alexander. mon. Philip, whofe hiftory we are going to write, was the fon of Amyntas II. who is reckoned the fixteenth king of Macedon from Caranus, who had founded that kingdom about four hundred and thirty years before; that is, Anno Mundi 3212, and before Chrift 794. The hif tory of all these monarchs is fufficiently obfcure, and includes little more than feveral wars with the Illy. rians, the Thracians, and other neighbouring people. The The kings of Macedon pretended to defcend from Hercules by Caranus, and confequently to have been Greeks originally. Notwithstanding this, Demofthenes often ftyles them Barbarians, efpecially in his invectives against Philip. The Greeks, indeed, gave this name to all other nations, without excepting the Macedonians. Alexander, king of Macedon, in the reign of Xerxes, was excluded, upon pretence of his being a Barbarian, from the Olympic games; and was not admitted to fhare in them, till after having proved his being originally defcended from Argos. The above-mentioned Alexander, when he went over from the Perfian camp to that of the Greeks, in order to acquaint the latter, that Mardonius was determined to charge them by furprife at day-break, juftified his perfidy by his ancient defcent, which he declared to be from the Greeks. The ancient kings of Macedon did not think it beneath themselves to live, at different times, under the protection of the Athenians, Thebans, and Spartans, changing their alliances as it fuited their intereft. Of this we have several instances in Thucydides. One of them, named Perdiccas, with whom the Athenians were diffatisfied, became their tributary; which continued from their fettling a colony in Amphipolis, under Agnon, the son of Nicias, about forty-eight years before the Peloponnefian war, till Brafidas, the Lacedæmonian general, about the fifth or fixth year of that war, raised that whole province against them, and drove them from the frontiers of Macedon. We fhall foon fee this Macedon, which formerly had paid tribute to Athens, become, under Philip, the arbiter of Greece; and triumph, under Alexander, over all the forces of Afia. m Amyntas, father of Philip, began to reign the third year of the ninety-fixth Olympiad. Having the very year after been warmly attacked by the Illyrians, and difpoffeffed of a great part of his kingdom, which he thought it scarce poffible for him ever to recover again, Herod. 1. v. c. 22. he |