Eretria

So after ten years they set out from Eretria and returned home.

Pisistratus, learning what was going on, went alone away from the country altogether, and came to Eretria where he deliberated with his sons.

Now the Gephyraean clan, of which the slayers of Hipparchus were members, claim to have come at first from Eretria, but my own enquiry shows that they were among the Phoenicians who came with Cadmus to the country now called Boeotia.

For as the place was just opposite to Eretria, so long as the Athenians held it, it could not fail to do much damage both to Eretria and the rest of Euboea.

And now such of them as took refuge in the city of the Eretrians, as being friendly to them, fared worst of all, for they were butchered by them;

The Athenians then, having put out with such scanty preparations, and fought a battle off the harbour of Eretria, held out against them, notwithstanding, for some little time, and were then put to flight and pursued to the shore.

and again at the hands of Themison of Etretria, who in time of peace robbed us of Oropus;

a talent from Chalcis, paid over by Callias, a talent from Eretria, paid by the tyrant Cleitarchus, and a talent from Oreus.

And leading you off out of sight of his fraud, and suspending you on hopes, at last he gathers all up in a motion that you choose ambassadors to go to Eretria and beg the Eretrians—of course it was necessary to beg!

You will recall that you sent him as an inspector of the mercenary troops in Eretria.

Now just suppose that Menestratus of Eretria were to require us to make the same decree for him, or Phayllus of Phocis, or any other autocrat,—and I need not say that we often make friends, to serve our occasions, with many such people,—are we to vote decrees for all of them, or are we not?

Not content with abandoning his father in prison when he quitted Eretria, as you have heard from Phaedrus, this unnatural ruffian refused to bury him when he died, and would not refund the expenses to those who did bury him, but actually brought a law-suit against them.

then an expedition— not an embassy—to Oreus, and again to Eretria, when he had set up tyrants in those cities.

Now that Philistides would have paid a large sum for possession of Oreus, and Cleitarchus for possession of Eretria, and Philip himself to get those advantages of position against you, or to escape conviction in other matters or any inquiry into his wrongdoing in every quarter, is well known to all—and to no one better than to you, Aeschines.

And yet I pray, Athenians, that such may not be the issue of events.

A fine return the democrats of Eretria have gained for spurning your embassy and capitulating to Clitarchus!

For of course Philip, whom they fancied their ally, sent Hipponicus with a thousand mercenaries, razed the walls of Porthmus, and set up three tyrants, Hipparchus, Automedon, and Clitarchus.

I, at least, heard a Median man saying that the Persians agree to none of the things told among the Greeks, but say that Darius sent Datis and Artaphernes against Naxos and Eretria, and that they, taking the cities, came to the king.