Euboea

And the Athenians having again crossed over to Euboea under the command of Pericles, subdued the whole of it, and settled the rest of the island by treaty;

So Pericles took the army back from Euboea as quickly as possible.

For the thirty years' truce which was made after the reduction of Euboea lasted fourteen years;

Gentlemen of the Embassy, we know all about the terms on which you have concluded peace with Philip, and we are aware that you have given up Amphipolis to him, and that he has agreed to hand over Euboea to you.

Assuming that, when Aeschines made those speeches about the Phocians and Thespiae and Euboea, he had not sold himself, and was not wilfully deceiving you, we are reduced to one of two suppositions.

You all know that the prowess of the Phocians, and their control of the pass of Thermopylae, gave us security against the Thebans, and ensured that neither Philip nor the Thebans would invade either the Peloponnesus, or Euboea, or Attica.

how the ambassadors from Euboea, after they had discussed with our assembly the question of our making peace with them, told us that Philip also had asked them to report to you that he wished to come to terms and be at peace with you.

I took part in the expeditions to Euboea, and at the battle of Tamynae as a member of the picked corps I so bore myself in danger that I received a wreath of honour then and there, and another at the hands of the people on my arrival home;

we held the Chersonese, Naxos, and Euboea, and in these years we sent out a host of colonies.

Indeed by its situation the city of the Cardians occupies a position in the Chersonesus in relation to Thrace analogous to the position of Chalcis in Euboea in relation to Boeotia.

but by mere lapse of time the business came to such a pass, with these men dawdling and refusing to take any plain, honest action in your service, that we sent a relief expedition to Euboea, and Chares, on returning with his mercenaries, was sent out by you to the Chersonesus as plenipotentiary.

so too with the Thebans, and, quite recently, with the Euboeans.

When Philip was driven out of Euboea by your arms, and also,—though these men choke themselves with their denials,—by my policy and my decrees, he cast about for a second plan of attack against Athens;

I wish to show you that the attack Aeschines made on the Euboeans and the Byzantines by raking up old stories of their disobliging conduct towards you, was mere spiteful calumny,—not only because, as I think you all must know, those stories are false, but because, even if they were entirely true, the merits of my policy are not affected,—by relating, with due brevity, two or three of the noble act …

but when the Thebans were trying to annex Euboea, you were not indifferent;

but it is not easy, he said, when the heights of Euboea are thus pressed down by the clouds, as you now see them covered.

for see how wild and harsh are the parts of the island toward the open sea.

She it was, too, who made the ancient race of your forebears, the autochthonous and earliest Athenians, who boast the earth as their mother, Demeter as their nurse, and Athena as their namesake and ally.

Now it was the custom of the Euboeans to drive their flocks down to the sea there.

Now fifty-three Attic ships came to aid the Greeks, who were encouraged both by the ships coming and by the news that the barbarians sailing round Euboea had all perished in the recent storm.

Now the Euboeans had neglected the oracle of Bacis, believing it to be empty of meaning, and neither by carrying away nor by bringing in anything had they shown that they feared an enemy's coming.

So we asked heaven [ daimôn] for a sign, and were shown one to the effect that we should be soonest out of danger if we headed our ships across the open sea to Euboea.

You can sleep during the whole voyage if you like, and the men shall sail you over smooth waters either to your own home, or wherever you please, even though it be a long way further off than Euboea, which those of my people who saw it when they took yellow-haired Rhadamanthus to see Tityus the son of Gaia, tell me is the furthest of any place - and yet they did the whole voyage in a single day wi …

and Callias of Chalcis, obtaining pardon from you, soon made haste to return to his natural disposition, and tried ostensibly to assemble a Euboean congress at Chalcis, but in fact to strengthen Euboea thoroughly against you, and to win the position of tyrant as his own personal reward.

For Callias was led on to such a pitch of insolence and arrogance, and Demosthenes—whom Ctesiphon praises—to such a pitch of rapacity for bribes, that, while you still had life and sight and senses, they succeeded in stealing away from you the contributions of Oreus and Eretria, ten talents in all, and they detached from you the delegates from those cities, and carried them back to Chalcis, unitin …

Yes, but with walls of brass and steel, as he himself says, he fortified our land, by the alliance with Euboea and Thebes.

Now take the days when we were fighting Euboea and controlled Megara, Pegae, and Troezen.

And Euboea here, as you see, is stretched out a long way by the side of it to a great distance.

for it was stretched by us and Pericles.

then, after the soldiers had come back from Euboea, he was summoned on a charge of desertion, and I, as taxiarch of our tribe, was compelled to receive the summons, since it was against my name, that of my father being added;

In addition to these, written affidavits were submitted by Archiades, son of Mnesonidas,of Acharnae, Sostratus, son of Philip, of Histiaea, Eumarichus, son of Euboeus, of Histiaea, Philtiades, son of Ctesias, of Xypetê, and Dionysius, son of Democratides, of Cholleidae.

In addition to these, written affidavits were submitted by Euphiletus, son of Damotimus, of Aphidnae, Hippias, son of Timoxenus, of Thymaetadae, Sostratus, son of Philip, of Histiaea, Archenomides, son of Strato, of Thria.

Lysimachus, only one of the worthies of that day, received a hundred roods of orchard in Euboea and a hundred of arable land, besides a hundred minas of silver and a pension of four drachmas a day.

But I should like to ask you, Meidias, which was the greater scandal to the city—the men who crossed to Chalcis in due order, and with the equipment proper to those who were to take the field against the enemy and to join forces with our allies, or you, who, when lots were drawn for the expedition, prayed that you might draw a blank, who never donned your cuirass, who rode on a saddle with silver …

and as for the troubles in Euboea—why, I nearly forgot to mention them!

You must present to his mind the consideration that you may possibly shake off your excessive apathy and strike out as you did at Euboea, and before that, as we are told, at Haliartus, and quite recently at Thermopylae.

But at Athens, though Philip has not only robbed you of Amphipolis and the Cardian territory, but is also turning Euboea into a fortress to overawe us and is even now on his way to attack Byzantium, it is safe to speak on Philip’s behalf.

Again, Philip, seeing that these were overlooked and were receiving no help from you, proceeded to raze Porthmus to the ground and founded a tyranny in Euboea over against Attica as a menace to you.

Because we neglected Euboea, Megara was very nearly captured.

—(we are bound to admit it and plead guilty, for that is just what we do)— And yet, you most futile of mortals, when that man has been out of sight for ten months, cut off from all chance of returning home by disease, by winter, and by war, have you neither liberated Euboea nor regained any of your lost possessions?

For you know, of course, that the famous Timotheus once harangued you to the effect that you ought to send an expedition to save the Euboeans, when the Thebans were trying to enslave them, and his words ran something like this:

But at Athens, though Philip has not only robbed you of Amphipolis and the Cardian territory, but is also turning Euboea into a fortress to overawe you, and is even now on his way to attack Byzantium, it is safe to speak on Philip’s behalf.

For in the first place, Athenians, when it was proposed to take advantage of the unrest in Euboea and side with Plutarchus in a war that would bring us more expense than glory, I was the first and indeed the only speaker to oppose it, and I narrowly escaped being torn to pieces by those who induced you for trifling gains to commit many serious errors.

Thirdly, men of Athens—and when I have given just this one further instance, I will at once pass on to some topics that I have omitted—when we ambassadors returned from administering the oaths for the peace, at that time there were some who assured us that Thespiae and Plataea would be rebuilt, that Philip, if he gained the mastery, would protect the Phocians and break up Thebes into villages, and …

It would indeed have been fair, men of Athens, to call upon those who conveyed to you Philip’s promises, on the strength of which you were induced to conclude the Peace.

In the alienation of the Hellespont, in the control of Megara and Euboea by one who is at war with you, and in the defection of the Peloponnesians to his side.

For he says that he is not at war, but for my part, so far from admitting that in acting thus he is not observing the peace with you, I assert that when he lays hands on Megara, sets up tyrannies in Euboea, makes his way, as now, into Thrace, hatches plots in the Peloponnese, and carries out all operations with his armed force, he is breaking the peace and making war upon you—unless you are prepar …

Does he not dictate to the Thessalians their form of government? Does he not send mercenaries, some to Porthmus to expel the Eretrian democracy, others to Oreus to set up the tyranny of Philistides? Yet the Greeks see all this and suffer it. They seem to watch him just as they would watch a hailstorm, each praying that it may not come their way, but none making any effort to stay its course.

or have ye left Euboea’s cliffs, and, with the oar that sweeps the sea, put in here from across the firth?

Were you to ask Euboean Dirphys, your native place, it would not sing your praise, for you have never done a single gallant deed to which your country can witness.

His son, called by the same name as his father, although no Theban but a stranger from Euboea, slew Creon, and after that seized the government, having fallen on this city when weakened by dissension.

a war broke out’twixt Athens and the folk of Chalcodon who dwell in the land of Euboea;

Hard by Athens lies a neighbouring township, Euboea.

Creusa: