Olynthus

And Perdiccas persuaded the Chalcidians to abandon and throw down their cities on the sea, and remove inland to Olynthus, and make that one city a place of strength for themselves.

Now the Potidaeans and the Peloponnesians with Aristeus, in expectation of the Athenians, were encamped towards Olynthus, on the isthmus, and had established their market outside the city.

while the Chalcidians, and the allies beyond the isthmus, and the two hundred cavalry with Perdiccas, should remain at Olynthus;

After Philip had taken Olynthus, he was holding Olympian games, and had invited all sorts of artists to the religious celebration and the festival.

Thereupon Satyrus told him that Apollophanes of Pydna had been a friend of his, and that after his death by assassination his kinsmen in alarm had secretly removed his daughters, who were then children, to Olynthus.

And yet Apollophanes was one of the men who had slain Philip’s own brother Alexander.

Hearing this, Philip was pleased and said, "Not in vain, Alexander, do we hold Aristotle in such high esteem, and granted him the rebuilding of his native city, Stageira, which is in the territory of Olynthus.

And I sometimes used to count Aristotle blessed, who, being a Stagirite — and Stagira was a village of the territory of Olynthus — when Olynthus had been taken, by his association with Alexander and Philip brought it about that the place was settled again, and I used to say that he alone had this good fortune, of becoming the founder of his fatherland.

For such of the cities as share in the citizenship of Olynthus unwillingly, these, I say, will quickly fall away if they see any opposing force presenting itself;

To be sure, almost all of you know that Olynthus is the largest of the cities on the coast of Thrace.

After these things had been accomplished, the Lacedaemonians with much more spirit set about dispatching the joint army to Olynthus.

Now about the same time Olynthus was taken, and many of our citizens were captured there, among them Iatrocles, brother of Ergochares, and Eueratus, son of Strombichus.

But if we leave these men too in the lurch, Athenians, and then Olynthus is crushed by Philip, tell me what is to prevent him from marching henceforward just where he pleases.

but when it comes to a composition such as he would gladly make with Olynthus, the tables are turned.

For if you send a marauding expedition, he will stand on the defensive until he has made himself master of Olynthus, and then he will easily march to the relief of his own territory;

All this is a necessary provision against Philip’s sudden raids from Macedonia against Thermopylae, the Chersonese, Olynthus, or where he will.

and in the same way at Olynthus and Apollonia and Pallene he is in possession of his own property, not that of others.

Yes, the power and sovereignty of Macedonia is indeed, as an adjunct, no slight contribution, as you found it when on your side against Olynthus in the days of Timotheus.

I urge you strongly to send help to Olynthus, and the best and quickest method that anyone can suggest will please me most.

Nevertheless, said I, after a brief enjoyment of other men’s territory, they have long been robbed by Philip of their own, expelled with contumely, not merely vanquished but betrayed, bought and sold by their own country-men.

Can you not imagine, I said, addressing the Messenians, how annoyed the Olynthians would have been to hear a word said against Philip in the days when he was handing over to them Anthemus, to which all the former kings of Macedonia laid claim, when he was making them a present of Potidaea, expelling the Athenian settlers, and when he had taken upon himself the responsibility of a quarrel with us a …

for here was a powerful state, reconciled to us and watching for him to give them an opening.

What remains then, men of Athens, but to help them with all your power and energy?

Which betrayed the cavalry, whose betrayal sealed the doom of Olynthus?

I pass over Olynthus and Methone and Apollonia and the two and thirty cities in or near Thrace, all of which Philip has destroyed so ruthlessly that a traveler would find it hard to say whether they had ever been inhabited.

when he was five miles from their city, he told them there must be one of two things, either they must cease to reside in Olynthus, or he in Macedonia, though on all previous occasions, when accused of hostile intentions, he indignantly sent ambassadors to justify his conduct.

Thereupon Artabazus laid siege to Potidaea, and suspecting that Olynthus too was plotting revolt from the king, he laid siege to it also.

and now they are laying siege to Olynthus and Phlius: