APPEASEMENT 23 CENTURIES AGO

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 110, 1 August 1941, Page 9

APPEASEMENT 23 CENTURIES AGO

Remarkable Parallels With The Present Day (Abridged from a talk by PROFESSOR LESLIE LIPSON in Winter Course series from 2YA on July 21)

enian orator was addressing his fellow-countrymen in the public assembly of all the citizens. The topic for debate was a serious one; it concerned the measures to be taken by the Athenians against the growing power of the King of Macedonia. Fortunately the speech of the orator has been preserved for us, and I am going to read you now a paragraph from it: "There is nothing that his wars and his schemes are directed against so much as our system of government-nothing in the world is he so eager to destroy. Indeed this policy is natural to him. He knows perfectly that, even if he conquers everything else, he can hold nothing securely, while your democracy survives. If he should suffer any reverse, all those whom he now dominates by force will seek assistance from you. For you are not disposed yourselves to commit aggression and usurp an Empire. Your skill lies in preventing another from seizing an empire and in depriving him of what he grabs. You are always ready to check an aggressor and vindicate the liberties of all. He resents this spirit of freedom in Athens that is waiting to take advantage of his difficulties." 2 the year 341 B.C. an AthYou will agree with me that these words have a familiar ring. They might be spoken by one of our own statesmen to-day. But it so happens that they are twenty-three centuries old. The orator’s name was Demosthenes; the Macedonian king whom he attacked was Philip. The Warning Was Ignored Demosthenes had every need to emphasise the hostility of Philip for Athens. Three years after this speech Athens. and other Greek states were beaten by Philip at the Battle of Chaeronea, and Greece became subject to Macedon. You may wonder why the Athenians ignored such a clear warning from a man who had the political insight to see what was brewing. Yes, you may well wonder. Your wonder may become amazement when I tell you that this same Demosthenes had been warning his fellow-citizens against Philip for nine years before he delivered the speech from which I quoted, Eventually they did listen to Demosthenes; but it was then too late. The Greeks had tost their independence. Philip’s subjugation of Greece provides another parallel to contemporary history as striking as any that I discussed in previous talks . . . Philip was twenty-three years old when he "came to the throne" (in 359 B.C.), In the space of twenty-one years he accomplished what the Persian king, Xerxes, had not succeeded in doing. He had conquered Greece, Violence With Cunning The methods by which this ambitious monarch built up his empire combined violence with cunning. At first Philip had to consolidate his position in Macedonia and subdue some of the neigh-

bouring tribes in the mountains of the South Balkans. Then he was able to penetrate down to the northern seaboard of the Aegean in the region east and west of Salonica. Here, as elsewhere, were numerous Greek city-states, each independent of the other, and most of them mutually hostile. He played them off against each other. If he was going to attack State X, he would invite the co-operation of State Y, and offer to Y some of X’s territory. After all, why shouldn’t he be generous? X’s territory didn’t belong to him anyway. Then, later on, he would easily find an excuse to pick a quarrel with Y and swallow up his former ally. In addition, there was another device to which he paid great attention. He was always careful to find a fifth column inside the State he was attacking. Nearly always he was able to bribe someone who was a native and a citizen to surrender his state. On one occasion he bribed an opposing general to lead his cavalry into a previously prepared ambush. Philip’s own observation was that he _ could always capture a city if he could once get a donkey-load of gold inside its walls. Appeasement Within six years of his coming to power Philip was already strong enough to press south and start his encroachment on Greece proper. There was an open invitation for him to come. The separate Greek states were back to their old game of fighting each other, and were only too glad to call in a powerful supporter from outside. In this way, and for these reasons, he marched into Thessaly; and in a year or so after coming in to aid one group against another, he was master of the whole lot. The menace to the remainder of Greece was now clear enough, and soon Demosthenes emerged in Athens as an outstanding opponent of the Macedonian king. In 350 B.C. the Athenian orator was impressing on his fellowcitizens that-.someone as restless as Philip had to be stopped. Philip had the advantage of knowing what he wanted, and going straight out to get it. All that the Athenians wanted was to be left alone; they hoped Philip would devote his energies to the conquest of other peoples. Already there were plenty of "appeasers" in Athens, arguing that they must co-operate with the Macedonian. Even if people didn’t like what Philip was doing, he was too strong to be touched. To these arguments of "appeasement," Demosthene: had a clear and convincing answer, Let me quote to you now from a speech which he delivered in 350 B.C.: it is known as the First Philippic: "Some of you, Athenians, who look at the immensity of Philip’s power and consider all that we have lost, may consider Philip hard to conquer; and you would be right. But you should reflect that it was we who once held all those cities in northern ; and many of the nations now allied to him were free and independent and pre-

ferred our friendship to his. Now suppose Philip had taken it into his head that it was difficult to war against Athens, when we had so many fortresses from which to attack him and he was without allies-he would never even have attempted all that he has achieved and gained so large an empire." Demosthenes, in other words, was appealing to Athenian democracy to show some of the boldness, the initiative and the resourcefulness that the aggressor had displayed in committing his aggressions. Philip at least had nerve: the Athenians seemed to be nerveless. Fourth-Century Munich Only a few years after, Philip had once again extended his conquests in northern Greece. He did so at the expense of a State which was friendly to Athens; but the Athenians, despite appeals for aid, were too supine and too slow to do anything effective. Again Demosthenes fulminated-but it was no use. After all, said the Athenians, why take the trouble to go out and deal with a boa-constrictor? Much better to wait until it comes to you. And there was always the hope that it might not come. Even boa-constrictors might get tired of swallowing. So the Athenians made a peace with Philip on the basis that each side should keep what they had. That is to say, Athens acquiesced in Philip’s aggrandisement up-to-date. It was a fourth-century Munich. But Munichs don’t last. In a few years’. time, Philip was at it again, encroaching still further on other Greek cities, and tirelessly, persistently, cunningly, extending his empire. Once more Demosthenes gave the Athenians a tongue lashing. He showed the appease-ment-party what sort of peace they had made. Let me quote from another speech, the 3rd Philippic; its date was 341 B.C, "If we were all agreed that Philip is at war with Athens and infringing the peace, a speaker would only need to advise the surest and easiest way of resisting him. But at the very time when Philip is capturing cities, and holding on to our possessions, and wronging everybody, since there are some who hold to the view it is we who are causing the war, one must be cautious and set this matter right. You may profess to be at peace, if you like, as Philip does, I do not quarrel with that. But if anyone su) this to be a peace, under which Philip is able to master everything else and attack you last, he is a madman, or else he talks of peace observed towards him by you, not towards you by him. a Philip buys with all his bribes and ¢ ture-the privilege of fighting against you, without your fighting against him." Too Late This time the Athenians were really aware of the danger. They were at last awake, They tried to form a league of Greek States for common resistance, and they proceeded to equip their fleet. But the League, though better than nothing, was not adequate. A number of States held aloof, thinking that they could preserve their neutrality. Others felt that resistance was now hopeless; and others were not gaime to sink their differences and work together.

It was not long before this league was put to the test. Some Greek States began to dispute among themselves, and one side invited Philip to come to their aid. He did so, in: the year 339 B.C. Next year saw the climax at the Battle of _Chaeronea. The Greeks fought bravely; and Demosthenes himself took part in the battle as an ordinary soldier. But they were up against an army better equipped, better trained, and more experienced ... Demo&thenes knew well enough that if he could rouse the Athenians in time, they were sure to be victorious: his anxiety was to stimulate them to take the initiative. Again we turn to his words, spoken when affairs were draw+ ing towards the final struggle: "You, Athenians, with larger resources than any people-ships, infantry, cavalry, and revenue-have never up to this day made proper use of them. If you hear that Philip is in the Chersonese, you vote to send help there; if he is at Thermopylae, you do the same; if he goes anywhere else, you run up and down after his heels are commanded by him. No plan have you devised for the war; no circumstances do you see beforehand. Only do you act when you learn that something is done or is about to be done. I marvel, indeed, that none of you, Athenians, is concerned and angered to notice that the beginning of this war was to punish Philip, and the end is to protect ourselves against his attacks." When the Athenians did become roused, it was then too late. Their democracy failed because it grew apathetic, because it misread Philip’s character, and because it would not listen early enough to Demosthenes, Politically they lost their freedom, But the speeches of their orators and the buildings that still adorn the Athenian Acropolis remain as a symbol of the ideals for which we are fighting to-day.