and ruin of Athens, which the Athenians won by themselves, without allies, over other Greeks, they were greatly pleased with Chabrias, and Phokion was henceforth spoken of as a man of military genius.  The battle was won during the performance of the Great Mysteries at Eleusis; and every year afterwards, on the sixteenth day of the month Boeedromion, Chabrias used to entertain the Athenians, and offer libations of wine to the gods.

VII.  After this Chabrias sent Phokion to visit the islands and exact tribute from them, giving him an escort of twenty ships of war:  upon which Phokion is said to have remarked, that if he was sent to fight the islanders, he should require a larger force, but that if he was going to the allies of Athens, one ship would suffice for him.  He sailed in his own trireme, visited all the states, simply and unassumingly explained the objects of his mission to their leading men, and returned home with a large fleet, which the allies despatched to convey their tribute safe to Athens.

He not only esteemed and looked up to Chabrias while he lived, but after his death he took care of his family, and endeavoured to make a good man of his son Ktesippus; and though he found this youth stupid and unmanageable, he never ceased his efforts to amend his character and to conceal his faults.  Once only we are told that when on some campaign the young man was tormenting him with unreasonable questions, and offering him advice as though he were appointed assistant-general, Phokion exclaimed, “O Chabrias, Chabrias, I do indeed prove myself grateful for your friendship for me, by enduring this from your son!” Observing that the public men of the day had, as if by lot, divided the duties of the war-office and of the public assembly amongst themselves, so that Eubulus, Aristophon, Demosthenes, Lykurgus, and Hypereides did nothing except make speeches to the people and bring forward bills, while Diopeithes, Menestheus, Leosthenes, and Chares rose entirely by acting as generals and by making war, Phokion wished to restore the era of Perikles, Aristeides, and Solon, statesmen who were able to manage both of these branches of the administration with equal success.  Each one of those great men seemed to him, in the words of Archilochus, to have been

    “A man, who served the grisly god of arms,
    Yet well could comprehend the Muses’s charms.”

The tutelary goddess of Athens herself, he remarked, presided equally over war and over domestic administration, and was worshipped under both attributes.

VIII.  With this object in view Phokion invariably used his political influence in favour of peace, but nevertheless was elected general[624] more times not only than any of his contemporaries, but also than any of his predecessors:  yet he never canvassed his countrymen or made any effort to obtain the office, though he did not refuse to fill it at his country’s bidding.  All historians admit that he was elected