that he often helped his opponents, and came to the aid of his political antagonists when they were in difficulties.  Once when his friends reproached him for having interceded in court for some worthless man who was being tried, he answered that good men do not need any intercessor.  When Aristogeiton, after he had been condemned, sent for Phokion, and begged him to visit him, he at once started to go to the prison; and when his friends tried to prevent him, he said, “My good sirs, let me go; for where would one wish to meet Aristogeiton rather than in prison?”

XI.  Indeed, if any other generals were sent out to the allies and people of the islands, they always treated them as enemies, fortified their walls, blocked up their harbours, and sent their slaves and cattle, their women and children, into their cities for shelter; but when Phokion was in command they came out a long way to meet him with their own ships, crowned with flowers, and led him rejoicing into their cities.

XII.  When Philip stealthily seized Euboea,[626] landed a Macedonian army there, and began to win over the cities by means of their despots, Plutarchus of Eretria sent to Athens and begged the Athenians to rescue the island from the Macedonians.  Phokion was now sent thither in command of a small force, as it was expected that the people of the country would rally round him.  He found, however, nothing but treachery and corruption, as all patriotism had been undermined by the bribes of Philip, and soon was brought into great danger.  He established himself upon a hill which was cut off by a ravine from the plain near the city of Tamynae, and there collected the most trustworthy part of his forces, bidding his officers take no heed of the undisciplined mass of talkers and cowards who deserted from his camp and made their way home, observing that they were useless in action because they would not obey orders, and only hindered the fighting men, while at Athens the consciousness of their baseness would prevent their bringing false accusations against him.

XIII.  When the enemy[627] drew near, he ordered his troops to remain quiet under arms until he had finished offering sacrifice.  Either the sacrifices were unfavourable, or else he designedly wasted time, wishing to bring the enemy as close as possible.  The result was that Plutarchus,[628] imagining that the Athenians were terror-stricken and hanging back, rushed to attack the enemy at the head of the Euboeans.  Seeing this, the Athenian cavalry could no longer endure to remain idle, but charged at once, pouring out of their camp in scattered bodies and with much confusion.  These first troops were defeated, and Plutarchus himself took to flight.  Some of the enemy now came close up to the rampart of the Athenian camp, and began to tear down the stakes of which it was formed as though they were already completely victorious.