Phocion (23.4-24.1)

And events justified his fear. For at first Leosthenes achieved brilliant successes, conquering the Boeotians in battle, and driving Antipater into Lamia. Then, too, they say that the city came to cherish high hopes, and was continuously holding festivals and making sacrifices of glad tidings. Phocion, however, when men thought to convict him of error and asked him if he would not have been glad to have performed these exploits, replied: By all means; but I am glad to have given the advice I did. And again, when glad tidings came in quick succession by letter and messenger from the camp, When, pray, said he, will our victories cease?

But Leosthenes was killed, and then those who feared that Phocion, if he were sent out as general, would put a stop to the war, arranged with a certain obscure person to rise in the assembly and say that he was a friend and intimate associate of Phocion, and therefore advised the people to spare him and keep him in reserve, since they had none other like him, and to send out Antiphilus to the army. This course was approved by the Athenians, whereupon Phocion came forward and said that he had never been intimately associated with the person, nor in any way familiar or acquainted with him;