Phokion never harmed any Athenian because he disliked him, and never
accounted any man his enemy, but merely showed himself stern and
inexorable to those who opposed his efforts to save his country, while
in the rest of his life he was so kind and amiable to all men, 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.
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