Declaration of War mentions ONLY crimes against temples?

adisciplus · Post by **adisciplus** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:10 pm

At the League of Corinth peace conference, when Philip proposes a declaration of war against Persia, he mentions vengeance for the crimes that Xerxes had committed against Greek temples as his justification.

Why this to the exclusion of other reasons: crimes against Greeks populations, liberation of Asiatic cities, etc?

Phoebus · Post by **Phoebus** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 4:47 pm

There's probably someone who can word this better, but if I rememember correctly...

Everyone knew Phillip's scale of ambition, and after so many years of fighting various parties and playing one city state off against the other, I doubt most of the Hellenic-speaking peoples had any illusion about his agenda having anything to do with liberation or crimes. He'd infringed on the former and committed the later against his neighbors.

If he could get a major religious authority (say, Delphi, or something approximate) to sign off on a religious war, though, it would make it more difficult for the powers that be in the various cities to not join up.

Paralus · Post by **Paralus** » Sat Jan 26, 2008 9:32 am

If it's an examination you're due to sit adisciplus, we'd be able to help you better if we had the entire paper.

The "peace conference" at Corinth is rather loose use of English. This was the "peace" imposed upon the Greeks by Philip. All else is an overlay of convenience - including the espoused reasons for Macedonian imperialism in the east.

The Greek city states displayed all the enthusiasm of the Germans for Versailles.