After taking Methone, he was going to pass into Thessaly, but the Athenians held Thermopylæ, and he waited till he could ally himself with the Thebans against the Phocians.  He took Phocis, and thus gained the famous pass, being able to attack it on both sides.  Next he listened to envoys from Messenia and Argos, who complained of the dominion of the Spartans, and begged him to help them.  The Athenians were on this urged by Demosthenes, in one of his Philippics, to forget all their old hatred to Sparta, and join her in keeping back the enemy of both alike; and their intention of joining Sparta made Philip wait, and begin by trying to take the great island of Eubœa, which he called the “Shackles of Greece.”  To its aid was sent a body of Athenians, under the command of Phocion, a friend of Plato, and one of the sternest of Stoics, of whom it was said that no one had ever seen him laugh, weep, or go to the public baths.  He went about barefoot, and never wrapped himself up if he could help it, so that it was a saying, “Phocion has got his cloak on; it is a hard winter.”  He was a great soldier, and, for the time, drove back the Macedonians from Eubœa.  But very few Athenians had the spirit of Phocion or Demosthenes.  They had grown idle, and Philip was bribing all who would take his money among the other Greeks to let his power and influence spread, until at last he set forth to invade Greece.  The Thebans and Athenians joined together to stop him, and met him at Chæronea, in Bœotia; but neither city could produce a real general, and though at first the Athenians gained some advantage, they did not make a proper use of it, so that Philip cried out, “The Athenians do not know how to conquer,” and, making another attack, routed them entirely.  Poor Demosthenes, who had never been in a battle before, and could only fight with his tongue, fled in such a fright that when a bramble caught his tunic, he screamed out, “Oh, spare my life!”  The battle of Chæronea was a most terrible overthrow, and neither Athens nor Thebes ever recovered it.  Macedon entirely gained the chief power over Greece, and Philip was the chief man in it, though Demosthenes never ceased to try to stir up opposition to him.  Philip was a very able man, and had a good deal of nobleness in his nature.  Once, after a feast, he had to hear a trial, and gave sentence in haste.  “I appeal,” said the woman who had lost. “Appeal? and to whom?” said the king.  “I appeal from Philip drunk to Philip sober.”  He was greatly struck, heard the case over again the next day, and found that he had been wrong and the woman right.