[For context: At the height of the power of Philip II of Macedon, much of Greece was still bristling under his rule, and was constantly conspiring to revolt against him. Here, Athens is reaching out to the Persians to help fund an organized resistance.]
Demosthenes, meanwhile, had also persuaded the Athenian government to make overtures to Darius; but here – for the moment at least – he met with little success. The Great King had no intention of wasting good Persian darics on Athens when the power-struggle in Macedonia would achieve all he wanted at no cost to himself. He therefore sent back what Aeschines afterwards described as ‘a most barbarous and insolent letter’, at the close of which he wrote: ‘I will not give you gold; stop asking me for it; you will not get it.’
Source:
Green, Peter. “The Keys of the Kingdom.” Alexander of Macedon: 356-323 B.C.: A Historical Biography. Univ. of California Press, 2005. 115-16. Print.
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