Since 357 BC, when Philip seized Amphipolis, after agreeing in part to trade it for Pydna, Athens was formally in a state of war against the King of Macedon.
[5] In 352 BC, the Athenian troops opposed Philip successfully at Thermopylae,[6] but the same year the Macedonian army campaigned in Thrace and won a decisive victory over the Phocians in Thessaly, an event that shook the orator.
Eubulus passed a law making it difficult to divert public funds, including "theorika", for minor military operations.
Demosthenes encouraged his countrymen, trying to convince them that the defeats they suffered were due to their mistakes and to Philip's competence.
[8] Despite the passionate style of the orator, it seems that the Ecclesia of Athens did not espouse his views and insisted in the ensuing military preparations, obliging Demosthenes to repeat the same argumentation in the Olynthiacs.
According to Demosthenes, he "is not able to rest satisfied with his present acquisitions, but is ever in pursuit of farther conquests; and while we sit down inactive and irresolute, encloses us on all sides with his toils.