History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides [best free ebook reader TXT] 📗
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Tissaphernes was determined not to treat on any terms, wished the
Athenians to think, not that he was unable to persuade Tissaphernes,
but that after the latter had been persuaded and was willing to join
them, they had not conceded enough to him. For the demands of
Alcibiades, speaking for Tissaphernes, who was present, were so
extravagant that the Athenians, although for a long while they
agreed to whatever he asked, yet had to bear the blame of failure:
he required the cession of the whole of Ionia, next of the islands
adjacent, besides other concessions, and these passed without
opposition; at last, in the third interview, Alcibiades, who now
feared a complete discovery of his inability, required them to allow
the King to build ships and sail along his own coast wherever and with
as many as he pleased. Upon this the Athenians would yield no further,
and concluding that there was nothing to be done, but that they had
been deceived by Alcibiades, went away in a passion and proceeded to
Samos.
Tissaphernes immediately after this, in the same winter, proceeded
along shore to Caunus, desiring to bring the Peloponnesian fleet
back to Miletus, and to supply them with pay, making a fresh
convention upon such terms as he could get, in order not to bring
matters to an absolute breach between them. He was afraid that if many
of their ships were left without pay they would be compelled to engage
and be defeated, or that their vessels being left without hands the
Athenians would attain their objects without his assistance. Still
more he feared that the Peloponnesians might ravage the continent in
search of supplies. Having calculated and considered all this,
agreeably to his plan of keeping the two sides equal, he now sent
for the Peloponnesians and gave them pay, and concluded with them a
third treaty in words following:
In the thirteenth year of the reign of Darius, while Alexippidas
was ephor at Lacedaemon, a convention was concluded in the plain of
the Maeander by the Lacedaemonians and their allies with Tissaphernes,
Hieramenes, and the sons of Pharnaces, concerning the affairs of the
King and of the Lacedaemonians and their allies.
1. The country of the King in Asia shall be the King’s, and the
King shall treat his own country as he pleases.
2. The Lacedaemonians and their allies shall not invade or
injure the King’s country: neither shall the King invade or injure
that of the Lacedaemonians or of their allies. If any of the
Lacedaemonians or of their allies invade or injure the King’s country,
the Lacedaemonians and their allies shall prevent it: and if any
from the King’s country invade or injure the country of the
Lacedaemonians or of their allies, the King shall prevent it.
3. Tissaphernes shall provide pay for the ships now present,
according to the agreement, until the arrival of the King’s vessels:
but after the arrival of the King’s vessels the Lacedaemonians and
their allies may pay their own ships if they wish it. If, however,
they choose to receive the pay from Tissaphernes, Tissaphernes shall
furnish it: and the Lacedaemonians and their allies shall repay him at
the end of the war such moneys as they shall have received.
4. After the vessels have arrived, the ships of the Lacedaemonians
and of their allies and those of the King shall carry on the war
jointly, according as Tissaphernes and the Lacedaemonians and their
allies shall think best. If they wish to make peace with the
Athenians, they shall make peace also jointly.
This was the treaty. After this Tissaphernes prepared to bring up
the Phoenician fleet according to agreement, and to make good his
other promises, or at all events wished to make it appear that he
was so preparing.
Winter was now drawing towards its close, when the Boeotians took
Oropus by treachery, though held by an Athenian garrison. Their
accomplices in this were some of the Eretrians and of the Oropians
themselves, who were plotting the revolt of Euboea, as the place was
exactly opposite Eretria, and while in Athenian hands was
necessarily a source of great annoyance to Eretria and the rest of
Euboea. Oropus being in their hands, the Eretrians now came to
Rhodes to invite the Peloponnesians into Euboea. The latter,
however, were rather bent on the relief of the distressed Chians,
and accordingly put out to sea and sailed with all their ships from
Rhodes. Off Triopium they sighted the Athenian fleet out at sea
sailing from Chalce, and, neither attacking the other, arrived, the
latter at Samos, the Peloponnesians at Miletus, seeing that it was
no longer possible to relieve Chios without a battle. And this
winter ended, and with it ended the twentieth year of this war of
which Thucydides is the historian.
Early in the spring of the summer following, Dercyllidas, a Spartan,
was sent with a small force by land to the Hellespont to effect the
revolt of Abydos, which is a Milesian colony; and the Chians, while
Astyochus was at a loss how to help them, were compelled to fight at
sea by the pressure of the siege. While Astyochus was still at
Rhodes they had received from Miletus, as their commander after the
death of Pedaritus, a Spartan named Leon, who had come out with
Antisthenes, and twelve vessels which had been on guard at Miletus,
five of which were Thurian, four Syracusans, one from Anaia, one
Milesian, and one Leon’s own. Accordingly the Chians marched out in
mass and took up a strong position, while thirty-six of their ships
put out and engaged thirty-two of the Athenians; and after a tough
fight, in which the Chians and their allies had rather the best of it,
as it was now late, retired to their city.
Immediately after this Dercyllidas arrived by land from Miletus; and
Abydos in the Hellespont revolted to him and Pharnabazus, and
Lampsacus two days later. Upon receipt of this news Strombichides
hastily sailed from Chios with twenty-four Athenian ships, some
transports carrying heavy infantry being of the number, and
defeating the Lampsacenes who came out against him, took Lampsacus,
which was unfortified, at the first assault, and making prize of the
slaves and goods restored the freemen to their homes, and went on to
Abydos. The inhabitants, however, refusing to capitulate, and his
assaults failing to take the place, he sailed over to the coast
opposite, and appointed Sestos, the town in the Chersonese held by the
Medes at a former period in this history, as the centre for the
defence of the whole Hellespont.
In the meantime the Chians commanded the sea more than before; and
the Peloponnesians at Miletus and Astyochus, hearing of the
sea-fight and of the departure of the squadron with Strombichides,
took fresh courage. Coasting along with two vessels to Chios,
Astyochus took the ships from that place, and now moved with the whole
fleet upon Samos, from whence, however, he sailed back to Miletus,
as the Athenians did not put out against him, owing to their
suspicions of one another. For it was about this time, or even before,
that the democracy was put down at Athens. When Pisander and the
envoys returned from Tissaphernes to Samos they at once strengthened
still further their interest in the army itself, and instigated the
upper class in Samos to join them in establishing an oligarchy, the
very form of government which a party of them had lately risen to
avoid. At the same time the Athenians at Samos, after a consultation
among themselves, determined to let Alcibiades alone, since he refused
to join them, and besides was not the man for an oligarchy; and now
that they were once embarked, to see for themselves how they could
best prevent the ruin of their cause, and meanwhile to sustain the
war, and to contribute without stint money and all else that might
be required from their own private estates, as they would henceforth
labour for themselves alone.
After encouraging each other in these resolutions, they now at
once sent off half the envoys and Pisander to do what was necessary at
Athens (with instructions to establish oligarchies on their way in all
the subject cities which they might touch at), and dispatched the
other half in different directions to the other dependencies.
Diitrephes also, who was in the neighbourhood of Chios, and had been
elected to the command of the Thracian towns, was sent off to his
government, and arriving at Thasos abolished the democracy there.
Two months, however, had not elapsed after his departure before the
Thasians began to fortify their town, being already tired of an
aristocracy with Athens, and in daily expectation of freedom from
Lacedaemon. Indeed there was a party of them (whom the Athenians had
banished), with the Peloponnesians, who with their friends in the town
were already making every exertion to bring a squadron, and to
effect the revolt of Thasos; and this party thus saw exactly what they
most wanted done, that is to say, the reformation of the government
without risk, and the abolition of the democracy which would have
opposed them. Things at Thasos thus turned out just the contrary to
what the oligarchical conspirators at Athens expected; and the same in
my opinion was the case in many of the other dependencies; as the
cities no sooner got a moderate government and liberty of action, than
they went on to absolute freedom without being at all seduced by the
show of reform offered by the Athenians.
Pisander and his colleagues on their voyage alongshore abolished, as
had been determined, the democracies in the cities, and also took some
heavy infantry from certain places as their allies, and so came to
Athens. Here they found most of the work already done by their
associates. Some of the younger men had banded together, and
secretly assassinated one Androcles, the chief leader of the
commons, and mainly responsible for the banishment of Alcibiades;
Androcles being singled out both because he was a popular leader and
because they sought by his death to recommend themselves to
Alcibiades, who was, as they supposed, to be recalled, and to make
Tissaphernes their friend. There were also some other obnoxious
persons whom they secretly did away with in the same manner. Meanwhile
their cry in public was that no pay should be given except to
persons serving in the war, and that not more than five thousand
should share in the government, and those such as were most able to
serve the state in person and in purse.
But this was a mere catchword for the multitude, as the authors of
the revolution were really to govern. However, the Assembly and the
Council of the Bean still met notwithstanding, although they discussed
nothing that was not approved of by the conspirators, who both
supplied the speakers and reviewed in advance what they were to say.
Fear, and the sight of the numbers of the conspirators, closed the
mouths of the rest; or if any ventured to rise in opposition, he was
presently put to death in some convenient way, and there was neither
search for the murderers nor justice to be had against them if
suspected; but the people remained motionless, being so thoroughly
cowed that men thought themselves lucky to escape violence, even
when they held their tongues. An exaggerated belief in the numbers
of the conspirators also demoralized the people, rendered helpless
by the magnitude of the city, and by their want of intelligence with
each other, and being without means of finding out what those
numbers really were. For the same reason it was impossible for any one
to open his grief to a neighbour and to concert measures to defend
himself, as he would
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