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Hellenica

Perseus Greek · Perseus Greek · 1,146 sections

  1. 1.1.1.1

    After this, not many days later, Thymochares came from Athens with a few ships; and thereupon the Lacedaemonians and the Athenians fought another naval battle, and the Lacedaemonians were victorious, under the leadership of Agesandridas.

  2. 1.1.2.1

    Shortly after this, at the beginning of the winter, Dorieus, the son of Diagoras, sailed into the Hellespont from Rhodes with fourteen ships, arriving at daybreak. And when the Athenian day-watcher described him, he signalled to the generals, and they put out against him with twenty ships; and Dorieus, fleeing from them towards the shore, beached his triremes, as fast as he got them clear of the enemy, in the neighbourhood of Rhoeteum.

  3. 1.1.3.1

    And when the Athenians came near, the men under Dorieus fought, from their ships and from the shore, until the Athenians sailed away to Madytus, to the rest of their fleet, without having accomplished anything.

  4. 1.1.4.1

    Now Mindarus caught sight of the battle as he was sacrificing to Athena at Ilium, and hurrying to the sea he launched his triremes and set out, in order to pick up the ships under Dorieus.

  5. 1.1.5.1

    And the Athenians set out against him and did battle, along the strand near Abydus, from morning till late afternoon. They were at some points victorious and at others defeated, when Alcibiades sailed into the Hellespont to their support, with eighteen ships.

  6. 1.1.6.1

    Thereupon the Peloponnesians took to flight in the direction of Abydus; and Pharnabazus came along the shore to their aid, and riding his horse into the sea as far as possible, bore a share in the fighting and cheered on his followers, cavalry and infantry.

  7. 1.1.7.1

    Meanwhile the Peloponnesians made a barrier of their ships and marshalled themselves on the shore and fought. At length the Athenians sailed away to Sestus after capturing thirty of the enemy’s ships, though without their crews, and recovering those which they had previously lost themselves.

  8. 1.1.8.1

    From Sestus all but forty of their ships went off in different directions, outside the Hellespont, to collect money; and Thrasyllus, who was one of the generals, set sail for Athens to report these events and to ask for troops and ships.

  9. 1.1.9.1

    After this Tissaphernes came to the Hellespont; and when Alcibiades with a single trireme went to visit him, bearing friendly offerings and gifts, Tissaphernes seized him and imprisoned him in Sardis, saying that the King ordered him to make war upon the Athenians.

  10. 1.1.10.1

    Thirty days later, however, Alcibiades, together with Mantitheus, who had been taken prisoner in Caria, provided themselves with horses and made their escape from Sardis by night to Clazomenae.

  11. 1.1.11.1

    Meanwhile the Athenians at Sestus, learning that Mindarus was planning to sail against them with sixty ships, withdrew by night to Cardia. There Alcibiades joined them, coming from Clazomenae with five triremes and a dispatch boat. But upon learning that the Peloponnesian ships had set out from Abydus to Cyzicus, he proceeded overland to Sestus and gave orders that the ships should sail around to that place.

  12. 1.1.12.1

    When they had arrived there and he was on the point of putting out to sea for battle, Theramenes sailed in from Macedonia with a reinforcement of twenty ships, and at the same time Thrasybulus arrived from Thasos with twenty more, both of them having been engaged in collecting money.

  13. 1.1.13.1

    And after bidding them also to follow after him when they had removed their cruising sails, Alcibiades set off with his own ships to Parium; and when all the ships had come together at Parium, to the number of eighty-six, they set sail during the ensuing night, and on the next day at breakfast time arrived at Proconnesus.

  14. 1.1.14.1

    There they learned that Mindarus was at Cyzicus, and also Pharnabazus with his army. Accordingly they remained that day at Proconnesus, but on the following day Alcibiades called an assembly of his men and told them that they must needs fight at sea, fight on land, and fight against fortresses. For we, he said, have no money, but the enemy have an abundance of it from the King.

  15. 1.1.15.1

    Now on the preceding day, when they had come to anchor, Alcibiades had taken into his custody all the vessels in the harbour, even the small ones, in order that no one should report to the enemy the size of his fleet, and he made proclamation that death would be the punishment of any one who was caught sailing across to the other side of the strait.

  16. 1.1.16.1

    And after the assembly he made preparations for battle and, in the midst of a heavy rain, set out for Cyzicus. When he was near Cyzicus, the weather cleared and the sun came out, and he sighted the ships under Mindarus, sixty in number, engaged in practice at some distance from the harbour and already cut off from it by his own fleet.

  17. 1.1.17.1

    But the Peloponnesians, when they saw that the Athenian triremes were far more numerous than before and were near the harbour, fled to the shore; and mooring their ships together, they fought with their adversaries as they sailed down upon them.

  18. 1.1.18.1

    Alcibiades, however, with twenty of his ships sailed round the fleets and landed on the shore. When Mindarus saw this, he also landed, and fell fighting on the shore; and those who were with him fled. And the Athenians took away with them to Proconnesus all the Peloponnesian ships, except those of the Syracusans; for these were burned by their own crews.From Proconnesus the Athenians sailed on the next day against Cyzicus;

  19. 1.1.19.1

    and the Cyzicenes admitted them, inasmuch as the Peloponnesians and Pharnabazus had evacuated the city.

  20. 1.1.20.1

    There Alcibiades remained for twenty days, and after obtaining a great deal of money from the Cyzicenes, but without doing any further harm in the city, sailed back to Proconnesus. From there he sailed to Perinthus and Selymbria.

  21. 1.1.21.1

    And the Perinthians admitted the Athenian forces to their city, and the Selymbrians, while not admitting them, gave them money.

  22. 1.1.22.1

    From there they proceeded to Chrysopolis, in Calchedonia, and fortified it, established a custom house in the city, and proceeded to collect the tithe-duty from vessels sailing out of the Pontus; they also left there as a garrison thirty ships and two of the generals, Theramenes and Eumachus, to have charge of the fort, to attend to the outgoing ships, and to harm the enemy in any other way they could. The other generals returned to the Hellespont.

  23. 1.1.23.1

    Meanwhile a letter dispatched to Lacedaemon by Hippocrates, vice-admiral under Mindarus, was intercepted and taken to Athens; it ran as follows: The ships are gone. Mindarus is dead. The men are starving. We know not what to do.

  24. 1.1.24.1

    Pharnabazus, however, urged the whole Peloponnesian army and their allies not to be discouraged over a matter of ship-timber—for he said there was plenty of that in the King’s land—so long as their bodies were safe; and he not only gave to each man a cloak and subsistence for two months, but he also armed the sailors and set them as guards over his own coastline.

  25. 1.1.25.1

    Furthermore, calling together the generals and ship-captains from the various states, he bade them build triremes at Antandrus to equal the number which they had severally lost, giving them money for the purpose and telling them to get timber from Mount Ida.

  26. 1.1.26.1

    And while the ship-building was going on, the Syracusans helped the Antandrians to finish a portion of their wall, and in the garrison-duty made themselves most popular. For this reason the Syracusans now enjoy at Antandrus the privileges of benefactors and citizens. As for Pharnabazus, after making these arrangements he went at once to the relief of Calchedon.

  27. 1.1.27.1

    At this time word came from home to the Syracusan generals that they had been banished by the democratic party. Accordingly they called together their soldiers and, through Hermocrates as spokesman, lamented their misfortune in being unjustly and illegally banished, all without exception. They urged their soldiers to continue zealous in the future, as they had been in the past, and to be true men in obeying every order; and they directed them to choose new commanders, to hold office until those who had been chosen to fill their places should arrive from Syracuse.

  28. 1.1.28.1

    The men, however, and particularly the captains and marines and steersmen, set up a shout at this and bade the generals remain in command. They replied that they ought not to indulge in partizan opposition to their own government. But if anyone, they said, has any charge to bring against us, you should give us a hearing, remembering how many naval battles you have won and how many ships you have captured when fighting by yourselves, and how often when associated with others you have proved yourselves invincible under our leadership, occupying the most honourable post in the line of battle on account of our skill and your own zealous spirit, exhibited both on land and sea.

  29. 1.1.29.1

    But when no one brought any charge against them, at the request of the troops they remained until their successors arrived,—Demarchus, the son of Epicydes, Myskon, the son of Menecrates, and Potamis, the son of Gnosis. Then, after most of the captains had taken oath that, when they returned to Syracuse, they would bring their generals back from exile, they sped them on their ways, commending them all;

  30. 1.1.30.1

    but in particular those who had associated with Hermocrates felt exceedingly the loss of his care and enthusiasm and democratic spirit. For the best of those whose acquaintance he made, both captains and steersmen and marines, he used to gather every day in the morning and at evening to his own tent, where he communicated to them whatever he was planning to say or to do; he instructed them also, sometimes directing them to speak ex tempore and sometimes after deliberation.

  31. 1.1.31.1

    As a result of this Hermocrates enjoyed the greatest reputation in the general council, and was thought superior to all others as speaker and adviser. He now went to visit Pharnabazus; and since he had once brought an accusation against Tissaphernes at Lacedaemon, in which Astyochus supported him as witness, and had been adjudged to speak the truth, he received money from Pharnabazus before he asked for it, and busied himself with collecting mercenaries and triremes with a view to his restoration to Syracuse. Meanwhile the Syracusans who succeeded the banished generals arrived at Miletus and took over the ships and the troops.

  32. 1.1.32.1

    At about this time a revolution took place in Thasos, and the partisans of Lacedaemon and the Laconian governor Eteonicus were driven out of the island. And Pasippidas the Laconian, who was accused of having managed this intrigue, in collusion with Tissaphernes, was banished from Sparta, while Cratesippidas was sent out to the fleet which Pasippidas had collected from the allies, and assumed command of it at Chios.

  33. 1.1.33.1

    During these days also, and while Thrasyllus was in Athens, Agis made a raid from Decelea up to the very walls of the city; and Thrasyllus led forth the Athenians and all others who were in the city and marshalled them beside the Lyceum, with the intention of engaging the enemy if they approached.

  34. 1.1.34.1

    When Agis saw this, he withdrew in haste, and some few of his rear line were killed by the Athenian light troops. In consequence of this occurrence the Athenians were still more ready to give Thrasyllus the help for which he had come, and they voted that he might choose out for service a thousand hoplites, a hundred horsemen, and fifty triremes.

  35. 1.1.35.1

    Meanwhile Agis, who could see from Decelea great numbers of grain-ships sailing in to Piraeus, said that it was useless for his troops to be trying all this long time to shut off the Athenians from access to their land, unless one should occupy also the country from which the grain was coming in by sea; and that it was best to send to Calchedon and Byzantium Clearchus, the son of Rhamphias, who was diplomatic agent for the Byzantines at Sparta.

  36. 1.1.36.1

    When this was resolved upon, fifteen ships were manned by the Megarians and the other allies, more properly transports than warships, and Clearchus set out with them. Three of his ships were destroyed in the Hellespont by the nine Attic ships which were continually on duty there to protect the Athenian merchantmen, but the rest escaped to Sestus and from there made their way safely to Byzantium.

  37. 1.1.37.1

    So the year ended, being the year in which the Carthaginians, under the leadership of Hannibal, made an expedition against Sicily, with an army of one hundred thousand men, and in the course of three months captured two Greek cities, Selinus and Himera.

  38. 1.2.1.1

    In the next year—in which was celebrated the ninety-third Olympiad, when the newly added two-horse race was won by Euagoras of Elis and the stadium by Eubotas of Cyrene, Euarchippus being now ephor at Sparta and Euctemon archon at Athens —the Athenians fortified Thoricus; and Thrasyllus took the ships which had been voted him, equipped five thousand of his sailors so that he might employ them as peltasts also, and set sail at the beginning of the summer for Samos.

  39. 1.2.2.1

    After remaining there for three days he sailed to Pygela; and there he laid waste the country and attacked the wall of the town. A force from Miletus, however, came to the aid of the Pygelans, and finding the Athenian light troops scattered, pursued them.

  40. 1.2.3.1

    Thereupon the peltasts and two companies of the hoplites came to the aid of their light troops and killed all but a few of the men from Miletus; they also captured about two hundred shields and set up a trophy.

  41. 1.2.4.1

    On the next day they sailed to Notium and from there, after making the necessary preparations, marched to Colophon; and the Colophonians gave them their allegiance. It was now the time when the grain was ripening, and during the following night they made a raid into Lydia, burned many villages, and seized money, slaves, and other booty in great quantities.

  42. 1.2.5.1

    Stages, the Persian, however, was in this region, and when the Athenians had scattered from their camp for private plunder, he captured one of them and killed seven others, despite the fact that their cavalry came to the rescue.

  43. 1.2.6.1

    After this Thrasyllus led his army back to the coast, with the intention of sailing to Ephesus. But when Tissaphernes learned of this plan, he gathered together a large army and sent out horsemen to carry word to everybody to rally at Ephesus for the protection of Artemis.

  44. 1.2.7.1

    And now, on the seventeenth day after his raid, Thrasyllus sailed to Ephesus; and having disembarked the hoplites at the foot of Mount Coressus, and the cavalry, peltasts, marines, and all the rest near the marsh on the opposite side of the city, he led forward the two divisions at daybreak.

  45. 1.2.8.1

    The defenders of the city sallied forth to meet the attack,—the Ephesians, the allies whom Tissaphernes had brought them, the crews of the original twenty Syracusan ships and of five others which chanced to have arrived there at the time, newly come from Syracuse under the command of Eucles, the son of Hippon, and Heracleides, the son of Aristogenes, and finally, the crews of two Selinuntine ships.

  46. 1.2.9.1

    All these contingents directed their first attack upon the hoplites at Coressus; and after routing them, killing about a hundred of them, and pursuing the rest down to the shore, they turned their attention to those by the marsh; and there also the Athenians were put to flight, and about three hundred of them were killed.

  47. 1.2.10.1

    So the Ephesians set up a trophy there and a second at Coressus. They also gave to the Syracusans and Selinuntines, who had especially distinguished themselves, the prizes for valour, not only general prizes, but many to particular individuals among them, while upon any one of them who at any time might desire it they conferred the privilege of dwelling in Ephesus tax free; and to the Selinuntines, after Selinus had been destroyed, they gave the rights of Ephesian citizenship as well.

  48. 1.2.11.1

    As for the Athenians, after obtaining a truce and so recovering the bodies of their dead, they sailed back to Notium, buried the dead there, and sailed on towards Lesbos and the Hellespont.

  49. 1.2.12.1

    While they were at anchor in the harbour of Methymna, in Lesbos, they saw sailing past them from Ephesus the twenty-five Syracusan ships; and putting out to the attack they captured four of them, men and all, and chased the rest back to Ephesus.

  50. 1.2.13.1

    And Thrasyllus sent home to Athens all the prisoners with the exception of Alcibiades; this Alcibiades, who was an Athenian and a cousin and fellow-exile of Alcibiades the general, he caused to be stoned to death. Then he set sail to Sestus to join the rest of the army; and from Sestus the entire force crossed over to Lampsacus.

  51. 1.2.14.1

    And now the winter came on. During the course of it the Syracusan prisoners, who were immured in stone quarries in Piraeus, dug through the rock and made their escape by night, most of them to Decelea and the rest to Megara.

  52. 1.2.15.1

    Meanwhile at Lampsacus Alcibiades endeavoured to marshal his entire army as a unit, but the old soldiers were unwilling to be marshalled with the troops of Thrasyllus; for they said that they had never known defeat, while the others had just come from a defeat. Both contingents, however, wintered there together, occupying themselves in fortifying Lampsacus.

  53. 1.2.16.1

    They also made an expedition against Abydus; and Pharnabazus, who came to its aid with a large force of cavalry, was defeated in battle and put to flight. And Alcibiades pursued him with the Athenian cavalry and one hundred and twenty of the hoplites, under the command of Menander, until darkness covered the retreat.

  54. 1.2.17.1

    As a result of this battle the soldiers came together of their own accord and the old troops fraternised with those under Thrasyllus. The Athenians also made some other expeditions during the winter into the interior and laid waste the King’s territory.

  55. 1.2.18.1

    At the same period the Lacedaemonians granted terms to the Helots who had revolted and fled from Malea to Coryphasium, allowing them to evacuate Coryphasium unmolested. At about the same time, also, the colonists of Heracleia, in Trachis, were betrayed by the Achaeans in a battle where both peoples were drawn up against their enemies, the Oetaeans, and as a result about seven hundred of the Heracleots perished, together with the Lacedaemonian governor, Labotas.

  56. 1.2.19.1

    So this year ended, being the year in which the Medes, who had revolted from Darius, king of the Persians, were again reduced to subjection.

  57. 1.3.1.1

    During the ensuing year the temple of Athena at Phocaea was struck by lightning and set on fire. When the winter ended and spring began,—Pantacles being now ephor and Antigenes archon, and the war having continued for twenty-two years—the Athenians sailed with their entire force to Proconnesus.

  58. 1.3.2.1

    From there they set out against Calchedon and Byzantium, and went into camp near Calchedon. Now the Calchedonians, when they learned that the Athenians were approaching, had put all their portable property in the keeping of the Bithynian Thracians, their neighbours.

  59. 1.3.3.1

    Alcibiades, however, taking a few of the hoplites and the cavalry, and giving orders that the ships should sail along the coast, went to the Bithynians and demanded the property of the Calchedonians, saying that if they did not give it to him, he would make war upon them; so they gave it over.

  60. 1.3.4.1

    And when Alcibiades returned to his camp with the booty, after having concluded a treaty with the Bithynians, he proceeded with his whole army to invest Calchedon by building a wooden stockade which extended from sea to sea, taking in the river also in so far as this was practicable.

  61. 1.3.5.1

    Thereupon Hippocrates, the Lacedaemonian governor, led forth his troops from the city to do battle; and the Athenians marshalled themselves against him, while Pharnabazus, outside the stockade, with infantry and horsemen in great numbers, tried to aid Hippocrates.

  62. 1.3.6.1

    Now for a long time Hippocrates and Thrasyllus fought, each with his hoplites, until Alcibiades came to the rescue with a few hoplites and the cavalry. Then Hippocrates was killed, and those who were with him fled back into the city.

  63. 1.3.7.1

    At the same time Pharnabazus, unable to effect a junction with Hippocrates owing to the narrowness of the space, since the stockade came down close to the river, retired to the Heracleium in the Calchedonian territory, where he had his camp.

  64. 1.3.8.1

    After this Alcibiades went off to the Hellespont and the Chersonese to collect money; and the rest of the generals concluded a compact with Pharnabazus which provided that, in consideration of their sparing Calchedon, Pharnabazus should give the Athenians twenty talents and should conduct Athenian ambassadors to the King;

  65. 1.3.9.1

    they also received from Pharnabazus a pledge under oath that the Calchedonians should pay to the Athenians precisely the same tribute they had been accustomed to pay and should settle the arrears of tribute, while they on their side made oath that the Athenians would not wage war upon the Calchedonians until the ambassadors should return from the King.

  66. 1.3.10.1

    Alcibiades was not present at the exchange of these oaths, but was in the neighbourhood of Selymbria; and when he had captured that city, he came to Byzantium, bringing with him all the forces of the Chersonesians and soldiers from Thrace and more than three hundred horsemen.

  67. 1.3.11.1

    Now Pharnabazus thought that Alcibiades also ought to give his oath, and so waited at Calchedon until he should come from Byzantium; but when he came, he said that he would not make oath unless Pharnabazus also should do the like to him.

  68. 1.3.12.1

    In the end, Alcibiades made oath at Chrysopolis to the representatives of Pharnabazus, Mitrobates and Arnapes, and Pharnabazus at Calchedon to the representatives of Alcibiades, Euryptolemus and Diotimus, both parties not only giving the official oath but also making personal pledges to one another.

  69. 1.3.13.1

    Immediately after this Pharnabazus went away, leaving word that the ambassadors who were going to the King should meet him at Cyzicus. The Athenians who were sent were Dorotheus, Philocydes, Theogenes, Euryptolemus, and Mantitheus, and with them two Argives, Cleostratus and Pyrrolochus; ambassadors of the Lacedaemonians also went along, Pasippidas and others, and with them Hermocrates, who was already an exile from Syracuse, and his brother Proxenus.

  70. 1.3.14.1

    While Pharnabazus was conducting this party, the Athenians were besieging Byzantium; they had built a stockade around the city, and were attacking its wall with missiles from a distance and by close assault.

  71. 1.3.15.1

    Within Byzantium was Clearchus the Lacedaemonian, its governor, and with him some Laconian Perioeci, a few emancipated Helots, a contingent of Megarians, under the command of Helixus the Megarian, and one of Boeotians, under the command of Coeratadas.

  72. 1.3.16.1

    Now the Athenians, finding that they were unable to accomplish anything by force, persuaded some of the Byzantines to betray the city.

  73. 1.3.17.1

    Meanwhile Clearchus, the governor, supposing that no one would do that, arranged everything as well as he could, turned over the charge of the city to Coeratadas and Helixus, and crossed to the opposite shore to meet Pharnabazus, in order to get from him pay for the soldiers and also to collect ships. His plan was to assemble those which had been left behind by Pasippidas as guardships and were now in the Hellespont, those at Antandrus, and those which Agesandridas, a lieutenant of Mindarus, had under his command on the Thracian coast, and finally, to have other ships built; then, after gathering them all together, he thought to harry the allies of the Athenians and so draw off their army from Byzantium.

  74. 1.3.18.1

    But when Clearchus had sailed away, those who wanted to betray the city of the Byzantines set about their work,—Cydon, Ariston, Anaxicrates, Lycurgus, and Anaxilaus.

  75. 1.3.19.1

    This Anaxilaus was afterwards tried for his life at Lacedaemon because of this betrayal, but was acquitted, on the plea that he did not betray the city, but rather saved it; he was a Byzantine, he said, not a Lacedaemonian, and when he saw children and women perishing of starvation,—for Clearchus, he said, gave whatever provisions the city contained to the soldiers of the Lacedaemonians,—he had for this reason admitted the enemy, not for the sake of money nor out of hatred to the Lacedaemonians.

  76. 1.3.20.1

    As has been said, however, these betrayers made their preparations, and then, opening by night the gates that lead to the Thracian Square, as it is called, let in the Athenian army and Alcibiades.

  77. 1.3.21.1

    Now Helixus and Coeratadas, who knew nothing of what was going on, hurried to the market-place with all their troops; but when they found that the enemy were masters everywhere and that they could do nothing, they surrendered themselves.

  78. 1.3.22.1

    They were all sent off to Athens, and as they were disembarking at Piraeus, Coeratadas slipped away in the crowd and made his escape to Decelea.

  79. 1.4.1.1

    As for Pharnabazus and the ambassadors, while they were spending the winter at Gordium, in Phrygia, they heard what had happened at Byzantium.

  80. 1.4.2.1

    But as they were continuing their journey to the King, at the opening of the spring, they met not only the Lacedaemonian ambassadors returning,—Boeotius and his colleagues and the messengers besides, who reported that the Lacedaemonians had obtained from the King everything they wanted,—

  81. 1.4.3.1

    but also Cyrus, who had come in order to be ruler of all the peoples on the coast and to support the Lacedaemonians in the war. This Cyrus brought with him a letter, addressed to all the dwellers upon the sea and bearing the King’s seal, which contained among other things these words: I send down Cyrus as caranus of those whose mustering-place is Castolus.

  82. 1.4.4.1

    When the Athenian ambassadors heard all this and saw Cyrus, they wished, if it were possible, to make their journey to the King, but otherwise to return home.

  83. 1.4.5.1

    Cyrus, however, directed Pharnabazus either to give the ambassadors into his charge, or at any rate not to let them go home as yet, for he wished the Athenians not to know of what was going on.

  84. 1.4.6.1

    Pharnabazus, accordingly, in order that Cyrus might not censure him, detained the ambassadors for a time, now saying that he would conduct them to the King, and again, that he would let them go home;

  85. 1.4.7.1

    but when three years had passed, he requested Cyrus to release them, on the plea that he had given his oath to conduct them back to the coast, since he could not take them to the King. So they sent the ambassadors to Ariobarzanes and directed him to escort them on; and he conducted them to Cius, in Mysia, whence they set sail to join the Athenian army.

  86. 1.4.8.1

    Meanwhile Alcibiades, wishing to sail home with his troops, made straight for Samos; from there he sailed, with twenty of the ships, to the Ceramic Gulf, in Caria; and after collecting there a hundred talents, he returned to Samos.

  87. 1.4.9.1

    Thrasybulus, however, with thirty ships, went off to the Thracian coast, where he reduced all the places which had revolted to the Lacedaemonians, and especially Thasos, which was in a bad state on account of wars and revolutions and famine.

  88. 1.4.10.1

    Thrasyllus finally, with the rest of the fleet, sailed home to Athens; but before he arrived, the Athenians had chosen as generals Alcibiades, who was still in exile, Thrasybulus, who was absent, and as a third, from among those at home, Conon.

  89. 1.4.11.1

    And now Alcibiades sailed from Samos with his twenty ships and his money to Paros, and from there directed his course straight to Gytheium, in order to take a look at the thirty triremes which he heard the Lacedaemonians were making ready there and to see how his city felt toward him, with reference to his homecoming.

  90. 1.4.12.1

    And when he found that the temper of the Athenians was kindly, that they had chosen him general, and that his friends were urging him by personal messages to return, he sailed in to Piraeus, arriving on the day when the city was celebrating the Plynteria and the statue of Athena was veiled from sight,—a circumstance which some people imagined was of ill omen, both for him and for the state; for on that day no Athenian would venture to engage in any serious business.

  91. 1.4.13.1

    When he sailed in, the common crowd of Piraeus and of the city gathered to his ships, filled with wonder and desiring to see the famous Alcibiades. Some of them said that he was the best of the citizens; that he alone was banished without just cause, but rather because he was plotted against by those who had less power than he and spoke less well and ordered their political doings with a view to their own private gain, whereas he was always advancing the common weal, both by his own means and by the power of the state.

  92. 1.4.14.1

    At the time in question, they said, he was willing to be brought to trial at once, when the charge had just been made that he had committed sacrilege against the Eleusinian Mysteries; his enemies, however, postponed the trial, which was obviously his right, and then, when he was absent, robbed him of his fatherland;

  93. 1.4.15.1

    thereafter, in his exile, helpless as a slave and in danger of his life every day, he was forced to pay court to those whom he hated most; and though he saw those who were dearest to him, his fellow-citizens and kinsmen and all Athens, making mistakes, he was debarred by his banishment from the opportunity of helping them.

  94. 1.4.16.1

    It was not the way, they said, of men such as he to desire revolution or a change in government; for under the democracy it had been his fortune to be not only superior to his contemporaries but also not inferior to his elders, while his enemies, on the other hand, were held in precisely the same low estimation after his banishment as before; later, however, when they had gained power, they had slain the best men, and since they alone were left, they were accepted by the citizens merely for the reason that better men were not available.

  95. 1.4.17.1

    Others, however, said that Alcibiades alone was responsible for their past troubles, and as for the ills which threatened to befall the state, he alone would probably prove to be the prime cause of them.

  96. 1.4.18.1

    Meanwhile Alcibiades, who had come to anchor close to the shore, did not at once disembark, through fear of his enemies; but mounting upon the deck of his ship, he looked to see whether his friends were present.

  97. 1.4.19.1

    But when he sighted his cousin Euryptolemus, the son of Peisianax, and his other relatives and with them his friends, then he disembarked and went up to the city, accompanied by a party who were prepared to quell any attack that anyone might make upon him.

  98. 1.4.20.1

    And after he had spoken in his own defence before the Senate and the Assembly, saying that he had not committed sacrilege and that he had been unjustly treated, and after more of the same sort had been said, with no one speaking in opposition because the Assembly would not have tolerated it, he was proclaimed general-in-chief with absolute authority, the people thinking that he was the man to recover for the state its former power; then, as his first act, he led out all his troops and conducted by land the procession of the Eleusinian Mysteries, which the Athenians had been conducting by sea on account of the war;

  99. 1.4.21.1

    and after this he collected an armament of fifteen hundred hoplites, one hundred and fifty horsemen, and one hundred ships. Then, in the fourth month after his return to Athens, he set sail for Andros, which had revolted from the Athenians; and with him were sent Aristocrates and Adeimantus, the son of Leucolophides, the generals who had been chosen for service by land.

  100. 1.4.22.1

    Alcibiades disembarked his army at Gaurium, in the territory of Andros; and when the men of Andros and the Laconians who were there came forth to meet him, the Athenians routed them, shut them up in their city, and killed some few of them.

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Perseus Greek. CTS URN tlg0032.tlg001.perseus-eng2. Via the Perseus Digital Library / Open Greek and Latin TEI corpora. Licence: Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Source.