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The defeat of the army under Nicias was followed Darius by the taking of Athens, of which the ancient form Nothus. of government was entirely changed by Lysander.

СНАР. II.

SECT. I. Consequences of the defeat of the Athenians in Sicily. Revolt of the allies. Alcibiades grows into great power with Tissaphernes.

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Ant. J. C,

413.

THE defeat of the Athenians before Syracuse A. M. gave occasion for great movements throughout all 3591. Greece. The people, who had not yet joined either side, and waited to be determined by the event, resolved to declare against them. The allies of the Lacedæmonians believed, that the time was come to deliver them for ever from the expences of a war, which lay very heavy upon them, by the speedy and final ruin of Athens. Those of Athens, who followed them only out of constraint, seeing no appearance of any future resource for that republick, after the dreadful blow it had received, thought it best to take the advantage of so favourable a conjuncture, for throwing off the yoke of dependance, and resuming their liberty. Dispositions of this kind inspired the Lacedæmonians with great views, which were supported by the hopes they had conceived, that their Sicilian allies would join them in the spring with a naval army, augmented by the ruins of the Athenian fleet.

In effect the people of Euboea, Chio, and Lesbos, with several others, gave the Lacedæmonians to understand, that they were ready to quit the party of the Athenians, if they would take them under their protection. At the same time came deputies from Tissaphernes and Pharnabasus. The first was governor of Lydia and Ionia, the other of the Hellespont. Those viceroys of Darius wanted neither application Thucyd. 1. viii. p. 555---558.

a Thucyd. 1. viii. p. 553.

Darius nor zeal for the interest of their master. TissaNothus. phernes, promising the Lacedæmonians all the ne

cessary expences for their troops, pressed them to arm directly, and to join him; because the Athenian fleet prevented him from levying the usual contributions in his province; and had put it out of his power to remit those of preceding years to the king. He hoped besides with that powerful aid to get into his hands with more ease a certain nobleman, who had revolted, and whom he had the king's orders to send to him dead or alive. This was Amorges the bastard of Pissuthna. Pharnabasus at the same time demanded ships to reduce the cities of the Hellespont from their subjection to the Athenians; who also prevented him from levying the tributes of his government.

The Lacedæmonians thought it proper to begin by satisfying Tissaphernes; and the credit of Alcibi ades contributed very much to the taking that resolution. He embarked with Calcidæus for Chio, which took arms upon their arrival, and declared for the Lacedæmonians. Upon the news of this revolt, the Athenians resolved to take the thousand talents out of the treasury, which had been deposited there from the beginning of the war, after having repealed the decree which prohibited it. Miletus also revolted soon after. Tissaphernes, having joined his troops with those of Sparta, attacked and took the city of lasus, in which Amorges had shut himself up, who was taken alive and sent into Persia. That governor gave a month's pay to the whole army, at a drachma or ten-pence a day to each soldier, observing that he had orders to give them only half that sum for the future.

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d Calcidæus then made a treaty with Tissaphernes, in the name of the Lacedæmonians, of which one of the principal articles was, that all the country

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Thucyd. 1. vii. p. 568. d Idem, p. 561-571, 572-576. *Three millions of livres.

which had been subject to the king or his predeces- Darius sors, should remain in his hands. It was renewed Nothus. some time after by Theramenes, another general of the Lacedæmonians, with some small alterations. But when this treaty came to be examined at Sparta, it was found, that too great concessions had been made to the king of Persia, in giving up all the places held by himself or his ancestors, which was to make him master of the greatest part of Greece, Thessaly, Locris, and the whole country as far as Boeotia, without mentioning the Islands; from whence the Lacedæmonians would appear rather to have enslaved Greece, than re-established its liberty. It was therefore necessary to make farther alterations in it, with which Tissaphernes and the other governors made great difficulties to comply. A new treaty was however concluded, as we shall see in the sequel.

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In the mean time, several cities of Ionia declared for Lacedæmon, to which Alcibiades contributed very much. Agis, who was already his enemy in effect of the injury he had done him, could not suffer the glory he acquired: For nothing was done without the advice of Alcibiades, and it was generally said, that the success of all enterprizes was owing to him. The most powerful and ambitious of the Spartans, from the same sentiments of jealousy, looked upon him with an evil eye, and at length by their intrigues obliged the principal magistrates to send orders into Ionia for putting him to death. Alcibiades being secretly apprized of this order, did not discontinue his services to the Lacedæmonians, but kept himself so well upon his guard, that he avoided all the snares which were laid for him.

For his better security he threw himself into the A. M. protection of Tissaphernes, the great king's gover- 3593. nor at Sardis, and was not long without seeing him. Ant. J.C. self in the highest degree of credit and authority in

Idem, p. 577-579. Plat. in Alcib. p. 164, 165.

411.

Darius the court of the Barbarian. For the Persian, who Nothus. was full of fraud and artifice, a great friend to knaves and bad men, and set no value upon simplicity and integrity, infinitely admired the smooth address of Alcibiades, the ease with which he assumed all kind of manners and characters, and his great ability in the conduct of affairs. And indeed there was no heart so hard, or temper so untractable, as to hold out against the graces and charms of his conversation and intimacy. Even those, who feared and envied him most, enchanted in a manner by his affable air and engaging behaviour, could not dissemble the infinite satisfaction they felt in seeing and conversing with him.

Tissaphernes therefore, though otherwise very haughty and brutal, and who of all the Persians hated the Greeks most, was so much taken with the complacency and insinuations of Alcibiades, that he gave himself wholly up to him, and flattered him more than he was flattered by him: Insomuch that he gave the name of Alcibiades to the finest and most de lightful of his gardens, as well from the abundance of its fountains and canals, and the verdure of its groves, as the surprizing beauty of its retreats and solitudes, which art and nature seemed to vie in embellishing, and wherein a more than royal mag. nificence was displayed.

Alcibiades, who found there was no longer any safety for him in the party of the Spartans, and who always apprehended the resentment of Egis, began to do them ill offices with Tissaphernes, to prevent his aiding them with all his forces, and ruining the Athenians entirely. He had no difficulty in bring ing the Persian into his views, which were conformable to his master's interests, and to the orders he had received from him. For after the famous treaty concluded under Cimon, the kings of Persia, not daring to attack the Greeks with open force, took other measures to ruin them. They endeavoured underhand to excite divisions amongst them, and to

foment troubles by considerable sums of money, Darius which they found means to convey sometimes to Nothus. Athens, and sometimes to Sparta. They applied themselves so successfully to keep up a balance of power between those two republicks, that the one could never entirely reduce the other. They granted them only slight aids, that could effect nothing decisive, in order to undermine them insensibly, and exhaust both parties gradually, by weakening them upon one another.

It is in this kind of conduct, that policy makes the ability of ministers consist; who from the recess of their cabinets, without noise or emotion, without any great expences, or setting numerous armies on foot, effect the reduction of the states whose power gives them umbrage, either by sowing domestick divisions amongst them, or by promoting the jea lousy of their neighbours, in order to set them at variance with each other.

We must confess, however, that this kind of policy gives us no very favourable idea of the kings of Persia. To reduce themselves, powerful as they were, to such mean, obscure, and indirect measures, was to confess their weakness, and how unable they believed themselves to attack their enemies with open force, and to reduce them by honourable means. Besides, does it consist with justice to employ such methods in regard to people, against whom there is no foundation of complaint, who live in peace under the faith of treaties, and whose sole crime is the prehension of their being one day in a condition to do hurt? And is it lawful by secret corruptions to ensnare the fidelity of subjects, and to be the accomplice of their treasons, by putting arms into their hands against their native country?

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What glory and renown would not the kings of Persia have acquired, if, content with the vast and rich dominions which providence had given them, they had applied their good offices, power, and even treasures, to conciliate the neighbouring people with

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