^88 G R E 
to ferve the caufe of his country. This event, other, 
wife iintortunate, had procured him the acquaintance 
and fr-iendfliip of TifTaphernes ; who, moved by his en¬ 
treaties, liad withheld the ftipulated pay from the Pelo- 
ponnefian forces, and wlio, lie doubted not, would con¬ 
tinue his good offices to the Athenians, fupply them 
with every thing requifite for maintaining the war, and 
even lummon the Phoenician fleet to their affiflance.'’ 
Thele w'ere magnificent but flattering promifes. In 
making them, Alcibiades however did not confult 
merely the dictates of vanity. They raifed his credit 
with the army, who immediately fainted him general; 
they widened the breach between TifTaphernes and the' 
Spartans ; and tliey flruck terror into the tyrants of 
Athens, who had provoked the refentment of a man ca¬ 
pable to fubvert their ufurpation. 
Alcibiades left the care of the troops to his colleagues 
Thralybulus and Tbrafyllus, and withdrew himfelf 
from the applaufes of his admiring countrymen, on pre¬ 
tence of concerting with TifTaphernes the fyftem of 
their future operations. But his principal motive was 
to fhew himfelt to the Perfian, in the new charadfer 
with which he was inverted. Before,he returned to the 
camp, ambafTadors had been fent by the tyrants, to at¬ 
tempt a negociation with the partifans of democracy, 
who, inflamed by continual reports of the indignities 
and cruelties committed in Athens, prepared to fail thi¬ 
ther to protecf their friends and take vengeance on th.eir 
enemies. Alcibiades judicioufly oppofed this rafh re- 
folution, which muft have left the Hellefpont, Ionia, 
and the iflands, at the mercy of the hoftile fleet. But 
he commanded the ambafTadors to deJiver to their niaf- 
ters a fliort but decifive melTage : “ That they murt di¬ 
vert themfelves of their illegal power, and rertore the 
ancient conrtitution. If they delayed obedience, he 
would fail to the Pirsus, and deprive them of their 
authority and their lives.,^’ When this mefTage was re¬ 
ported at Athens, it added to the diforder and confufion 
in which that city was involved. The four hundred, 
who had aiSIcd with unanimity in ufurping the govern¬ 
ment, foon difagreed about the adminirtration, and fplit 
into faihions,-which perfecuted each other as furioufly 
as both had perfecuted the people. Theramenes and 
Ariilocrates condemned and oppofed the tyrannical 
meafures of their colleagues. The perfidious Phryni- 
«hus was flain : both parties prepared for taking arms ; 
when the old men, the children, the women, and rtran- 
gers, interpofed for the fafety of a city which had long 
been the ornament of Greece, the terror of Perfia, and 
the admiration of the world. 
Had the public enemy availed themfelyes of this op¬ 
portunity to afTault the Pirteus, Athens could not have 
been faved from immediate dertruflion. But the Pelo- 
ponnefian forces at Miletus had broke out into open 
mutiny, when they heard of the recal of Alcibiades, 
and the hollile intention of TifTaphernes. Their re¬ 
fentment was violent and implacable. They dertroyed 
the Perlian fortifications in the neighbourhood of Mile¬ 
tus; they put the garfifons to the fword ; their trea¬ 
cherous commander Aftyochus faved his life by flying 
to an altar ; nor was the tumult appealed until the 
guilty were removed from their fight, and Myndarus, 
an officer of approved valour and fidelity, arrived from 
Sparta to afl'ume the principal command. The dread¬ 
ful confeqttences which muft have refulted to the Athe¬ 
nians, if, during the fury of their fedition, the enemy 
had attacked them with a fleet of an hundred and fifty 
lail, may be conceived by the terror infpired by a much 
frnalier Peloponnefian fquadron of only forty-two vel- 
fels, commanded by the Spartan Hegefandridas. The 
friends of the conrtitution had affembled in the fpacious 
theatie of Bacchus. MeiTengers parted between them 
and the partifans of Antiphon and Fifander, who had 
convened in a diftant quarter of the city. The mort im¬ 
portant matters were in agitation, when the alarm was 
E C E, 
given that fome Peloponnefian fiiips were on the coaft,- 
Both affemblies were immediately difTolved. All ranks 
haftened to the Piraeus; manned the vefTcls in the liar- 
bour; launched others ; and prepared thirty-fix for 
taking the fea. When Hegefandridas perceived the ar¬ 
dent oppofition which he rnuft encounter in attempting 
to land, he doubled the promontory of Sunium, and 
failed towards the ifland of Eiibcea. The Athenians 
refelutely fet fail in purfuit of tlie enemy, and obferved 
them next day near the fhore of Eretria. The Eu- 
boeans, who had long watched an opportunity to revolt, 
fupplied the Peloponnefian fquadron witli all neceffaries 
in abundance ; but, infteadof furnifliing the Athenians, 
they retired from the coaft on their approach. The 
commanders were obliged to weaken their ftrength, by 
detaching feveral parties into the country to procure 
provifions; Hegefandridas feized this opportunity to 
attack them ; moft of the Athenian fliips were taken ; 
the ciews fwam to land ; many were cruelly murdered 
by the Eretrians ; and fuel) only furvived as took refuge 
ill the Athenian garrifons fcattered over the irtaiid. 
This misfortune was very alarming to the Athenians ; 
but the magnanimous firninefs of Theramenes did not 
allow the friends of liberty to defpair. He encouraged 
them to dlrtiurden the republic of thofe domeftic foes, 
who had fummoned t!ie affiftance of tlie Lacedxmonian 
fleet, that they might enllave their fellow-citizens. 
Antiphon, Pifander, and others moft obnoxious, fea- 
fonably efcaped ; the reft fubmitted. A decree was 
paflTed, recalling Alcibiades, and approving the conduft 
ot the troops at Samos. The fedition ceafed ; the de¬ 
mocracy, which had been interrupted four months, was 
rertored ; and the Athenians refolved to defend, to the 
laft extremity, the ancient glory of the republic. 
The doubtful TifTaphernes hefitated between the part 
of an open enemy, or a treacherous ally ; the Spartans, 
who had formerly rejected the friendfhip, now courted 
the protedlion, of his rival Pharnabazus; to whofe 
northern province they failed with the principal ftrength 
of their armament, leaving only a fmall fquadron at 
Miletus, to defend their I'outhern acquifitions. The 
Athenians, animated by the manly counfels of Thrafy. 
biilus and Thrafyllus, proceeded northwards in purfuit 
of tlie enemy ; and the important ftraits, which join 
the Euxine and .iTigean feas, became the feene of con- 
flidt. In the tvventy-firft winter of the war, and in the 
year before Chrirt 411, the Athenians prevailed in three 
fucceffive engagements, the event of which became 
continually more decifive. In the firft, which was 
fought in the narrow channel between Seftos and Aby- 
dus, the advantages were in fome meafure balanced, 
fince Thrafybulus took twenty Peloponnefian ihips, 
with the lol's of fifteen of his own. But the. glory re¬ 
mained entire to the Athenians, who repelled the ene¬ 
my, and ofi'ered to renew the battle. Not long after¬ 
wards, they intercepted a fquadron of fourteen Rhodian 
vclfels, near Cape Rhegium. The iflanders defended 
themfelves with their ufual bravery. Myndarus. be¬ 
held the engagement from the temple of Ilium ; and 
haftened with great diligence to the fliore, that he might 
launch his ftiips, and prevent, by fpeedy affiftance, the 
capture or deftrudlion of the Rhodians. The principal 
Athenian fquadron attacked him near the Ihore of Aby- 
dus. The engagement was fough.t from morning till 
night, and ftill continued doubtful, when the arrival 
of e-ighteen gallies, commanded by Alcibiades, turned 
the Icale of victory. The el'cape of the Peloponnefians 
was favoured by the bravery of Pliarnabazus, who, at 
the head of his Perfian troops, liad been an impatient 
fpeiSlator of the combat. He gallantly rode into the 
fea, encouraging hi's men with his voice and his exam¬ 
ple. The Spartan admiral drew up the greateft part of 
Ills fleet along tlie fliore, and prepared to refill the af- 
failants ; but the Athenians, fatisfied with the advan¬ 
tages already obtained, failed to Seftos, carrying with 
them 
