History of the Peloponnesian War

For since they themselves possessed the entire fleet, they would compel the other cities under Athenian sway to make their regular contributions precisely as if their headquarters were at Athens. And they had, in Samos, a state that was not weak; on the contrary, it had come within a very little of wresting from Athens the control of the sea when it waged war with her;[*](In 440 B.C. (1.115.).) and as for the enemy, they would defend themselves against them from the same strong base as before. Furthermore, they were better able, since they possessed the fleet, to provide themselves with supplies than were the people of Athens. Indeed it was because they themselves had been stationed at Samos as an advanced guard that the Athenians at home had even before this commanded the entrance to the Peiraeus;

and now, they added, the others would be brought to such a strait, in case they should not consent to give them back their constitution, that they themselves would actually be better able to exclude them from the sea than the others to exclude them.

Trifling and indeed insignificant was the help which the city was able to give them in overcoming the enemy, and they had lost nothing, seeing that the people at home were able neither to send them money any longer— the soldiers now providing it for themselves—nor to give them good counsel, which is the object for which a state exercises control over armies in the field. Nay, even in this respect[*](ie. in giving them good counsel (ἐν τῷ βούλευμα χρηστὸν παρέχειν.)) the other party had erred in abolishing the laws of their fathers, whereas they themselves were trying to preserve them and would endeavour to compel the oligarchs also to do so. Thus the men in the army who could give good counsel were at least as good as those in the city.

Alcibiades, furthermore, if they would merely secure for him immunity from punishment and restoration from exile, would gladly procure for them the alliance of the King. Finally, and most important of all, if they should wholly fail to attain their ends, so long as they possessed so large a fleet there were many places of refuge where they could find both cities and territory.

Having thus deliberated together in public assembly and encouraged one another, they went on with their preparations for war no less than before. And the envoys who had been sent to Samos by the Four Hundred, learning how matters stood after they had already reached Delos, remained there inactive.

About this time the Peloponnesian soldiers in the fleet at Miletus were clamouring among themselves, saying that their cause was being ruined by Astyochus and Tissaphernes; by the former because he was unwilling to fight, either before this while they themselves were still the stronger and the Athenian fleet was small, or now when the enemy were said to be rent with factions and their ships had not yet been brought together; nay, they kept waiting for the Phoenician ships which Tissaphernes was to furnish—a mere pretence and not a fact—and thus ran the risk of being worn out by delay; as for Tissaphernes, on the other hand, he was not only not producing these ships, but he was even doing harm to the fleet by not giving it maintenance regularly or in full. Therefore, they said, they ought to wait no longer but should fight to an issue. In all this it was the Syracusans who were most insistent.