History of the Peloponnesian War

And they that were asked having nothing to answer, then in plain terms he said unto them: This you cannot now obtain, except we administer the state with more moderation and bring the power into the hands of a few that the king may rely upon us. And we deliberate at this time, not so much about the form as about the preservation of the state; for if you mislike the form, you may change it again hereafter. And let us recall Alcibiades, who is the only man that can bring this to pass.

The people, hearing of the oligarchy, took it very heinously at first; but when Pisander had proved evidently that there was no other way of safety, in the end, partly for fear and partly because they hoped again to change the government, they yielded thereunto.

So they ordered that Pisander and ten others should go and treat both with Tissaphernes and Alcibiades as to them should seem best.

Withal, upon the accusation of Pisander against Phrynichus, they discharged both Phrynichus and Scironides, his fellow-commissioner, of their command, and made Diomedon and Leon generals of the fleet in their places. Now the cause why Pisander accused Phrynichus and said he had betrayed Iasus and Amorges was only this: he thought him a man unfit for the business now in hand with Alcibiades.

Pisander, after he had gone about to all those combinations (which were in the city before for obtaining of places of judicature and of command), exhorting them to stand together and advise about deposing the democracy, and when he had dispatched the rest of his business so as there should be no more cause for him to stay there, took sea with those other ten to go to Tissaphernes.

Leon and Diomedon, arriving the same winter at the Athenian fleet, made a voyage against Rhodes, and finding there the Peloponnesian galleys drawn up to land, disbarked and overcame in battle such of the Rhodians as made head, and then put to sea again and went to Chalce. After this they made sharper war upon them from Cos. For from thence they could better observe the Peloponnesian navy when it should put off from the land.

In this while there arrived at Rhodes 55enophontidas, a Laconian, sent out of Chios from Pedaritus, to advertise them that the fortification of the Athenians there was now finished and that unless they came and relieved them with their whole fleet, the state of Chios must utterly be lost. And it was resolved to relieve them.