History of the Peloponnesian War

The Peloponnesians levied money from the Rhodians to the amount of two and thirty talents; but in other respects lay still for eighty days, having drawn up the ships on shore.

In the mean time, and at even a still earlier period, before they removed to Rhodes, the following negotiations were being carried on. Alcibiades being suspected by the Peloponnesians after the death of Chalcideus and the battle of Miletus, and instructions having been sent by them from Lacedaemon to Astyochus to put him to death, (for he was a personal enemy of Agis, and in other ways appeared to be unworthy of trust,) he first retired in alarm to the court of Tissaphernes, and then did the greatest harm he could to the cause of the Peloponnesians with him.

Being his adviser on all points, he cut down the pay, so that instead of an Attic drachma three oboli were given, and that not regularly; telling Tissaphernes to represent to them, that the Athenians, who for a longer time had had experience in naval matters, gave their men but three oboli; not so much from poverty, as that their seamen might not grow insolent from abundance, and either be less able-bodied, through spending money on such things as produce weakness, or desert their ships by means of leaving their arrears of pay as a [*](ἐς ὁμηρείαν.] That is, that the larger pay was considered as a security for the men's returning to their post, when summoned, and therefore as a reason for greater indulgence in granting leave of absence than was proved by the result to be consistent with the interests of the service.) security for them.