History of the Peloponnesian War

Accordingly they went to Samos, and united in a club such men as favoured their views, openly representing to the people at large that the king would be their friend, and supply them with money, if Alcibiades were restored, and they were not governed by a democracy.

The multitude, though annoyed to a certain extent by these negotiations, remained quiet because of their abundant hopes of pay from the king; while those who were for establishing the oligarchy, after they had communicated their designs to the mass of the people, again considered the proposals of Alcibiades [*](καὶ σφίσιν αὐτοῖς κ. τ. λ.] Dobree, Göller, Poppo, and Arnold, agree in thinking that ἐν must be inserted before σθίσιν, without which the passage seems to them not fairly intelligible. But may not this be regarded as a dativus instrumenti ? which is certainly used sometimes with reference to persons, though less commonly than to things. One instance of it is given by Jelf, Gr. Gr. § 608, Obs. 3, from Soph. El. 226, ti/ni gar pot' a)\n, w(= fili/a gene/qla, pro/sforon a)kou/saim' e)/pos; and perhaps a second might have been added from the same play, v. 441, ei)/ soi prosqilw=s au)th=| dokei=Ge/ra ta/d' ou(n ta/foisi decasqai ne/kus. Matthiae, § 396, brings forward another undoubted instance from Eur. Heracl. 392, ἄνδρα γὰρ χρεὼν——οὐκ ἀγγέλοισι τοὺς ἐναντίους ὁρᾶν and another less certain one from Xen. Cyrop. One instance may also, I think, be quoted from Thucydides himself, though I am not aware that it ever has, viz. VIII. 82. 3, ξυνέβαινε δὲ τῷ ʼαλκιβιάδῃ τῷ μὲν τισσαφέρνει τοὺς ʼαθηναίους φοβεῖν, ἐκείνοις δὲ τὸν τισσαφέρνην. There seems therefore to be no sufficient reason why the same construction should not have been used here. If this be admitted, I would apply the same principle to two other passages of our author, of which I have before taken a different view, viz. I. 25, οὔτε κορινθίῳ ἀνδρ́ι προκαταρχόμενοι, and V. 38. 4, οὐκ ἄλλα ψηφιεῖσθαι ἢ ἃ σφίσι προδιαγνόντες παραινοῦσιν. With regard to the former, when I wrote the note on it, I had not seen the quotation with which Poppo corroborates Bloomfield's interpretation, and which puts it beyond a doubt, I think, that Arrian, at any rate, took the same view of it.) amongst themselves and the greater part of their associates. To the rest, then, they appeared advantageous and worthy of their confidence;

but Phrynichus, who was still general, was not at all pleased with them, but thought that Alcibiades (as was really the case) had no more desire for an oligarchy than for a democracy, or considered any thing else but how, by bringing the state to change its present constitution, he might obtain his recall by the invitation of his associates.

What they themselves, however, should most especially look to, was,

to avoid being rent by factions. That it was not for the king's advantage, when the Peloponnesians were now on an equality at sea, and held none of the least cities in his dominion, to incur trouble by siding with the Athenians, whom he did not trust, when he might have made the Peloponnesians his friends, by whom he had never yet been injured.