Hellenica

they also received from Pharnabazus a pledge under oath that the Calchedonians should pay to the Athenians precisely the same tribute they had been accustomed to pay and should settle the arrears of tribute, while they on their side made oath that the Athenians would not wage war upon the Calchedonians until the ambassadors should return from the King.

Alcibiades was not present at the exchange of these oaths, but was in the neighbourhood of Selymbria; and when he had captured that city, he came to Byzantium, bringing with him all the forces of the Chersonesians and soldiers from Thrace and more than three hundred horsemen.

Now Pharnabazus thought that Alcibiades also ought to give his oath, and so waited at Calchedon until he should come from Byzantium; but when he came, he said that he would not make oath unless Pharnabazus also should do the like to him.

In the end, Alcibiades made oath at Chrysopolis to the representatives of Pharnabazus, Mitrobates and Arnapes, and Pharnabazus at Calchedon to the representatives of Alcibiades, Euryptolemus and Diotimus, both parties not only giving the official oath but also making personal pledges to one another.

Immediately after this Pharnabazus went away, leaving word that the ambassadors who were going to the King should meet him at Cyzicus. The Athenians who were sent were Dorotheus, Philocydes, Theogenes, Euryptolemus, and Mantitheus, and with them two Argives, Cleostratus and Pyrrolochus; ambassadors of the Lacedaemonians also went along, Pasippidas and others, and[*](408 B.C.) with them Hermocrates, who was already an exile from Syracuse, and his brother Proxenus.

While Pharnabazus was conducting this party, the Athenians were besieging Byzantium; they had built a stockade around the city, and were attacking its wall with missiles from a distance and by close assault.

Within Byzantium was Clearchus the Lacedaemonian, its governor, and with him some Laconian Perioeci, a few emancipated Helots, a contingent of Megarians, under the command of Helixus the Megarian, and one of Boeotians, under the command of Coeratadas.

Now the Athenians, finding that they were unable to accomplish anything by force, persuaded some of the Byzantines to betray the city.

Meanwhile Clearchus, the governor, supposing that no one would do that, arranged everything as well as he could, turned over the charge of the city to Coeratadas and Helixus, and crossed to the opposite shore to meet Pharnabazus, in order to get from him pay for the soldiers and also to collect ships. His plan was to assemble those which had been left behind by Pasippidas as guardships and were now in the Hellespont, those at Antandrus, and those which Agesandridas, a lieutenant of Mindarus, had under his command on the Thracian coast, and finally, to have other ships built; then, after gathering them all together, he thought to harry the allies of the Athenians and so draw off their army from Byzantium.

But when Clearchus had sailed away, those who wanted to betray the city of the Byzantines set about their work,—Cydon, Ariston, Anaxicrates, Lycurgus, and Anaxilaus.

This Anaxilaus was afterwards tried for his life at Lacedaemon[*](408 B.C.) because of this betrayal, but was acquitted, on the plea that he did not betray the city, but rather saved it; he was a Byzantine, he said, not a Lacedaemonian, and when he saw children and women perishing of starvation,—for Clearchus, he said, gave whatever provisions the city contained to the soldiers of the Lacedaemonians,—he had for this reason admitted the enemy, not for the sake of money nor out of hatred to the Lacedaemonians.

As has been said, however, these betrayers made their preparations, and then, opening by night the gates that lead to the Thracian Square, as it is called, let in the Athenian army and Alcibiades.

Now Helixus and Coeratadas, who knew nothing of what was going on, hurried to the market-place with all their troops; but when they found that the enemy were masters everywhere and that they could do nothing, they surrendered themselves.

They were all sent off to Athens, and as they were disembarking at Piraeus, Coeratadas slipped away in the crowd and made his escape to Decelea.

As for Pharnabazus and the ambassadors, while they were spending the winter at Gordium, in Phrygia, they heard what had happened at Byzantium.

But as they were continuing their journey to the[*](407 B.C.) King, at the opening of the spring, they met not only the Lacedaemonian ambassadors returning,—Boeotius and his colleagues and the messengers[*](The reference is uncertain.) besides, who reported that the Lacedaemonians had obtained from the King everything they wanted,—