Hellenica

but also Cyrus, who had come in order to be ruler of all the peoples on the coast and to support the Lacedaemonians in the war. This Cyrus brought with[*](407 B.C.) him a letter, addressed to all the dwellers upon the sea[*](i.e. the maritime provinces of Asia Minor, as contrasted with the interior of the Persian Empire.) and bearing the King’s seal, which contained among other things these words: I send down Cyrus as caranus[*](The word caranus means lord.) of those whose mustering-place is Castolus.

When the Athenian ambassadors heard all this and saw Cyrus, they wished, if it were possible, to make their journey to the King, but otherwise to return home.

Cyrus, however, directed Pharnabazus either to give the ambassadors into his charge, or at any rate not to let them go home as yet, for he wished the Athenians not to know of what was going on.

Pharnabazus, accordingly, in order that Cyrus might not censure him, detained the ambassadors for a time, now saying that he would conduct them to the King, and again, that he would let them go home;

but when three years had passed, he requested Cyrus to release them, on the plea that he had given his oath to conduct them back to the coast, since he could not take them to the King. So they sent the ambassadors to Ariobarzanes and directed him to escort them on; and he conducted them to Cius, in Mysia, whence they set sail to join the Athenian army.

Meanwhile Alcibiades, wishing to sail home with his troops, made straight for Samos; from there he sailed, with twenty of the ships, to the Ceramic Gulf, in Caria; and after collecting there a hundred talents, he returned to Samos.

Thrasybulus, however, with thirty ships, went off to the Thracian coast, where he reduced all the places which had revolted to the Lacedaemonians, and especially[*](407 B.C.) Thasos, which was in a bad state on account of wars and revolutions and famine.

Thrasyllus finally, with the rest of the fleet, sailed home to Athens; but before he arrived, the Athenians had chosen as generals Alcibiades, who was still in exile, Thrasybulus, who was absent, and as a third, from among those at home, Conon.

And now Alcibiades sailed from Samos with his twenty ships and his money to Paros, and from there directed his course straight to Gytheium, in order to take a look at the thirty triremes which he heard the Lacedaemonians were making ready there and to see how his city felt toward him, with reference to his homecoming.

And when he found that the temper of the Athenians was kindly, that they had chosen him general, and that his friends were urging him by personal messages to return, he sailed in to Piraeus, arriving on the day when the city was celebrating the Plynteria[*](When the clothing of the ancient wooden statue of Athena Polias was removed and washed (πλύνειν).) and the statue of Athena was veiled from sight,—a circumstance which some people imagined was of ill omen, both for him and for the state; for on that day no Athenian would venture to engage in any serious business.

When he sailed in, the common crowd of Piraeus and of the city gathered to his ships, filled with wonder and desiring to see the famous Alcibiades. Some of them said that he was the best of the citizens; that he alone was banished without just cause, but rather because he was plotted against by those who had less power than he and spoke less well and ordered their political doings with a view to their own private gain, whereas he was always[*](407 B.C.) advancing the common weal, both by his own means and by the power of the state.

At the time in question,[*](In 415 B.C., just before the departure of Alcibiades with the Syracusan expedition.) they said, he was willing to be brought to trial at once, when the charge had just been made that he had committed sacrilege against the Eleusinian Mysteries; his enemies, however, postponed the trial, which was obviously his right, and then, when he was absent, robbed him of his fatherland;

thereafter, in his exile, helpless as a slave and in danger of his life every day, he was forced to pay court to those whom he hated most[*](The Spartans and the Persians.); and though he saw those who were dearest to him, his fellow-citizens and kinsmen and all Athens, making mistakes, he was debarred by his banishment from the opportunity of helping them.

It was not the way, they said, of men such as he to desire revolution or a change in government; for under the democracy it had been his fortune to be not only superior to his contemporaries but also not inferior to his elders, while his enemies, on the other hand, were held in precisely the same low estimation after his banishment as before; later, however, when they had gained power, they had slain the best men, and since they alone were left, they were accepted by the citizens merely for the reason that better men were not available.

Others, however, said that Alcibiades alone was responsible for their past troubles, and as for the ills which threatened to befall the state, he alone would probably prove to be the prime cause of them.

Meanwhile Alcibiades, who had come to anchor close to the shore, did not at once disembark, through fear of his enemies; but mounting upon the deck of[*](407 B.C.) his ship, he looked to see whether his friends were present.