"interest? With regard to myself, death would be less grievous to me, than the sight of so horrid an injustice, "committed by my countrymen and fellow-citizens."

The people seemed moved to compassion at this speech, especially as, when this venerable old man first ascended the tribunal, they expected to hear him cry aloud for vengeance on those who had brought all his calamities upon him, instead of suing for their pardon. But the enemies of the Athenians having expatiated, with vehemence, on the unheard-of-cruelties which their republic had exercised on several cities belonging to their enemies, and even to their ancient allies; the inveteracy which their commanders had shown against Syracuse, and the evils they would have made it suffer had they been victorious; the afflictions and groans of infinite numbers of Syracusans, who bewailed the death of their children and near relations, whose manes could be appeased no other way than by the blood of their murderers; On these representations, the people returned to their sanguinary resolution, and followed Diocles's advice in every respect. Gylippus used his utmost endeavours, but in vain, to have Nicias and Demosthenes given up to him, (especially as he had taken them,) in order to carry them to Lacedæmon. But his demand was rejected with haughty scorn, and the two generals were put to death.

All wise and moderate men could not forbear shedding tears, at the tragical fate of two such illustrious personages; and particularly for Nicias, who, of all men of his time, seemed feast to merit so ignominious and untimely an end. When people recollected the speeches and remonstrances he had made, to prevent this war; and, on the other side, when they considered how high a regard he had always retained for things relating to religion; the greatest part of them were tempted to exclaim against Providence, when they saw a man, who had ever shown the highest reverence for the gods, and had always exerted himself to the utmost for their honour and worship, so ill rewarded by them, and meeting with no better fate than the most abandoned wretches. But it is no wonder that the calamities of good men should inspire the heathens with such thoughts, and make them murmur and despond; since they did not know the holiness of the Divine Being, nor the corruption of human nature.

The prisoners were shut up in the quarries (prisons of Syracuse); where, crowded one upon the other, they suffered incredible torments for eight months. Here they were for ever exposed to the inclemencies of the weather; scorched, in the daytime, by the burning rays of the sun, or frozen, in the night, by the colds of autumn; poisoned by the stench of their own excrements, by the carcasses of those who died

of their wounds and of sickness; in fine, worn out by hunger and thirst, for the daily allowance to each was but a small measure of water, and two of meal. Those who were taken out of this place two months after, in order to be sold as slaves (many of whom were citizens who had concealed their condition) found a less rigorous fate. Their wisdom, their patience, and a certain air of probity and modesty, were of great advantage to them; for, they were either soon restored to their liberty, or met with the kindest and most generous treatment from their masters. Several of them even owed the good usage they met with to Euripides, the finest scenes of whose tragedies they repeated to the Sicilians, who were extremely fond of them; so that when they returned to their own country, they went and saluted that poet as their deliverer; and informed him of the admirable effects wrought in their favour by his verses.

a The news of the defeat being carried to Athens, the citizens would not believe it at first; and were so far from giving credit to it, that they sentenced that man to death who had first published it. But when it was confirmed, all the Athenians were seized with the utmost consternation; and as if themselves had not decreed the war, they vented their rage and resentment against the orators who had promoted the enterprise, as well as against the soothsayers, who, by their oracles or supposed prodigies, had flattered them with the hopes of success. They had never been reduced to so deplorable a condition as at present, having neither horse, foot, money, gallies, nor mariners; in a word, they were in the deepest despair, expecting every moment that the enemy, elate with so great a victory, and strengthened by the revolt of the allies, would come and invade Athens, both by sea and land, with all the forces of Peloponnesus. Cicero had reason to observe, speaking of the battles in the harbour of Syracuse, that it was there that the troops of Athens, as well as their gallies, were ruined and sunk; and that, in this harbour, the power and glory of the Athenians were miserably shipwrecked.

The Athenians, however, did not suffer themselves to be wholly dejected, and resumed courage. They now resolved to raise money on all sides, and to import timber for building of ships, in order to awe the allies, and particularly the inhabitants of the island of Euboea. They retrenched all superfluous expenses, and established a new council of ancient men, who were to weigh and examine all affairs before they should be proposed to the people. In fine, they omitted a Thucyd 1. viii p 551-553. Plut. de Garrulit. p. 509.

6 Hic primum opes illius civitatis victæ, comminutæ depressæque sunt: in hoc portu Atheniensium nobilitatis, imperii, gloriæ naufragium factum existi matur. Cic. Verrin, 7. n. 97.

nothing which might be of service in the present conjuncture; the alarm in which they were, and their common danger, obliging every individual to be attentive to the necessities of the state, and docile to all advices that might pro-· mote its interests.

The defeat of the army under Nicias was followed by the taking of Athens, whose ancient form of government was entirely changed by Lysander.

CHAPTER II.

SECT. I.

Consequences of the Defeat of the Athenians in Sicily. Revolt of the Allies. Alcibiades grows into great power with Tissaphernes.

HE defeat of the Athenians before Syracuse was the

"Tcause of great movements throughout all Greece. The

states, who had not yet joined either side, and waited to be determined by the event, resolved to declare against them. The Allies of the Lacedæmonians believed, that the time was come to deliver them for ever from the expenses of a war, which lay very heavy upon them, by the speedy and final ruin of Athens. Those of the Athenians, who followed them only out of constraint, seeing no appearance of any future resource for that republic, after the dreadful blow it had received, thought it best to take advantage of so favourable a conjuncture, for throwing off the yoke of dependence, and resuming their liberty. Dispositions of this kind inspired the Lacedæmonians with great views, which were supported by the hopes they had conceived, that their Sicilian allies would join them in the spring with a naval army, augmented by the ruins of the Athenian fleet.

In fact the people of Euboea, Chio, and Lesbos, with several others, gave the Lacedæmonians to understand, that they were ready to quit the party of the Athenians, if they would take them under their protection. At the same time came deputies from Tissaphernes and Pharnabasus. The first was governor of Lydia, and Ionia, the other of the Hellespont. Those viceroys of Darius wanted neither application nor zeal for the interest of their master. Tissaphernes, promising the Lacedæmonians all the necessary expenses of their troops, pressed them to arm directly, and to join him ; because the Athenian fleet prevented him from levying the. a A. M. 591. Ant. J. C. 413. Thucyd. 1. viii p. 553 Thucyd. L. viii, p. 555-558.

usual contributions in his province; and had put it out of his power to remit those of preceding years to the king. He hoped besides with that powerful aid to get into his hands with more ease a certain nobleman, who had revolted in Caria, and whom he had the king's orders to send to him dead or alive. This was Amorges, a bastard of Pisuthnes. Pharnabasus at the same time demanded ships to reduce the cities of the Hellespont from their subjection to the Athenians; who prevented him also from levying the tributes of his government.

The Lacedæmonians thought it proper to begin by satisfying Tissaphernes; and the influence of Alcibiades contributed very much to the taking that resolution. He embarked with Chalcidæus for Chio, which took up arms upon their arrival, and declared for the Lacedæmonians. Upon the news of this revolt, the Athenians resolved to take the a thousand talents out of the treasury, which had been deposited there from the beginning of the war, after having repealed the decree which prohibited it. Miletus also revolted Soon after. Tissaphernes, having joined his troops with, those of Sparta, attacked and took the city of Iasus, in which Amorges had shut himself up, who was taken alive and sent into Persia. That governor gave a month's pay to the whole army, at a drachma or ten-pence a day to each soldier, observing that he had orders to give them only half that sum for the future.

© Chalcidæus then made a treaty with Tissaphernes, in the name of the Lacedæmonians, of which one of the principal articles was, that all the country which had been subject to the king or his predecessors, should remain in his hands. It was renewed sometime after by Theramenes, another general of the Lacedæmonians with some small alterations. But when this treaty came to be examined at Sparta, it was found that too great concessions had been made to the king of Persia, in giving up all the places held by himself or his ancestors, as this was to make him master of the greatest part of Greece, of Thessaly, Locris, and the whole country as far as Boeotia, without mentioning the islands; from whence the Lacedæ=monians would appear rather to have enslaved Greece, than 5 re-established its liberty. It was therefore necessary to = make farther alterations in it, with which Tissaphernes and the other governors made great difficulties to comply. A new treaty was however concluded, as we shall see in the sequel.

In the meantime, several cities of Ionia declared for Lacedæmon, to which Alcibiades contributed very much. Agis

a Three millions of livres.

b Thucyd vii. p 568

c Idem, p. 561-571, 572-76. Thucyd. 1. viii. p. 577-579. Plut. in Alcio. p. 204. Diod. p. 164, 165.

who was already his enemy in consequence of the injury be had done him, could not suffer the glory he acquired: for nothing was done without the advice of Alcibiades, and it was generally said, that the success of all enterprises was owing to him. The most powerful and ambitious of the Spartans, from the same sentiments of jealousy, looked upon him with an evil eye, and at length by their intrigues obliged the principal magistrates to send orders into Ionia for putting him to death. Alcibiades being secretly apprized of this order, did not discontinue his services to the Lacedæmonians, but kept himself so well upon his guard, that he avoided all the snares which were laid for him.

For his better security he threw himself into the protection of Tissaphernes, the great king's governor at Sardis, and was not long without seeing himself in the highest degree of credit and authority in the court of the Barbarian. For this Persian, who was full of fraud and artifice, a great friend to knaves and bad men, and set no value upon simplicity and integrity, infinitely admired the address of Alcibiades, the ease with which he assumed all kind of manners and characters, and his great ability in the conduct of affairs. And indeed there was no heart so hard, or temper so untractable, as to hold out against the graces and charms of his conversation and intimacy. Even those who feared and envied him most, enchanted in a manner by his affable air and engaging behaviour, could not dissemble the infinite satisfaction they felt in seeing and conversing with him.

Tissaphernes therefore, though otherwise very haughty and brutal, and who of all the Persians most hated the Greeks, was so much taken with the complaisance and insinuations of Alcibiades, that he gave himself wholly up to him, and flattered him more than he was flattered by him: insomuch that he gave the name of Alcibiades to the finest and most delightful of his gardens, as well from the abundance of its fountains and canals and the verdure of its groves, as the surprising beauty of its retreats and solitudes, which art and nature seemed to vie with each other in embellishing, and wherein a more than royal magnificence was displayed.

Alcibiades, who found there was no longer any safety for him in the party of the Spartans, and who always apprehended the resentment of Agis, began to do them ill offices with Tissaphernes, to prevent his aiding them with all his forces, and ruining the Athenians entirely. He had no difficulty in bringing the Persian into his views, which were conformable to his master's interests, and to the orders he had received from him. For after the famous treaty concluded under Cimon, the kings of Persia, not daring to attack the

@ A. M. 3593. Ant. J. C. 411.