The word ‘ingratitude’ is hardly strong enough to convey a complete idea of what their conduct had been to him; for, from the moment when he had gained the object of his fixed endeavour, and had been recalled to Athens, his ardent desire was to undo the injury he had done her in the past. He would never admit that he had acted wrongly to her in anything that he had done. If his vengeance was terrible, it had been deserved. She had brought her own chastisement upon herself. When she repented of her sin, and made atonement, his generosity had been aroused,—he pardoned her. He determined to take off the penalty he had inflicted on her, and which she was still paying. As far as one can pronounce as to what would have happened if this second crime had not been committed against him, he would have been able, if Athens had permitted it, to restore her to the position which she held before the war. He had already begun his task. In spite of the unforeseen difficulties which the junction of Persian wealth with an unscrupulous Spartan’s skill had brought forth, one by one the Ionian towns would have fallen before him, as the towns upon the Hellespont had done. Each one recovered would have brought back a tribute-paying subject city, and given Athens that of which she stood in utmost need—the power to support her navy. The Spartans were shut up at Ephesos, and could be of no assistance to those whom she had tempted to revolt. When the other towns had been brought back to their duty to Athens, he intended to bring all his force to bear on Ephesos. Lysandros could not remain penned up there for ever. He must either come out and fight or surrender, and he had shown that he was afraid to leave the harbour while Alkibiades and the Athenian fleet were in those waters. The Persian would, before long, grow tired of paying for a fleet which was too timid or too weak to fight. Even the treasure brought by Kyros from his father must soon have been exhausted. And Dareios would send no more gold to be wasted on an ally who did nothing for it in return. The Lakedaimonians were growing tired of the war. They had already attempted overtures for peace. The difficulty the Athenians felt in accepting the terms they proposed was that those terms included the condition that the Ionian cities should remain, as they then were for the most part, in the power of Sparta. As soon as they were recovered by Athens, the difficulty would have been removed; and the only other term which Athens must have insisted on had already been conceded by Sparta,—the evacuation of Dekeleia by king Agis. All would then have been in the same state as when Alkibiades had gone to Sparta, and told the Spartans what to do to humble Athens, and the great war would have ended without much damage done to either side.