While he was at the court of Pharnabazos he heard of the death of king Dareios Nothos, and the succession of his eldest son Artaxerxes. He knew the character and ambition of Kyros, the late king’s younger son, and suspected that he was plotting deeply with Lysandros against his brother. He found that Kyros was collecting an army from among the Greeks of the Ionian towns, enlisting especially the Spartans. This could not be without some hidden object; and no doubt the object was to levy war against, and attempt to overthrow, the king, his elder brother. To Alkibiades this opened a fresh opportunity. There was no salvation for his country to be found in Greece. The thought came suddenly upon him one night, when he was pondering on these things, to seek help from the Persian king. Lysandros and the Spartans were bound to stand by their ally, the crafty Kyros, to whom they owed so much, and from whom they might require more. With Persian gold he might recruit an army of experienced Athenian hoplites and Argive peltasts, meet at last on equal terms the cunning Spartan leader, avenge the slaughter of three thousand fellow-countrymen slain at Aigos Potamoi, and punish the destroyer of his country’s liberty. Then why not set out at once and at all hazards for the Persian capital, see the new king himself, be the first to disclose to him the danger that was threatening him from his own family, show him the number and the strength of the army of the Grecian colonists that was being drawn together by Kyros, offer to lead against them the royal forces and the picked Greek band which with Persian aid might easily be raised, and rid the king of this unworthy and treacherous brother? His fame had penetrated into Asia; his name was well known at Susa and Babylon, the Persian capitals. What might he not become at the court of the Great King—he who had never lost a battle, or failed to gain the love and admiration of anyone whose affection he was anxious to obtain? Then, having roused up the wrath of Artaxerxes against the Lakedaimonian allies of the unnatural Kyros, and gained his confidence and gratitude, what might he not accomplish at the head of a well-trained army? Already he could fancy himself, victorious over Lysandros, Spartans, and Boiotians, over all his country’s enemies, entering once more triumphant into Athens, to end his days in peace and happiness, dealing out just laws to his emancipated countrymen.