Gylippos almost immediately took the field against the Athenians. Athens, entreated by the desponding Nikias, in the following autumn sent out to him a force even larger than the first, with seventy-five ships and two more generals. All was of no avail. Disaster followed on disaster, relieved by few and, for the most part, unimportant gains. Before the summer of 413 was over Alkibiades heard that such of his late comrades as had not been either killed in battle or drowned in their shameful flight, lay starving and rotting in the Syrakusan quarries, into which they had been thrown by their victorious enemies. The splendid fleet with which two years before he had set out from Athens, together with its reinforcements, had been destroyed by his new-found friends, and his colleague Nikias, the unhappy cause of all the evil, had been taken prisoner and put to death. So far his prophecy made to the Spartan assembly had come true. The rest was to be verified. His other counsel had been acted on. The Spartans, under Agis, had taken and fortified Dekeleia, and were overrunning Attika. Athens could see from the Akropolis the rising walls threatening her with immediate danger. The citizens were forced to live prepared to fight at any moment. Their fields were ravaged, their commerce well-nigh ruined, the mines shut up, even the tribunals closed. The allied towns from which, by the terms of the confederation of Delos, she was to receive a great part of her revenues were falling from her or growing luke-warm in her cause. The neutral states were looking to her more successful rival, and yet the vengeance of Alkibiades was not satisfied. In the autumn embassies came to Sparta from Tissaphernes, satrap of the Persian King in Ionia, and from Pharnabazos, satrap of the country near the Hellespont, offering alliance against Athens. Alkibiades advised the Spartans to postpone all thought of carrying their arms to the Hellespont, but he saw of what advantage an alliance with Tissaphernes would be in carrying out his present plans. An alliance was therefore concluded between Lakedaimôn and the satrap of Ionia. By the terms of this treaty, which was soon after ratified by both parties, the Persian was to bring a large fleet to aid the Spartans, and to pay the wages of those employed on board the Spartan fleet.