Classical literature; Greece -- History -- Peloponnesian War, 431-404 B.C.; Greece -- History -- Spartan and Theban Supremacies, 404-362 B.C.
more than three hundred horse. Accordingly Pharnabazus, insisting that
he too must take the oath, decided to remain in Chalcedon, and to await
his arrival from Byzantium. Alcibiades came, but was not prepared to
bind himself by any oaths, unless Pharnabazus would, on his side, take
oaths to himself. After this, oaths were exchanged between them by
proxy. Alcibiades took them at Chrysopolis in the presence of two
representatives sent by Pharnabazus--namely, Mitrobates and Arnapes.
Pharnabazus took them at Chalcedon in the presence of Euryptolemus and
Diotimus, who represented Alcibiades. Both parties bound themselves not
only by the general oath, but also interchanged personal pledges of good
faith.
(1) The MSS. here give the words, "in the ephorate of Pantacles and
the archonship of Antigenes, two-and-twenty years from the
beginning of the war," but the twenty-second year of the war =
B.C. 410; Antigenes archon, B.C. 407 = Ol. 93, 2; the passage must
be regarded as a note mis-inserted by some editor or copyist (vide
supra, I. 11.)
(2) I.e. sacred place or temple of Heracles.
(3) Twenty talents = 4800 pounds; or, more exactly, 4875 pounds.
This done, Pharnabazus left Chalcedon at once, with injunctions that
those who were going up to the king as ambassadors should meet him
at Cyzicus. The representatives of Athens were Dorotheus, Philodices,
Theogenes, Euryptolemus, and Mantitheus; with them were two Argives,
Cleostratus and Pyrrholochus. An embassy of the Lacedaemonians was also
about to make the journey. This consisted of Pasippidas and his fellows,
with whom were Hermocrates, now an exile from Syracuse, and his brother
Proxenus. So Pharnabazus put himself at their head. Meanwhile the
Athenians prosecuted the siege of Byzantium; lines of circumvallation
were drawn; and they diversified the blockade by sharpshooting at
long range and occasional assaults upon the walls. Inside the city lay
Clearchus, the Lacedaemonian governor, and a body of Perioci with a
small detachment of Neodamodes. (4) There was also a body of Megarians
under their general Helixus, a Megarian, and another body of Boeotians,
with their general Coeratadas. The Athenians, finding presently that
they could effect nothing by force, worked upon some of the inhabitants
to betray the place. Clearchus, meanwhile, never dreaming that any one
would be capable of such an act, had crossed over to the opposite
coast to visit Pharnabazus; he had left everything in perfect order,
entrusting the government of the city to Coeratadas and Helixus. His
mission was to obtain pay for the soldiers from the Persian satrap,
and to collect vessels from various quarters. Some were already in the
Hellespont, where they had been left as guardships by Pasippidas, or
else at Antandrus. Others formed the fleet which Agesandridas, who had
formerly served as a marine (5) under Mindarus, now commanded on the
Thracian coast. Others Clearchus purposed to have built, and with the
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