intent upon providing for their safety than prosecuting the war. In order to which they fortified that part of the Pyræus which commands the mouth of the haven; and resolved in case of extremity, rather to let in the Lacedæmonians than expose their persons to the fury of their fellow-citizens. The Spartans took occasion from these disturbances, to hover about with forty-two galleys under the conduct of Hegesandrides; and the Athenians with thirty-six under Timochares, were forced to engage them, but lost part of their fleet, and the rest were dispersed. To add to which, all Euboea, except Oreus, revolted to the Peloponnesians.

164. This failure of success served to give the finishing blow to the power of the four hundred. The Athenians without delay, deposed them as the authors of all their troubles and divisions under which they groaned. Alcibiades was recalled by unanimous consent, and earnestly solicited to make all possible haste to the assistance of the city. But judging that if he returned immediately to Athens he should owe his recal to the compassion and favour of the people, he resolved to render his return glorious and triumphant, and to deserve it by some considerable exploit.

165. For this purpose, leaving Samos with a small number of ships, he cruised about the island of Cos and Cnidos; and having learnt that Mindarus, the Spartan admiral, was sailed to the Hellespont with his whole fleet, and that the Athenians were in pursuit of him, he steered that way with the utmost diligence to support them, and arrived happily with his eighteen vessels at the time the fleets were engaged near Abydos, in a battle which lasted till night, without any advantage on either side.

166. His arrival gave the Spartans new courage at first, who believed him still their friend, and dispirited the Athenians. But Alcibiades hanging out the Athenian flag in the admiral's galley, fell upon them, and put them to flight; and animated by his success, sunk their vessels and made a great slaughter of their soldiers, who had thrown themselves into the sea to save themselves by swimming. The Athenians having taken thirty of their galleys, and retaken those they had lost, erected a trophy.

167. Alcibiades after the victory went to visit Tissaphernes, who was so far from receiving him as he expected, that he immediately caused him to be seized, and sent away prisoner to Sardis, telling him he had orders from the king to make war against the Athenians; but the truth is, he was afraid of being accused to his master by the Peloponnesians, and thought by this act of injustice to purge himself from all former imputations.

168. Alcibiades, after thirty days, made his escape to Clazomenes; and soon after bore down upon the Peloponnesian fleet, which rode at anchor before the port of Cyzicus. With twenty

of his best ships he broke through the enemy, pursued those who abandoned their ships and fled to land, and made a great slaughter. The Athenians took all the enemies' ships, made themselves masters of Cyzicus, while Mingimis, the Lacedæmonian general, was found among the number of the slain.

169. Alcibiades well knew how to make use of the victory he had gained; and at the head of his conquering forces took several cities which had revolted from the Athenians. Chalcedon, Salymbria, and Byzantium were among the number. Thus, flushed with conquest, he seemed to desire nothing so ardently as to be once more seen by his countrymen, as his presence would be a triumph to his friends, and an insult to his enemies.

170. Accordingly, being recalled, he set sail for Athens. Besides the ships covered with bucklers and spoils of all sorts in the manner of trophies, a great number of vessels also were towed after him by way of triumph; he displayed also the en signs and ornaments of those he had burnt, which were more than the others, the whole amounting to about two hundred ships. 171. It is said, that reflecting on what had been done against him, upon approaching the port, he was struck with some terror, and was afraid to quit his vessel till he saw from the deck a great number of his friends and relations, who were come to the shore to receive him, and earnestly entreated him to land. As soon as he was landed, the multitude who came out to meet him, fixed their eyes upon him; thronged about him; saluted him with loud acclamations, and crowned him with garlands: he received their congratulations with great satisfaction: he desired to be discharged from his former condemnation, and obtained from the priests an absolution from all their former denunciations.

172. Yet notwithstanding these triumphs, the real power of Athens was now no more: the strength of the state was gone : and even the passion for liberty was lost in the common degeneracy of the times: many of the meaner sort of the people passionately desired that Alcibiades would take the sovereignty upon him; they even desired him to set himself above the reach of envy, by securing all power in his own person: the great, however, were not so sanguine in their gratitude, they were content with appointing him generalissimo of all their forces: they granted him whatever he demanded, and gave him for colleagues the generals most agreeable to him.

173. He set sail accordingly with a hundred ships, and steered for the island of Andros that had revolted; where, having defeated the inhabitants, he went from thence to Samos, intending to make that the seat of the war. In the mean time, the Lacedæmonians, justly alarmed at his success, made choice of a general

supposed to be capable of making head against him: for this reason they fixed upon Lysander, who, though born of the highest family, had been bred up to hardships, and paid an entire respect to the discipline and manners of his country.

174. He was brave and aspiring, and, like his countrymen, sacrificed all sorts of pleasures to his ambition. He had an evenness and sedateness of temper, which made all conditions of life sit easy on him, but withal was extremely insinuating, crafty and designing, and made his interest the only measure of truth and falsehood. This deceitful temper was observed to run through the whole course of his life; upon which occasion it was said that he cheated children with foul play, and men with perjury and it was a maxim of his own, that when the lion fails we must make use of the fox.

175. Lysander, having brought his army to Ephesus, gave orders for assembling ships of burden from all parts, and erected an arsenal for building of galleys; he made the ports free for merchants; gave public places to artificers; put all arts in motion and by these means filled the city with riches, and laid the foundation of that magnificence which it afterwards obtained.

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176. Whilst he was making these dispositions, he received advice that Cyrus, the Persian prince, was arrived at Sardis; he therefore set out from Ephesus to make him a visit, and to complain of Tissaphernes, whose duplicity and treachery had been fatal to their common cause. Cyrus, who had a personal enmity to that general, came into the views of Lysander, agreed to increase the seamen's pay, and to give him all the assistance in his power.

177. The largess filled the whole fleet with ardour and alacrity, and almost unmanned the enemies' galleys; the greatest part of the mariners deserting to the party where the pay was best. The Athenians, in despair, upon receiving this news, endeavour ed to conciliate Cyrus by the interposition of Tissaphernes; but he would not hearken to them, notwithstanding the satrap represented that it was not for the king's interest to aggrandise the Lacedæmonians, but to balance the power of one side with that of the other, in order to perpetuate the war, and to ruin both by their own divisions.

178. Alcibiades, on the other hand, having occasion to leave he fleet, in order to raise the supplies, gave the command of his fleet to Antiochus, with express command not to engage or attack the enemy in his absence. Antiochus, however, was willing to do some action that might procure him favour without a partner in the glory: he was so far, therefore, from observing the orders that were given him, that he presently sailed away

for Ephesus; and, at the very mouth of the harbour, used every art to provoke the enemy to an engagement.

179. Lysander at first manned out a few ships to repel his insults; but as the Athenian ships advanced to support Antiochus, other galleys belonging to the Lacedæmonians also came on, till both fleets arrived by little and little, and the engagement became general on both sides. Lysander at length was victorious: Antiochus was slain, and fifteen galleys were taken. It was in vain that Alcibiades soon after came up to the relief of his friends; it was in vain that he offered to renew the combat; Lysander, content with the victory he had gained, was unwilling again to trust to fortune.

180. The fickle multitude of Athens, again, therefore, began to accuse Alcibiades of insufficiency. He who was just before respected even to adoration, was now discarded upon a groundless suspicion that he had not done his duty. But it was the glory he had obtained by his past services that now ruined him; for his continual success had begot in the people such an opinion of him, that they thought it impossible for him to fail in any thing he undertook; and, from thence his enemies took occasion to question his integrity, and to impute to him both his own and other miscarriages.

181. Callicratides was appointed to succeed Lysander, whose year was expired; alike severe to himself and others, inaccessi→ ble to flattery and sloth, the declared enemy of luxury, he retained the modesty, temperance, and austerity of the ancient Spartans, virtues that began to distinguish him particularly, as they were not too common in his time. His probity and justice were proofs against all things; his simplicity and integrity abhorred all falsehood and fraud, to which were joined a truly Spartan nobleness and grandeur of soul.

182. The first attempt of the admiral was against Methyma, in Lesbos, which he took by storm. He then threatened Conon, who was appointed general of the Athenians, that he would make him leave debauching the sea; and accordingly soon after pursued him into the port of Mytilene, with a hundred and seventy sail, took thirty of his ships, and besieged him in the town, from which he cut off all provisions.

183. He soon after took ten ships more out of twelve, which were coming to his relief. Then hearing that the Athenians had fitted out their whole strength, consisting of a hundred and fifty sail, he left fifty of his ships under Etonicus, to carry on the siege of Mytilene, and with a hundred and twenty more met the Athenians at Arginusæ, over against Lesbos

184. His pilot advised him to retreat for that the enemy was

superior in number. He told him that Sparta would be never the worse inhabited though he were slain. The fight was long and obstinate,. until at last the ship of Callicratides, charging through the enemy was sunk, and the rest fled. The Peloponnesians lost about seventy sail, and the Athenians twenty-five, with most of the men in them.

185. The Athenian admirals, who had the joint command of the fleet, instead of being rewarded for so signal a victory, were made a barbarous instance of the power and ingratitude of their fellow-citizens. Upon a relation of the fight before the senate, it was alleged they had suffered their men who were shipwrecked to be lost, when they might have saved them! upon which they were clapped in irons, in order to answer it to the people.

186. They urged in their defence, that they were pursuing the enemy, and, at the same time, gave orders about taking up the men to those whose business it more peculiarly was, particularly to Theramenes, who was now their accuser: but yet that their orders could not be executed by reason of a violent storm which happened at that time. This seemed so reasonable and satisfactory that several stood up and offered to bail them; but, in another assembly, the popular incendiaries demanded justice, and so awed the judges, that Socrates was the only man who had courage enough to declare he would do nothing contrary to law, and accordingly refused to act.

187. After a long debate, eight of the ten were condemned, and six of them were put to death, among whom was Pericles, son of the great Pericles. He declared that they had failed in nothing of their duty, as they had given orders that the dead bodies should be taken up: : that if any one were guilty, it was he, who being charged with these orders, had neglected to put them in execu tion; but that he accused nobody, and that the tempest which came on unexpectedly at the very instant, was an unanswerable apology, and entirely discharged the accused from all guilt.

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188. He demanded that a whole day should be allowed them to make their defence, a favour not denied to the most criminal, and that they should be tried separately. He represented, that they were not in the least obliged to precipitate a sentence wherein the lives of the most illustrious of the citizens were concerned that it was in some measure attacking the gods, to make men responsible for the winds and weather: that they could not without the most flagrant ingratitude and injustice put the conquerors to death, to whom they ought to decree crowns and honours, or give up the defenders of their country to the rage of those who envied them: that if they did so, their unjust judgment would be followed by a sudden, but vain repentance