Activity of

the Chians in pro moting revolt among

the other Athenian

kibiadês

Milêtus to

revolt.

vainly pursued by the Chian fleet. Upon this evidence of Athenian weakness, and the superiority of the enemy, the Teians admitted into their town the land-force without; by the help of which, they now demolished the wall formerly built by Athens to protect the city against attack from the interior. Some of the troops of Tissaphernês lending their aid in the demolition, the town was laid altogether open to the satrap; who moreover came himself shortly afterwards to complete the work'.

Having themselves revolted from Athens, the Chian government were prompted by considerations of their own safety to instigate revolt in all other Athenian dependencies; and Alkibiadês now allies-Al- took advantage of their forwardness in the cause to determines make an attempt on Milêtus. He was eager to acquire this important city, the first among all the continental allies of Athens-by his own resources and those of Chios, before the fleet could arrive from Peiræum; in order that the glory of the exploit might be ensured to Endius, and not to Agis. Accordingly he and Chalkideus left Chios with a fleet of twenty-five triremes, twenty of them Chian, together with the five which they themselves had brought from Laconia: these last five had been remanned with Chian crews, the Peloponnesian crews having been armed as hoplites and left as garrison in the island. Conducting his voyage as secretly as possible, he was fortunate enough to pass unobserved by the Athenian station at Samos, where Strombichidês had just been reinforced by Thrasyklês with the twelve fresh triremes from the 1 Thucyd. viii. 16.

blockading fleet at Peiræum. Arriving at Milêtus, where he possessed established connections among the leading men, and had already laid his train, as at Chios, for revolt-Alkibiadês prevailed on them to break with Athens forthwith: so that when Strombichidês and Thrasyklês, who came in pursuit the moment they learnt his movements, approached, they found the port shut against them, and were forced to take up a station on the neighbouring island of Ladê. So anxious were the Chians for the success of Alkibiadês in this enterprise, that they advanced with ten fresh triremes along the Asiatic coast as far as Anæa, (opposite to Samos) in order to hear the result and to tender aid if required. A message from Chalkideus apprised them that he was master of Milêtus, and that Amorgês (the Persian ally of Athens, at Iasus) was on his way at the head of an army: upon which they returned to Chios-but were unexpectedly seen in the way (off the temple of Zeus, between Lebedos and Kolophon) and pursued, by sixteen fresh ships just arrived from Athens, under the command of Diomedon. Of the ten Chian triremes, one found refuge at Ephesus, and five at Teos: the remaining four were obliged to run ashore and became prizes, though the crews all escaped. In spite of this check, however, the Chians had come again with fresh ships and some land-forces, as soon as the Athenian fleet had gone back to Samos-and procured the revolt both of Lebedos and Eræ from Athens1.

It was at Milêtus, immediately after the revolt, Thucyd. viii. 17-19.

First alliance be

tween the

Pelopon

nesians and

Tissaphernês, concluded

that the first treaty was concluded between Tissaphernês, on behalf of himself and the Great Kingand Chalkideus, for Sparta and her allies. Probably the aid of Tissaphernês was considered necesby Chalki- sary to maintain the town, when the Athenian fleet was watching it so closely on the neighbouring island at least it is difficult to explain otherwise an agreement so eminently dishonourable as well as disadvantageous to the Greeks:

deus at Milêtus.

able and

geous con

"The Lacedæmonians and their allies have concluded alliance with the Great King and Tissaphernês, on the following conditions. The king shall possess whatever territory and cities he himself had, or his predecessors had before him. The king, and the Lacedæmonians with their allies, shall jointly hinder the Athenians from deriving either money or other advantages from all those cities which have hitherto furnished to them any such. They shall jointly carry on war against the Athenians, and shall not renounce the war against them, except by joint consent. Whoever shall revolt from the king, shall be treated as an enemy by the Lacedæmonians and their allies; whoever shall revolt from the Lacedæmonians, shall in like manner be treated as an enemy by the king'.'

Dishonour- As a first step to the execution of this treaty, disadvanta- Milêtus was handed over to Tissaphernês, who ditions of immediately caused a citadel to be erected and the treaty. placed a garrison within it. If fully carried out, indeed, the terms of the treaty would have made the Great King master not only of all the Asiatic Greeks and all the islanders in the Ægean, but also of Thucyd. viii. 84-109.

1

Thucyd. viii. 18.

2

all Thessaly and Boeotia and the full ground which had once been covered by Xerxes'. Besides this monstrous stipulation, the treaty farther bound the Lacedæmonians to aid the king in keeping enslaved any Greeks who might be under his dominion. Nor did it, on the other hand, secure to them any pecuniary aid from him for the payment of their armament-which was their great motive for courting his alliance. We shall find the Lacedæmonian authorities themselves hereafter refusing to ratify the treaty, on the ground of its exorbitant concessions. But it stands as a melancholy evidence of the new source of mischief now opening upon the Asiatic and insular Greeks, the moment that the empire of Athens was broken up-the revived pretensions of their ancient lord and master; whom nothing had hitherto kept in check, for the last fifty years, except Athens, first as representative and executive agent, next as successor and mistress of the confederacy of Delos. We thus see against what evils Athens had hitherto protected them: we shall presently see, what is partially disclosed in this very treaty, the manner in which Sparta realised her promise of conferring autonomy on each separate Grecian state.

efforts of

democra

tical revo

lution at

Samos.

The great stress of the war had now been trans- Energetic ferred to Ionia and the Asiatic side of the Egean Athenssea. The enemies of Athens had anticipated that her entire empire in that quarter would fall an easy prey yet in spite of two such serious defections as Chios and Milêtus, she showed an unexpected energy in keeping hold of the remainder. Her 1 Thucyd. viii. 44.

great and capital station, from the present time to the end of the war, was Samos; and a revolution which now happened, ensuring the fidelity of that island to her alliance, was a condition indispensable to her power of maintaining the struggle in Ionia.

We have heard nothing about Samos throughout the whole war, since its reconquest by the Athenians after the revolt of 440 B.C.: but we now find it under the government of an oligarchy called the Geômori (the proprietors of land)-as at Syracuse before the rule of Gelon. It cannot be doubted that these Geômori were disposed to follow the example of the Chian oligarchy, and revolt from Athens; while the people at Samos, as at Chios, were averse to such a change. Under this state of circumstances, the Chian oligarchy had themselves conspired with Sparta, to trick and constrain their Demos by surprise into revolt, through the aid of five Peloponnesian ships. The like would have happened at Samos, had the people remained quiet. But they profited by the recent warning, forestalled the designs of their oligarchy, and rose in insurrection, with the help of three Athenian triremes which then chanced to be in the port. The oligarchy were completely defeated, but not without a violent and bloody struggle; two hundred of them being slain, and four hundred banished. This revolution secured (and probably nothing less than a democratical revolution could have secured, under the existing state of Hellenic affairs) the adherence of Samos to the Athenians; who immediately recognised the new democracy, and granted to it the privilege of an equal and autonomous ally.