XIX.

CHAP. Sounded by the general voice, a few were heard to say less loudly, that Alcibiades had alone been the cause of all the past misfortunes, and it was to be feared he would still be the promoter of measures dangerous to the commonwealth.' He was not yet so assured of the prevalence of sentiments in his favor, but that he approached the shore with apprehension. He even hesitated to quit his galley, till from the deck he saw his cousin-german Euryptolemus son of Peisianax, with others of his relations and confidential friends. Nor did even they trust intirely in the protection which the established government, hardly indeed yet established, could or would afford. They came prepared to resist any attempt that might be made against his person; and, surrounded by them, he proceeded to the city. His first business, in regular course, was to at1. 1. c. 4. tend the council of fivehundred; his next to address the general assembly. Before both, he took occasion to assert his innocence of the sacrilegious profanations, of which he had been accused, to apologize for his conduct during his banishment, and to criminate his prosecutors. Many after him spoke strongly to the same purposes; and the current of popular favor became so evident, that not a word was heard in opposition to him; for the people, says Xenophon, would not have borne it. He was chosen, with a title apparently new, governor-general, or commander-in-chief with supreme authority25, as the only person capable of restoring the

Xen. Hel.

2. 8.

of Xenophon strongly marks the distinction of ranks, yet existing in public opinion, among the Athenian people, when legal distinction was most exploded.

26 Απάντων ἡγεμὼν αὐτοκράτωρ. The title of the generals of the Athenian ordinary establishment was not 'Hyev, but Στρατηγός. Αὐτοκράτως was the term by which the Greeks af

X.

former power and splendor of the commonwealth. SECT. So nearly allied we commonly find democracy with absolute monarchy; and not in effect only, but often in form also.

Soon after he was vested with this high dignity, Xen. Hel. opportunity occurred for Alcibiades to gratify the .8. people who conferred it, and to acquire at the same time, at an easy rate, no small addition to his renown through Greece. Since Deceleia had been occupied by a Lacedæmonian garrison, the Athenians had never dared to make the mysterious procession of Ceres to Eleusis, according to the customary forms, along that called the Sacred Way: they had always passed by sea, and many of the prescribed ceremonies were necessarily omitted, or imperfectly executed. Alcibiades, with the forces from Asia, added to the former strength of the city, undertook to conduct the procession by land, 'and protect it in the fullest performance of every accustomed rite. He was completely successful the train went and returned, escorted by the army, without an attempt from the enemy to give any disturbance.

With the new glory and new favor, acquired in 9. 9. this mixture of military and religious pageantry, Alcibiades proceeded to direct the inrolment of the forces and the equipment of the fleet, with which he proposed again to cross the Ægean.

terward rendered the Roman title Dictator. What was the kind and degree of power committed to Alcibiades, with the title of 'Hysuv auroxpárwg, does not clearly appear; but, as the Erparnyos, the chief of the board of general officers, had, through his privilege of summoning at pleasure the general assembly, and of acting as representative of the commonwealth in communication with forein states, large civil authority in addition to his military command, the Ἡγεμὼν ἁπάντων αὐτοκρά wg would of course have all those powers, and some besides which the Erparnyòs did not possess.

CHAPTER XX.

Affairs of GREECE, from the Return of ALCIBIADES to ATHENS, till the Conclusion of the PELOPONNESIAN War.

SECT.

I.

Xen. Hel. 1. 8. c. 2.

8. 12.

SECTION I.

State of the Persian Empire: Cyrus, younger Son of Darius II. appointed Viceroy of the Provinces west of the River Halys. Lysander commander-in-chief of the Peloponnesian Fleet: Seafight of Notium ; and its Consequences.

WHILE prosperity was restored to the Athenian

arms, under the conduct of Thrasybulus and Alcibiades, the Lacedæmonians had succeeded in negotiation, which might overbalance many victories. We have little authentic information of the detail of transactions in the interior of the Persian empire but we learn that troubles, frequently recurring, principally caused that weakness of the government, and failure of the extension of its energy to the distant provinces, whence, among other inconveniencies, the satraps of Asia Minor were reduced to the necessity of courting the Greeks, that, by assistance from one party among them, they might be inabled to withstand oppression from another. The rich kingdom of Media, we find, had revolted; but in the year preceding the return of Alcibiades, through the exertions of Darius in person, it had been reduced to submission. Apparently, in the

1.

idea that his empire was too extensive and unwieldy SECT. to be duly and securely administered under a single government, Darius seems then to have had in view to divide it. Detaching a portion, as an apanage for Cyrus, his younger son, which, under able conduct, might form a very powerful kingdom, he could still leave, for his eldest son, Artaxerxes, an empire scarcely less powerful, inasmuch as it would be more compact and manageable, than what himself commanded. After the recovery of Media, the provinces bordering on the Grecian seas principally demanded his attention. But, growing infirm as he advanced in years, he found repugnance to undertake the troublesome task of regulating matters duly in regard to that nation of little military republics, by which, for near a century, himself and his predecessors had been constantly troubled, and sometimes materially injured. He therefore resolved to commit the business to Cyrus; a youth of great hopes; who seems to have wanted only a better education to have made him a great prince; but whose active and ambitious temper, never duly either restrained or directed, gave disturbance and excited jealousy in the seat of government.

1. 1. c. 2.

Such nearly was the state of things in the Per- Xen. Hel. sian court, when a Lacedæmonian embassy arrived. 1. there; having made the journey apparently through the assistance of Tissaphernes. The political circumstances of the empire had prepared a good reception for them. Being then uncontradicted probably in their assertions, as without competition in their solicitation, and paying their court ably and successfully to the young prince who was going to assume the command of the western provinces, they obtained the declared favor of the monarch to their confederacy; and particularly to Lacedæmon,

HISTORY OF GREECE.

XX.

CHAP. in opposition to Athens. This important point be ing gained, they set out on their return to the coast of Lesser Asia.

B. C. 408.

Meanwhile Pharnabazus, with those ambassa P. W. 24. dors, Athenian and Peloponnesian, whom he had undertaken to conduct to Susa, had proceeded in

autumn as far as Gordium in Phrygia, where he B.C.497. passed the winter. In spring he was proposing to P. W. 25. prosecute the journey, when the other ambassadors

Xen. Hel. 1. 1. c. 2. 3.5.

arrived on their return, accompanied by Persian officers commissioned to announce the approach of Cyrus, to take the command of the western provinces. This stopped Pharnabazus. Cyrus arriving soon after, the Athenian ministers applied themselves to win the favor of that prince, and ingage him to their country's cause; but finding him immoveably attached to the Peloponnesians, they desired to prosecute their journey to the Persian court. Pharnabazus would still have assisted them, but Cyrus interfered: refusing them permission either to proceed on their embassy, or to return home, he required that they should be delivered to him. The upright satrap considering himself as their sworn protector, would not give them up; but it was long before he could obtain leave to send them home1.

It was a rule, jealously observed by the Lacedæmonian government (perhaps the treason of Pausanias might have given occasion for it) that none should hold the command-in-chief of the fleet beyond a year; and perhaps it was from a congenial principle, that the command of the fleet was not committed to the kings. After a long dearth of

1 Our copies of Xenophon say three years; but archbishop Usher has supposed years to have been put for months by the carelessness of transcribers.