Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/70

48 HISTORY OF GREECE. ourselves, than those in the city for themselves ; for if is only through our presence at Samos that they have hitherto kept ths mouth of Peiraeus open. If they refuse to restore to us our dem- ocratical constitution, we shall be better able to exclude them from the sea than they to exclude us. What, indeed, does the city do now for us to second our efforts against the enemy ? Lit- tle or nothing. We have lost nothing by their separation. They send us no pay, they leave us to provide maintenance for our- selves ; they are now out of condition for sending us even good counsel, which is the great superiority of a city over a camp. 1 As counsellors, we here are better than they ; for they have just com- mitted the wrong of subverting the constitution of our common country, while we are striving to maintain it, and will do our best to force them into the same track. Alkibiades, if we insure to him a safe restoration, will cheerfully bring the alliance of Persia to sustain us ; and, even if the worst comes to the worst, if all other hopes fail us, our powerful naval force will always enable us to find places of refuge in abundance, with city and ierritory adequate to our wants." Such was the encouraging language of Thrasyllus and Thra- <$ybulus, which found full sympathy in the armament, and raised among them a spirit of energetic patriotism and resolution, not unworthy of their forefathers when refugees at Salamis under the invasion of Xerxes. To regain their democracy and to sus- tain the war against the Peloponnesians, were impulses alike ardent and blended in the same tide of generous enthusiasm ; a tide so vehement as to sweep before it the reluctance of that minority who had before been inclined to the oligarchical move- ment. But besides these two impulses, there was also a third, tending towards the recall of Alkibiades ; a coadjutor, if in many ways useful, yet bringing with him a spirit of selfishness and 1 Thucyd. viii, 76. Bpa^v &i TI elvai KO.I ovdsvbf ut;iov, &5 Trpof rd vsadai ruv Trofaftiw fj -Kokiq xprjai/tof i/v, nal olSsv uTto^uTiEKEvai, ol ye (t?]TE upyi'piov ETI ei%ov -irefnreiv, uA/l' avrol eiropi^ovTo ol aTpariurai /ITJTC (iovAEvpa xpriarbv, ovxep SvEtca iro/ltf a-paroTTeduv Kparsi- U/.A.U KOI iv TOV~ Totf Toi>f fiiv j]fiapTT]Kvai, rovf Trarpiovs vofiovf KaraLvaavraf, airot Si eu&tv KOI tueuovg TreipaaEadai TrpoGavayK.(i&i.v. ' .tars ovde rovrovf, olTft^ uv fiev'kevoiEv TI xpijcrbv, irafu a<j>iai %EI ' i>f elvai.