Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/410

S88 HISTORY OF GREECE. ers. 1 But the admirals repressed this disposition, deprecating any resistance to the decree of the city. They laid down their com- mand, inviting any man dissatisfied with them to prefer his com plaint at once publicly, and reminding the soldiers of the many victories and glorious conflicts, both by land and sea, which had knit them together by the ties of honorable fellowship. No man stood forward to accuse them ; and they consented, on the contin- ued request of the armament, to remain in command, until their three successors arrived Demarchus, Myskon, and Potamis. They then retired amidst universal regret ; many of the trierarchs even binding themselves by oath, that on returning to Syracuse they would procure their restoration. The change of command- ers took place at Miletus. 2 Though Hermokrates, in his address to the soldiers, would doubtless find response when he invoked the remembrance of past victories, yet he would hardly have found the like response in a Sy- racusan assembly. For if we review the proceedings of the arma- ment since he conducted it from Syracuse to join the Peloponne- sian fleet, we shall find that on the whole his expedition had been a complete failure, and that his assurances of success against Athens had ended in nothing but disappointment. There was therefore ample cause for the discontent of his countrymen. But on the other hand, as far as our limited means of information ena- ble us to judge, the sentence of banishment against him appears to have been undeserved and unjust. For we cannot trace the ill- success of Hermokrates to any misconduct or omission on his part ; while in regard to personal incorruptibility, and strenuous resist- ance to the duplicity of Tissaphernes, he stood out as an honora- ble exception among a body of venal colleagues. That satrap, indeed, as soon as Hermokrates had fallen into disgrace, circulated a version of his own, pretending that the latter, having asked mo- ney from him and been refused, had sought by calumnious means to revenge such refusal. 3 But this story, whether believed else- where or not, found no credit with the other satrap Pharnabazus ; who warmly espoused the cause of the banished general, present- ing him with a sum of money even unsolicited. This money 1 Xen. Hellen. i, 1, 27. * Xen. Hellen. i, 1, 27-31. 3 Thucyd. viii, 85.