VIGOROUS PROCEEDINGS OF ANAXIBIUS. 369 revolt of the place from Athens (in 411 B. c.), 1 Derkyllidas had since rendered service not less essential in preserving it to Sparta, during the extensive desertion which followed the battle of Knidus. But it was supposed that he ought to have checked the aggressive plans of Thrasybulus ; moreover, Anaxibius promised, if a small force were entrusted to him, to put down effectually the newly- revived Athenian influence. He was supposed to know well, those regions in which he had once already been admiral, at the moment when Xenophon and the Cyreian army first returned ; the harsh- ness, treachery, and corruption, which he displayed in his dealing with that gallant body of men, have been already recounted in a former chapter. 2 With three triremes, and funds for the pay of a thousand mercenary troops, Anaxibius accordingly went to Abydos. He began his operations with considerable vigor, both against Athens and Pharnabazus. While he armed a land-force, which he employed in making incursions on the neighboring cities in the territory of that satrap, he at the same time reinforced his little squadron by three triremes out of the harbor of Abydos, so that he became strong enough to seize the merchant vessels passing along the Hellespont to Athens or to her allies. 3 The force which Thrasybulus had left at Byzantium to secure the strait revenues, was thus inadequate to its object without farther addition. Fortunately, Iphikrates was at this moment disengaged at Athens, having recently returnd from Corinth with his body of peltasts, for whom doubtless employment was wanted. He was accordingly sent with twelve hundred peltasts and eight tri- remes, to combat Anaxibius in the Hellespont ; which now became again the scene of conflict, as it had been in the latter years of the Peloponnesian war ; the Athenians from the European side, the Lacedaemonians from the Asiatic. At first the warfare consisted of desultory privateering, and money-levying excursions, on both sides. 4 But at length, the watchful genius of Iphikrates discov- 1 Thncyd. viii, 61 ; compare Xenoph. Anab. v, 6, 24. 2 See above, Chapter Ixxi, p. 156 of the present volume 3 Xen. Hellen. iv, 8, 32, 83.
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