Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/150

128 HISTORY OF GREECE. calculations of these oligarchs had been disappointed, as Phryni chus had predicted from the first : the Thasians, as soon as then own oligarchical party had been placed in possession of the goT eminent, recalled their disaffected exiles, 1 under whose auspices a Laconian garrison and harmost had since been introduced. Eteonikus, now expelled, accused the Lacedaemonian admiral Pasippidas of being himself a party to the expulsion, under bribes from Tissaphernes ; an accusation which seems improb- able, but which the Lacedaemonians believed, and accordingly banished Pasippidas, sending Kratesippidas to replace him. The new admiral found at Chios a small fleet which Pasippidas had already begun to collect from the allies, to supply the recent losses. 2 The tone at Athens since the late naval victories, had become more hopeful and energetic. Agis, with his garrison at Dekeleia, though the Athenians could not hinder him from ravaging Attica, yet on approaching one day near to the city walls, was repelled with spirit and success by Thrasyllus. But that which most mortified the Lacedaemonian king, was to discern from his lofty station at Dekeleia, the abundant influx into the Peiraeus of corn- ships from the Euxine, again renewed in the autumn of 410 B.C. since the occupation of the Bosphorus and Hellespont by Alkibi- ades. For the safe reception of these vessels, Thorikus was soon after fortified. Agis exclaimed that it was fruitless to shut out the Athenians from the produce of Attica, so long as plenty of imported corn was allowed to reach them. Accordingly, he provided, in conjunction with the Megarians, a small squadron of fifteen triremes, with which he despatched Klearchus to By- zantium and Chalkedon. That Spartan was a public guest of the Byzantines, and had already been singled out to command auxiliaries intended for that city. He seems to have begun his voyage during the ensuing winter (B.C. 410-409), and reached Byzantium in safety, though with the destruction of three of his squadron by the nine Athenian triremes who guarded the Hellespont.3 1 Thucyd. viii, 64. s Xenoph. Hcllcn. i, 1, 32. 8 Xenoph. Hellen. i, 1, 35-36. He says that the ships of Klearchus, on being attacked by the Athenians in the Hellespont, fled first to Scstoi, and