Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/174

152 HISTOKT OF GREECE. him some Athenian envoys, and to inculcate u^on him his own views of the true interests of Persia ; that is, that the war should be fed and protracted so as to wear out both the Grecian bellig erent parties, each by means of the other. Such a policy, uncon- genial at all times to the vehement temper of Cyrus, had become yet more repugnant to him since his intercourse with Lysander. He would not consent even to see the envoys, nor was he proba bly displeased to put a slight upon a neighbor and rival satrap. Deep was the despondency among the Athenians at Samos, when painfully convinced that all hopes from Persia must be abandoned for themselves ; and farther, that Persian pay was both more ample and better assured, to their enemies, than ever it had been before. 1 Lysander had at Epliesus a fleet of ninety triremes, which he employed himself hi repairing and augmenting, being still inferior in number to the Athenians. In vain did Alkibiades attempt to provoke him out to a general action. This was much to the in- terest of the Athenians, apart from their superiority of number, since they were badly provided with money, and obliged to levy contributions wherever they could : but Lysander was resolved not to fight unless he could do so with advantage, and Cyrus, not afraid of sustaining the protracted expense of the war, had even enjoined upon him this cautious policy, with additional hopes of a Phenician fleet to his aid, which in his mouth was not intended to delude, as it had been by Tissaphernes. 2 Unable to bring about a general battle, and having no immediate or capital enter- prise to constrain his attention, Alkibiades became careless, and abandoned himself partly to the love of pleasure, partly to reck- less predatory enterprises for the purpose of getting money to pay his army. Thrasybulus had come from his post on the Hellespont, and was now engaged in fortifying Phokaea, probably for the pur- pose of establishing a post, to be enabled to pillage the interior. Here he was joined by Alkibiades, who sailed across with a squad- ron, leaving his main fleet at Samos. He left it under the com- 1 Xenophon, Hellen. i, 5, 9 ; Plutarch, Lysand, c. 4. The latter tells us that the Athenian ships were presently emptied by the desert' on of the sea- men ; a careless exaggeration. 4 Plutarch, Lysand. c. 9. I venture to antedate the statements r!-.ich h there makes, as to the encouragements from Cyrus to Lj sander