Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/71

ALKIBIADES AND THE ARMAMENT. 49 d iplicity uncongenial to the exalted sentiment now all-powerful at Samos. 1 This exile had been the first to originate the oligarchical con- spiracy, whereby Athens, already scarcely adequate to the ex- igencies of her foreign war, was now paralyzed in courage and torn by civil discord, preserved from absolute ruin only by that counter-enthusiasm which a fortunate turn of circumstances had raised up at Samos. Having at first duped the conspirators themselves, and enabled them to dupe the sincere democrats, by promising Persian aid, and thus floating the plot over its first and greatest difficulties, Alkibiades had found himself constrained to break with them as soon as the time came for realizing his promises. But he had broken off with so much address as still to keep up the illusion that he could realize them if he chose. His return by means of the oligarchy being now impossible, he _ naturally became its enemy, and this new antipathy superseded his feeling of revenge against the democracy for having banished him. In fact he was disposed, as Phrynichus had truly said about him, 2 to avail himself indifferently of either, according as the one or the other presented itself as a serviceable agency for his ambitious views. Accordingly, as soon as the turn of affairs at Samos had made itself manifest, he opened communication with Thrasybulus and the democratical leaders, 3 renewing to them the same promises of Persian alliance, on condition of his 1 The application of the Athenians at Samos to Alkibiades, reminds us of the emphatic language in which Tactitus characterizes an incident in some respects similar. The Roman army, fighting in the cause of Vitcllius against Vespasian, had been betrayed by their general Csecina, who en- deavored to carry them over to the latter : his army, however, refused to follow him, adhered to their own cause, and put him under arrest. Being afterwards defeated by the troops of Vespasian, and obliged to capitulate in Cremona, they released Cajcina, and solicited his intercession to obtain favorable terms. " Primores castrorum nomen atque imagines Vitellii amoliuntur ; catenas Coecinne (nam etiam turn vinctus erat) exsolvunt, orantque, ut causa: sure dcprccator adsistat: aspernantem tumentemque lacrymis fatigant. Extremum malorum, tot fortissimi viri, proditoris opem invo taotiet." (Tacitus, Histor. iii. 31.) - Thucyd. viii, 48. 3 Thucydides does not expressly mention this communication, but it ij im j'iicd in the words 'A%Ktfiia$>]v uo/icvov irapi^Eiv, etc. (viii, 76.) VOL. vni. 3 4oc.