Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/221

Rh wished to make the assembly of 5,000 “best men” a reality, while others only wished to keep power in their own hands. Moreover, the fleet at Samos, now under the command of Thrasyllus and Thrasybulus—strong democrats—declined to recognise the new government. Lastly, it lacked the merit of success. The Spartans secured the revolt of Euboea and defeated an Athenian force sent to recover it; and the mortification and terror of the Athenian people were increased by seeing a new fort being erected at the entrance of the harbour of the Piraeus, which they believed to be intended to overawe them and protect Peloponnesian invaders. A counter revolution, therefore, quickly took place, and the restored ecclesia voted the recall of Alcibiades (as the commanders at Samos wished) and even elected him Strategus.

For more than two years (B.C. 410–408) the genius of Alcibiades seemed to promise a return of the old supremacy of Athens. The Spartan fleet leaving Miletus and southern Asia Minor, from mistrust of Tissaphernes, removed towards the end of B.C. 411 to the Hellespont, where their admiral Dercylidas hoped to be more loyally supported by the Satrap of Phrygia, Pharnabazus. There it was twice defeated off Cynossema (B.C. 411) by Thrasyllus and Thrasybulus, and practically annihilated next year (B.C. 410) off Cyzicus by Alcibiades. As a result the Athenians once more occupied Byzantium and Chalcedon, and were again masters of the Northern Aegean Sea (B.C. 408).

After a pause of a year in any warlike movements of importance, during which Alcibiades visited