Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/291

 TITHE AUSTES SATRAP. 26!) general under Cyrus, and who had now again revolted from Arta xerxes. 1 Tithraustes took credit to the justice of the king for having punished the late satrap ; out of whose perfidy (he affirmed) the war had arisen. He then summoned Agesilaus, in the king's name, to evacuate Asia, leaving the Asiatic Greeks to pay their original tribute to Persia, but to enjoy complete autonomy, subject to that one condition. Had this proposition been accepted and executed, it would have secured these Greeks against Persian oc- cupation or governors; a much milder fate for them than that to which the Lacedaemonians had consented in their conventions with Tissaphernes sixteen years before, 2 and analogous to the position in which the Chalkidians of Thrace had been placed with regard to Athens, under the peace of Nikias ; 3 subject to a fixed tribute, yet autonomous, with no other obligation or interference. Age- silaus replied that he had no power to entertain such a proposition without the authorities at home, whom he accordingly sent to con- sult. But in the interim he was prevailed upon by Tithraustes to conclude an armistice for six months, and to move out of his satrapy into that of Pharnabazus ; receiving a contribution of thirty talents towards the temporary maintenance of the army. 4 These satraps generally acted more like independent or even hostile princes, than cooperating colleagues ; one of the many causes of the weakness of the Persian empire. When Agesilaus had reached the neighborhood of Kyme, on his march northward to the Hellespontine Phrygia, he received a despatch from home, placing the Spartan naval force in the Asiatic seas under his command, as well as the land-force, and empower- ing him to name whomsoever he chose as acting admiral. 5 For the first time since the battle of JEgospotami, the maritime empire of Sparta was beginning to be threatened, and increased efforts on her part were becoming requisite. Pharnabazus, going up in per- son to the court of Artaxerxes, had by pressing representations obtained a large subsidy for fitting out a fleet in Cyprus and Phoe- nicia, to act under the Athenian admiral Konon against the Lace- daemonians. 6 That officer, with a fleet of forty triremes, before 1 Xen. Hellen. iii, 14, 25 ; iv, 1, 27. a Thucyd. viii, ] 8, 37, 58. 3 Thucyd. v, 18, 5.
 * Xen. Hellen. iii, 4, 26 ; Diod^r. xiv, 80. t-a[uj-Jtai(vc uvox^f-
 * Xon. Hellen. iii, 4, 27. 8 Diodor. xiv, 39 . Justin, vi, I