Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/292

 268 HISTORY OF GREECE. examined, he had been acquitted i of the charges of wrong and oppression against individuals ; yet the presumptions of medism, or treacherous correspondence with the Persians, appeared so strong that, though not found guilty, he was still not reappointed to the command. Such treatment seems to have only emboldened him in the prosecution of his designs against Greece, and he came out with this view to Byzantium in a trireme belonging to Her- mione, under pretence of aiding as a volunteer without any formal authority in the war. He there resumed his negotiations with Artabazus : his great station and celebrity still gave him a strong hold on men's opinions, and he appears to have established a sort of mastery in Byzantium, from whence the Athenians, already recognized heads of the confederacy, were constrained to expel him by force : 2 and we may be very sure that the terror excited by his presence as well as by his known designs tended materially to accelerate the organization of the confederacy under Athens. He then retired to Kolonoe in the Troad, where he continued for some time in the farther prosecution of his schemes, trying to form a Persian party, despatching emissaries to distribute Per- sian gold among various cities of Greece, and probably employing the name of Sparta to impede the formation of the new confede- racy: 3 until at length the Spartan authorities, apprized of his ' Cornelius Nepos states that he was fined (Pausanias, c. 2), which is neither noticed by Thucydides, nor at all probable, looking at the subse- quent circumstances connected with liim. EKiroXiopKri&elc, etc. : these words seem to imply that he had acquired a strong position in the town. ^ It is to this time that I refer the mission of Arthmius of Zeleia (an Asiatic town, between Mount Ida and the southern coast of the Propontis) to gain over such Greeks as he could by means of Persian gold. In the course of his visit to Greece, Arthmius went to Athens : his piupose was discovered, and he was compelled to flee : while the Athenians, at the in- stance of Themistokles, passed an indignant decree, declaring him and his race enemies of Athens, and of all the allies of Athens, — and proclaiming that whoever should slay him would be guiltless ; because he had brought in Persian gold to bribe the Greeks. This decree was engraven on a brazen column, and placed on record in the acropolis, where it stood near the great statue of Athene Promachos, even in the time of Demosthenes and his contemporary orators. See Demosthen. Philippic, iii, c. 9, p, 122, and
 * Thucyd. i, 130, 131. Kal ek tov Bv^avriov (3ia v~b tCjv 'A'&ijvaiuv