Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/385

367 ALKIBIADES AT SPARTA. 3f57 hful brougnt twenty-five talents, which he tendered as a first payment in part. From all quarters, new enemies were thus springing up again&t Athens in the hour of her distress, and the Lacedaemonians had only to choose which they would prefer ; a choice in which they were much guided by the exile Alkibiades. It so happened that his family friend Endius was at this moment one of the board of ephors ; while his personal enemy king Agis, with whose wile Timaea he carried on an intrigue, 1 was absent in command at Dekeleia. Knowing well the great power and importance of Chios, Alkibiades strenuously exhorted the Spartan authorities to devote their first attention to that island. A pericckus named Phrynis, being sent thither to examine whether the resources alleged by the envoys were really forthcoming, brought back a satisfactory report, that the Chian fleet was not less than sixty triremes strong : upon which the Lacedaemonians concluded an alliance with Chios and Erythrae, engaging to send a fleet of forty sail to their aid. Ten of these triremes, now ready in the Lace- daemonian ports probably at Gythium were directed imme- diately to sail to Chios, under the admiral Melanchridas. It seems to have been now midwinter ; but Alkibiades, and still more the Chian envoys, insisted on the necessity of prompt action, for fear that the Athenians should detect the intrigue. However, an earth- quake just then intervening, was construed by the Spartans as an index of divine displeasure, so that they would not persist in sending either the same commander or the same ships. Chalki- >'leus was named to supersede Melanchridas, while five new ships ".vere directed to be equipped, so as to be ready to sail in the early spring along with the larger fleet from Corinth. 2 As soon as spring arrived, three Spartan commissioners were i'.nt to Corinth in compliance with the pressing instances of the Chian envoys to transport across the isthmus from the Corin- thian to the Saronic gulf, the thirty-nine triremes now in th-- v Corinthian port of Leehaeum. It was at first proposed to sen-' oil' all, at one and ths same time, to Chios, even those which A-;.- had Leon equipping for the assistance of Lesbos ; although KnlT- 1 rhu-yd. ;ii, G-12; Plutarch, Alkibiad. c. 23, ?A ; Coraeliss !:'. ' Vad.C.3. *Thuqd. v:-;i, <?.