Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/121

 DUPLICITY OF ALKIBIADES. 99 of Ilermokrates, that he had been treacherously withholding the pay under concert with Alkibiades and the Athenians, and to denounce the Milesians on his own side, as having wrongfully demolished his fort. 1 At the same time he thought it necessary to put for- ward a new pretence, for the purpose of strengthening the nego- tiations of his envoy at Sparta, soothing the impatience of the armament, and conciliating the new admiral Mindarus. He announced that the Phenician fleet was on the point of arriving at Aspendus in Pamphylia, and that he was going thither to meet it, for the purpose of bringing it up to the seat of war to coop- erate with the Peloponnesians. He invited Lichas to accompany him, and engaged to leave Tamos at Miletus, as deputy during his absence, with orders to furnish pay and maintenance to the fleet.2 Mindarus, a new commander, without any experience of the mendacity of Tissaphernes, was imposed upon by this plausible assurance, and even captivated by the near prospect of so power- ful a reinforcement. He despatched an officer named Philippus with two triremes round the Triopian Cape to Aspendus, while the satrap went thither by land. Here again was a fresh delay of no inconsiderable length, while Tissaphernes was absent at Aspendus, on this ostensible purpose. Some time elapsed before Mindarus was undeceived, for Philippus found the Phenician fleet at Aspendus, and was therefore at first full of hope that it was really coming onward. But the satrap soon showed that his purpose now, as heretofore, was nothing better than delay and delusion. The Phenician ships were one hundred and forty-seven in number ; a fleet more than sufficient for concluding the maritime war, if brought up to act zealously. But Tissaphernes affected to think that this wa? a small force, unworthy of the majesty of the Great King ; who had commanded a fleet of three hundred sail to be fitted out for the service. 3 He waited for some time in pretended expectation 1 Thucyd. viii, 85. s Thucyd. viii, 87. 3 Thucyd. viii, 87. This greater total, which Tissaphcrnes pretended that the Great King purposed to send, is specified by Diodoras at three hundred sail. Thucydides does not assign any precise number (Diodor. xiii, 38, 42, 46). On a subsequent occasion, too, we hear of the Phenician fleet as intended