Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/26

 i HISTORY OF GREECE. arrange matters with the empire and pretensions of Athens than with those of Lacedasmon. The former, he argued, neithei sought nor professed any other object than the subjection of her own maritime dependencies, in return for which she would will- ingly leave all the Asiatic Greeks in the hands of the Great Bang; while the latter, forswearing all idea of empire, and professing ostentatiously to aim at the universal enfranchisement of every Grecian city, could not with the smallest consistency conspire to deprive the Asiatic Greeks of the same privilege. This view appeared to be countenanced by the objection which Theramenes and many of the Peloponnesian officers had taken to the first convention concluded by Chalkideus and Alkibiades with Tissaphernes: objections afterwards renewed by Lichas even against the second modified convention of Theramenes, and accompanied with an indignant protest against the idea of surrendering to the Great King all the territory which had been ever possessed by his predecessors. 1 All these latter arguments, whereby Alkibiades professed to create in the mind of the satrap a preference for Athens, were either futile or founded on false assumptions. For on the one hand, even Lichas never refused to concur in surrendering the Asiatic Greeks to Persia; while on the other hand, the empire of Athens, so long as she retained any empire, was pretty sure to be more formidable to Persia than any efforts undertaken by Sparta under the disinterested pretence of liberating generally the Grecian cities. Nor did Tissaphernes at all lend himself to any such positive impression ; though he felt strongly the force of the negative recommendations of Alkibiades, that he should do no more for the Peloponnesians than was sufficient to feed the war, without insuring to them either a speedy or a decisive success : or rather, this duplicity was so congenial to his Oriental mind, that there was no need of Alkibiades to recommend it. The real use of the Athenian exile, was to assist the satrap in carrying it into execution ; and to provide for him those plausible pretences and justifications, which he was to issue as a substitute for effective supplies of men and money. Established along with Tissaphernes at Magnesia, the same place which had beet 1 Thucyd viii, 46-52.