Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/30

 8 HISTORY OF GREECE. who again renewed his assurances in person, that he would bring not only Tissaphernes, but the Great King himself, into active alliance and cooperation with Athens, provided they would put down the Athenian democracy, which he affirmed that the king could not possibly trust. 1 He doubtless did not omit to set forth the other side of the alternative; that, if the proposition were refused, Persian aid would be thrown heartily into the scale of the Peloponnesians, in which case, there was no longer any hope of safety for Athens. On the return of the deputation with these fresh assurances, the oligarchical men in Samos came together, both in greater number and with redoubled ardor, to take their measures for subverting the democracy. They even ventured to speak of the project openly among the mass of the armament, who listened to it with nothing but aversion, but who were silenced at least, though not satisfied, by being told that the Persian treasury would be thrown open to them on condition, and only on condi- tion, that they would relinquish their democracy. Such was at this time the indispensable need of foreign money for the purposes of the war, such was the certainty of ruin, if the Persian treasure went to the aid of the enemy, that the most democratical Athe- nian might well hesitate when the alternative was thus laid before him. The oligarchical conspirators, however, knew well that they had the feeling of the armament altogether against them, that the best which they could expect from it was a reluc- tant acquiescence, and that they must accomplish the revolution by their own hands and management. They formed themselves into a political confederacy, or hetreria, for the purpose of discuss- ing the best measures towards their end. It was resolved to send a deputation to Athens, with Peisander 2 at the head, to 1 Thucyd. viii, 48. 8 It is asserted in ail Oration of Lysias (Orat. xxv, A^uou Kara2.<Tjf 'A 7ro?,o}'fa, c. 3, p. 766, Reisk.) that Phrynichus and Peisander emlarked in this oligarchical conspiracy for the purpose of getting clear of previoia crimes committed under the democracy. But there is nothing to counfe- nance this assertion, and the narrative of Thucydides gives quite a differ- ent color to their behavior. Peisander was now serving with the armament at Samos ; moreover, hii "orwardness and energy presently to be described in taking the formid