Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/32

 10 HISTORY OF GREECE. government for themselves ; and the promise of Persian gold, if they could get it accredited, was inestimable as a stepping-stone towards this goal, whether it afterwards turned out to be a delu- sion or not. The probability is, that having a strong interest in believing it themselves, and a still stronger interest in making others believe it, they talked each other into a sincere persuasion. Without adverting to this fact, we should be at a loss to under- stand how the word of such a man as Alkibiades, on such a mat- ter, could be so implicitly accepted as to set in motion a whole train of novel and momentous events. There was one man, and one man alone, so far as we know, who ventured openly to call it in question. This was Phrynichus, one of the generals of the fleet, who had recently given valuable counsel after the victory of Miletus ; a clear-sighted and saga- cious man, but personally hostile to Alkibiades, and thoroughly seeing through his character and projects. Though Phrynichus was afterwards one of the chief organizers of the oligarchical movement, when it became detached from, and hostile to Alki- biades, yet under the actual circumstances he discountenanced it altogether. 1 Alkibiades, he said, had no attachment to oligar- chical government rather than to democratical ; nor could he be relied on for standing by it after it should have been set up. His only purpose was, to make use of the oligarchical conspiracy now forming, for his own restoration ; which, if brought to pass, could not fail to introduce political discord into the camp, the greatest misfortune that could at present happen. As to the Persian king, it was unreasonable to expect that he would put himself out of his way to aid the Athenians, his old enemies, in whom he had no confidence, while he had the Peloponnesians present as allies, with a good naval force and powerful cities in his own territory, from whom he had never experienced either insult or annoyance. Moreover, the dependencies of Athens upon whom it was now proposed to confer simultaneously with Athens herself, the blessing of oligarchical government would 1 Phrynichus is affirmed, in an Oration of Lysias, to have been originally poor, keeping sheep in the country part of Attica ; then, to have resided in the city, and practised what was called sycophancy, or false and vexatious accusation before the dikastery and the public: assembly, (Lysias, Orat. xx pro Polystrato, c. 3, p. 674. Reisk.)