Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/87

 j'.ACKWAKDXKSS OF 3PAIITA. . Gi Phrynichus returned from Sparta. They had gone thither pre- pared to surrender everything, not merely their naval force, but their city itself, and to purchase their own personal safety by making the Lacedaemonians masters of Peiraeus. 1 Yet we read with astonishment that the latter could not be prevailed on to contract any treaty, and that they manifested nothing but back- wardness in seizing this golden opportunity. Had Alkibiad&r been now playing their game, as he had been doing a year earlier, immediately before the revolt of Chios, had they been under any energetic leaders, to impel them into hearty cooperation with the treason of the Four Hundred, who combined at this mo- ment both the will and the power to place Athens in their hands, if seconded by an adequate force, they might now have over- powered their great enemy at home, before the armament at Sa- mos could have been brought to the rescue. Considering that Athens was saved from capture only by the slackness and stupidity of the Spartans, we may see that the armament at Samos had reasonable excuse for their eagerness previously manifested to come home ; and that Alkibiades, in com- bating that intention, braved an extreme danger which nothing but incredible good fortune averted. Why the Lacedaemonians re- mained idle, both in Peloponnesus and at Dekeleia, while Athens was t'aus betrayed, and in the very throes of dissolution, we can render no account : possibly, the caution of the ephors may have distrusted Antiphon and Phrynichus, from the mere immensity of their concessions. All that they would promise was, that a Lacedaemonian fleet of forty-two triremes, partly from Tarentum and Lokri, now about to start from Las in the Laconian gulf, and to sail to Eubrea on the invitation of a disaffected party in thai- island, should so far depart from its straight course as to hover near JEgina and Peiraeus, ready to take advantage of any oppor- tunity for attack laid open by the Four Hundred. 2 1 Tliuoyd. viii, 91. 'A/./.u Kal Toi)f TroAe/iiovf taayayonevoi uvev reix&v Kal veLiv t-v/ti3t/vai, Kal ouaovv ru rrjc iro/lcwf leiv, el rot( ye aufiaai aiJv uJcta lirai. Ibid, txetdii o't IK r//f AaneAai/novoc Trpiapeis oviev Tcpu^avreQ uv%il>prjoai roif Ku.ai ZvufiariKbv, etc. Thucyd. viii, 91. fyv de TL Kal TOIOITOV ('nrb TUV TIJV Karriyopiav t%ovTui nal oil TTUVV <5 1 a ft o At) fiovov TOV %.6/yv. VOL. viii. 5oc.