Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 2.djvu/349

 7-9] THE cm AN CONSPIRACY DETECTED 341 amounting to twenty-five talents"; they thought of saiHng later with another expedition. Agis, when he saw that the Lacedaemonians were bent on going to Chios first, offered no opposition ; so the allies held a conference at Corinth, and after some deliberation determined to sail, first of all to Chios, under the command of Chalcideus, who was equipping the five ships in Laconia, then to proceed to Lesbos, under the command of Alcamenes, whom Agis had previously designed to appoint to that island, and finally to the Hellespont ; for this last command they had selected Clearchus the son of Rhamphias. They resolved to carry over the Isthmus half the ships first ; these were to sail at once, that the attention of the Athenians might be distracted between those which were starting and those which were to follow. They meant to sail quite openly, taking it for granted that the Athenians were powerless, since no navy of theirs worth speaking of had as yet appeared. In pur- suance of their plans they conveyed twenty-one ships over the Isthmus. They were in a hurry to be off", but the Corinthians were 9 unwilling to join them until the con- j-,,^ Con„ti,in„s arc elusion of the Isthmian games, which ddaycdby thcivUthmian were then going on. Agis was pre- ^'"""■- Meanwhile the ,, . , , Athenians delect the pared to respect their scruples and to /,.,^,^„ „y //„ chians take the responsibility of the expedi- and exact pledges of tion on himself. But the Corinthians ""^"'^ would not agree to this proposal, and there was delay. In the meantime the Athenians began to discover the proceed- ings of the Chians, and despatched one of their generals, Aristocrates, to accuse them of treason. They denied the charge ; whereupon he desired them to send back with him a few ships as a pledge of their fidelity to the alliance ; and they sent seven. They could not refuse his request, for the Chian people were ignorant of the whole matter, while the oligarchs, who were in the plot, did not want to break with the multitude until they had secured their