M556) One of the generals of the fleet at Samos, Phrynichus, strongly
opposed this movement, and gave good reasons; but the tide of opinion
among the oligarchal conspirators ran so violently against him, that
Pisander was at once dispatched to Athens. He laid before the public
assembly the terms which Alcibiades proposed. The people, eager at any
cost to gain the Persian king as an ally, in their extremity listened to
the proposal, though unwilling, and voted to relinquish their political
power. Pisander made them believe it was a choice between utter ruin and
the relinquishment of political privileges, since the Lacedaemonians had an
overwhelming force against them. It was while Chios seemed likely to be
recovered by the Athenians, and while the Peloponnesian fleet was
paralyzed at Rhodes by Persian intrigues, that Pisander returned to Ionia
to open negotiations with Alcibiades and Tissaphernes. But Alcibiades had
promised too much, the satrap having no idea of lending aid to Athens, and
yet he extricated himself by such exaggerated demands, which he knew the
Athenians would never concede to Persia, that negotiations were broken
off, and a reconciliation was made between Persia and Sparta. The
oligarchal conspirators had, however, gone so far that a retreat was
impossible. The democracy of Athens was now subverted. Instead of the
Senate of Five Hundred and the assembled people, an oligarchy of Four
Hundred sat in the Senate house, and all except five thousand were
disfranchised--and these were not convened. The oligarchy was in full power
when Pisander returned to Athens. All democratic magistrates had been
removed, and no civil functionaries were paid. The Four Hundred had
complete control. Thus perished, through the intrigues of Alcibiades, the
democracy of Athens. He had organized the unfortunate expedition to
Sicily; he had served the bitterest enemies of his country; and now, he
had succeeded in overturning the constitution which had lasted one hundred
years, during which Athens had won all her glories. Why should the
Athenians receive back to their confidence so bad a man? But whom God
wishes to destroy, he first makes mad, and Alcibiades, it would seem, was
the instrument by which Athens was humiliated and ruined as a political
power. The revolution was effected in an hour of despair, and by delusive
promises. The character and conduct of the insidious and unscrupulous
intriguer were forgotten in his promises. The