of bearing no resemblance to them, seemed scarcely vexed. But the Thirty
did not stop there. Presently they began to deliberate by what means
they could get the city under their absolute control, in order that they
might work their will upon it. Here again they proceeded tentatively;
in the first instance, they sent (two of their number), Aeschines and
Aristoteles, to Lacedaemon, and persuaded Lysander to support them in
getting a Lacedaemonian garrison despatched to Athens. They only
needed it until they had got the "malignants" out of the way, and had
established the constitution; and they would undertake to maintain these
troops at their own cost. Lysander was not deaf to their persuasions,
and by his co-operation their request was granted. A bodyguard, with
Callibius as governor, was sent.

(6) Lit. "by sycophancy," i.e. calumnious accusation--the sycophant's
trade. For a description of this pest of Athenian life cf. "Dem."
in Arist. 1, S. 52; quoted in Jebb, "Attic Orators," chap. xxix.
14; cf. Aristoph. "Ach." 904; Xen. "Mem." II. ix. 1.

And now that they had got the garrison, they fell to flattering
Callibius with all servile flattery, in order that he might give
countenance to their doings. Thus they prevailed on him to allow some of
the guards, whom they selected, to accompany them, while they proceeded
to lay hands on whom they would; no longer confining themselves to base
folk and people of no account, but boldly laying hands on those who they
felt sure would least easily brook being thrust aside, or, if a
spirit of opposition seized them, could command the largest number of
partisans.

These were early days; as yet Critias was of one mind with Theramenes,
and the two were friends. But the time came when, in proportion as
Critias was ready to rush headlong into wholesale carnage, like one
who thirsted for the blood of the democracy, which had banished him,
Theramenes balked and thwarted him. It was barely reasonable, he argued,
to put people to death, who had never done a thing wrong to respectable
people in their lives, simply because they had enjoyed influence and
honour under the democracy. "Why, you and I, Critias," he would add,
"have said and done many things ere now for the sake of popularity."
To which the other (for the terms of friendly intimacy still subsisted)
would retort, "There is no choice left to us, since we intend to take
the lion's share, but to get rid of those who are b