the only part of his advice which the satrap seems to
have sincerely adopted was that of playing off one party against the
other. About this, however, Alcibiades did not at all concern himself.
It was enough for his views, which had merely the selfish aim of his
own restoration to Athens, if he could make it appear that he possessed
sufficient influence with Tissaphernes to procure his assistance for
the Athenians. He therefore began to communicate with the Athenian
generals at Samos, and held out the hope of a Persian alliance as the
price of his restoration to his country. But as he both hated and
feared the Athenian democracy, he coupled his offer with the condition
that a revolution should be effected at Athens, and an oligarchy
established. The Athenian generals greedily caught at the proposal;
and though the great mass of the soldiery were violently opposed to it,
they were silenced, if not satisfied, when told that Athens could be
saved only by means of Persia. The oligarchical conspirators formed
themselves into a confederacy, and Pisander was sent to Athens to lay
the proposal before the Athenian assembly. It met, as it might be
supposed, with the most determined opposition. The single but
unanswerable reply of Pisander was, the necessities of the republic;
and at length a reluctant vote for a change of constitution was
extorted from the people. Pisander and ten others were despatched to
treat with Alcibiades and Tissaphernes.

Upon their arrival in Ionia they informed Alcibiades that measures had
been taken for establishing an oligarchical form of government at
Athens, and required him to fulfil his part of the engagement by
procuring the aid and alliance of Persia. But Alcibiades knew that he
had undertaken what he could not perform, and he now resolved to escape
from the dilemma by one of his habitual artifices. He received the
Athenian deputation in the presence of Tissaphernes himself, and made
such extravagant demands on behalf of the satrap that Pisander and his
colleagues indignantly broke off the conference.

Notwithstanding the conduct of Alcibiades the oligarchical conspirators
proceeded with the revolution at Athens, in which they had gone too far
to recede. Pisander, with five of the envoys, returned to Athens to
complete the work they had begun.

Pisander proposed in the assembly, and carried a resolution, that a
committee of ten should be appointed to prepare a new constitution,
whic