eging Chalkedon made an
agreement with Pharnabazus, on these conditions. They were to receive a
sum of money; the people of Chalkedon were to become subjects of Athens
as before; Pharnabazus was not to lay waste the province; and he was to
provide an escort and a safe-conduct for an Athenian embassy to the
Persian king. On the return of Alkibiades, Pharnabazus desired him to
swear to observe these conditions, but Alkibiades refused to do so
unless Pharnabazus swore first. After this capitulation he proceeded to
Byzantium, which had revolted from Athens, and built a wall round that
city. Anaxilaus and Lykurgus, with some others, now offered to betray
the city if the lives and property of the inhabitants were spared. Upon
this Alkibiades put about a report that his presence was urgently
required on the Ionian coast, and sailed away by daylight with all his
fleet. The same night he landed with all his soldiers, and marched up to
the walls in silence, while the fleet, with a great clamour and
disturbance, forced its way into the harbour. The suddenness of this
assault, entirely unexpected as it was, terrified the people of
Byzantium, and gave those of them who inclined to the Athenian side an
opportunity of admitting Alkibiades quietly, while the attention of
every one was directed to the ships in the harbour. The town did not,
however, surrender altogether without fighting; for the Peloponnesians,
Megarians, and Boeotians who were in it drove the Athenians back into
their ships with loss, and when they heard that the land forces had
entered the town they formed in line and engaged them. A severe battle
took place, but Alkibiades on the right wing, and Theramenes on the
left, were at length victorious, and took prisoners the survivors, some
three hundred in number. After this battle no citizen of Byzantium was
either put to death or banished, those being the terms on which the
conspirators had delivered up the city, namely, that they should suffer
no loss of life or property.

Anaxilaus was afterwards tried at Sparta for having betrayed the city,
and justified what he had done, saying that he was not a Lacedaemonian,
but a Byzantine, and that he saw Byzantium, not Sparta, in danger, as
the city was surrounded by the enemy's siege works, no provisions being
brought in to it, and what there was in it being consumed by the
Peloponnesians and Boeotians, while the people of Byzantium with their
wives and children were starving.