an for a democracy, and only sought to
change the institutions of his country in order to get himself recalled
by his associates; while for themselves their one object should be
to avoid civil discord. It was not the King's interest, when the
Peloponnesians were now their equals at sea, and in possession of some
of the chief cities in his empire, to go out of his way to side with
the Athenians whom he did not trust, when he might make friends of the
Peloponnesians who had never injured him. And as for the allied states
to whom oligarchy was now offered, because the democracy was to be put
down at Athens, he well knew that this would not make the rebels come in
any the sooner, or confirm the loyal in their allegiance; as the allies
would never prefer servitude with an oligarchy or democracy to freedom
with the constitution which they actually enjoyed, to whichever type it
belonged. Besides, the cities thought that the so-called better classes
would prove just as oppressive as the commons, as being those who
originated, proposed, and for the most part benefited from the acts of
the commons injurious to the confederates. Indeed, if it depended on the
better classes, the confederates would be put to death without trial and
with violence; while the commons were their refuge and the chastiser
of these men. This he positively knew that the cities had learned
by experience, and that such was their opinion. The propositions of
Alcibiades, and the intrigues now in progress, could therefore never
meet with his approval.

However, the members of the club assembled, agreeably to their original
determination, accepted what was proposed, and prepared to send Pisander
and others on an embassy to Athens to treat for the restoration of
Alcibiades and the abolition of the democracy in the city, and thus to
make Tissaphernes the friend of the Athenians.

Phrynichus now saw that there would be a proposal to restore Alcibiades,
and that the Athenians would consent to it; and fearing after what he
had said against it that Alcibiades, if restored, would revenge himself
upon him for his opposition, had recourse to the following expedient.
He sent a secret letter to the Lacedaemonian admiral Astyochus, who was
still in the neighbourhood of Miletus, to tell him that Alcibiades was
ruining their cause by making Tissaphernes the friend of the Athenians,
and containing an express revelation of the rest of the intrigue,
desiring to be excused if he