nerally, he bade them hold out and show a
bold face to the enemy, since if the city were saved there was good hope
that the two parties might some day be reconciled, whereas if either
were once destroyed, that at Samos, or that at Athens, there would no
longer be any one to be reconciled to. Meanwhile arrived envoys from the
Argives, with offers of support to the Athenian commons at Samos: these
were thanked by Alcibiades, and dismissed with a request to come when
called upon. The Argives were accompanied by the crew of the Paralus,
whom we left placed in a troopship by the Four Hundred with orders to
cruise round Euboea, and who being employed to carry to Lacedaemon some
Athenian envoys sent by the Four Hundred--Laespodias, Aristophon,
and Melesias--as they sailed by Argos laid hands upon the envoys, and
delivering them over to the Argives as the chief subverters of the
democracy, themselves, instead of returning to Athens, took the Argive
envoys on board, and came to Samos in the galley which had been confided
to them.

The same summer at the time that the return of Alcibiades coupled
with the general conduct of Tissaphernes had carried to its height the
discontent of the Peloponnesians, who no longer entertained any doubt of
his having joined the Athenians, Tissaphernes wishing, it would seem,
to clear himself to them of these charges, prepared to go after the
Phoenician fleet to Aspendus, and invited Lichas to go with him; saying
that he would appoint Tamos as his lieutenant to provide pay for the
armament during his own absence. Accounts differ, and it is not easy to
ascertain with what intention he went to Aspendus, and did not bring the
fleet after all. That one hundred and forty-seven Phoenician ships came
as far as Aspendus is certain; but why they did not come on has been
variously accounted for. Some think that he went away in pursuance
of his plan of wasting the Peloponnesian resources, since at any
rate Tamos, his lieutenant, far from being any better, proved a worse
paymaster than himself: others that he brought the Phoenicians to
Aspendus to exact money from them for their discharge, having never
intended to employ them: others again that it was in view of the outcry
against him at Lacedaemon, in order that it might be said that he was
not in fault, but that the ships were really manned and that he had
certainly gone to fetch them. To myself it seems only too evident that
he did not bring up the fleet bec