soon as this decree was passed, the principal articles of the new constitution were openly brought forward. They included an entire change in the mode of filling public offices, the nature of which Thucydides does not explain. It may have related both to the term for which they were held, and to the process of appointment, which was probably no longer subjected to chance. The principle was laid down that no pay should be granted for any but military service. The limitation of the highest franchise to five thousand citizens would seem only to have been declared in general terms, as a measure the details of which were reserved to another time. But the most important of the proposed institutions was a new council, which was to take the place of the Five Hundred. Five presidents* were to be first appointed, who were to elect a hundred persons, and each of these three others, so as to make up a body of Four Hundred, which was to be invested with unlimited power. What limit was assign ed to the duration of their office, whether it depended in any way on the five original electors, and whether these had any farther share in the government, are points on which Thucydides has not gratified our curiosity. The Four Hundred were to have the power of assembling the Five Thousand as often as they thought proper. Whether these assemblies were, in theory, to possess equal authority with those held under the old constitution, we do not learn. But the clause which left their meetings to depend on the pleasure of the Four Hundred seems to have been so worded as to cherish the persua sion that the Five Thousand were to be a real and effective body. ence of great men to be alarmed by the genius | strain this freedom with severe penalties. As of Antiphon, even if he had had ampler means of displaying it, and though it may have been much more powerful than the literary remains attributed to him would have led us to suppose. But the eloquence which Thucydides admired, and which perhaps contributed to form his own, may not have been of the kind best adapted to sway the popular assembly, where, we venture to believe, that Thucydides himself would never have produced any great effect. But if by this or any other cause Antiphon was prevented from taking a part in public affairs, we could understand both why he was discontented with the existing order of things, and how he might incur the suspicion of disaffection, which naturally fell on a man of eminent talents who kept aloof from all political pursuits. It seems that he had harboured the project of a revolution long before circumstances were ripe for carrying it into effect;* he had probably never ceased to direct his thoughts towards this object, since the failure of the Athenian expedition opened a clearer prospect of success; and it would not be a groundless conjecture if we ascribed the institution of the extraordinary council already mentioned† to his suggestion; it at least shows a close affinity to measures which were undoubtedly his. It was he who had concerted the whole plan which was now about to be put into immediate execution; and he had, no doubt, a very distinct conception of his own ultimate aims. But it is probable that these were still a secret to many of his associates, who may have been no less deceived by his professions than those who were entirely strangers to his schemes. In the number of those who had thus been drawn into an undertaking, the precise nature of which they did not understand, All the articles were adopted without opposiwe may reckon Theramenes, son of Hagnon, a tion, and the mock assembly was dismissed. person whose character will be more clearly The Four Hundred, as soon as they were electunfolded in the progress of the history by his ed, proceeded to assume the reins of governactions than it would be by words. He is coup-ment. But they did not feel sure that the Five led by Thucydides with Antiphon, Phrynichus, Hundred would quietly resign their places, and and Pisander, as a prime leader in the conspir-apprehended that their resistance might rouse But it seems evident that, though he was a general insurrection. Against this danger one of their most active instruments, he never they thought it necessary to take extraordinary was admitted to their inmost councils. precautions. Ever since the enemy had occuAfter the return of Pisander, it only remain-pied Decelea, all Athenians capable of military ed to give a legal form to that supreme authority which he and his associates had already in substance usurped. The first step was to hold an assembly of the people, in which ten commissioners were appointed, under the title of Compilers, with full powers to frame any meas-pulsion of the old council, the adherents of the ure which they might judge expedient for the better government of the commonwealth, to be laid before the people on a certain day. When the day came, the assembly was held, not at Athens, but in a celebrated sanctuary of Poseidon, at Colonus, a village a mile or two from the city. —a precaution, probably, for the purpose of making it more select and subservient. The commissioners, however, only brought in a proposal for a decree, which made it lawful for every Athenian to propose any measure he might think fit, without fear either of the prosecution to which the movers of illegal propositions were liable, or of any other ill consequence, and threatening all who should attempt to reAbove, p. 438. acy. * Εκ πλείστου ἐπιμεληθείς, viii., 68. * Ξυγγραφέας αὐτοκράτορας. Thuc, viii G. service had been kept on duty, with no intermission but for needful refreshment, either on the walls, or at their arms, which were piled, in constant readiness for action, in various parts of the city. On the day appointed for the ex oligarchs were directed, when they withdrew with their comrades from their stands, to let the rest disperse, but themselves to remain at a short distance from the arms, to wait for the turn of events; and they were re-enforced with some troops which were brought over for the purpose-perhaps the same which accompanied Pisander-from Andros Tenos, Carystus, and Ægina. The Four Hundred then armed themselves each with a short sword, which they probably did not take great care to conceal, and, escorted by a hundred and twenty of the younger conspirators, whom they selected as a permanent guard, proceeded to the council chamber, where the Five Hundred appear to have been all assembled. But, as they were unarmed, a * Πρόεδροι. less formidable display of force might have been sufficient to overawe them. When they were commanded to leave the room they silently obeyed, and at the door each received his pay for the remainder of the year. The rest of the citizens were equally passive; and the Four Hundred quietly installed themselves with the religious ceremonies usual on such occasions, and drew lots for their presiding members under the constitutional title of Prytanes. that the government was in the hands, not of the Four Hundred only, but of five thousand citizens, a greater number than the calls of foreign service in war time had ever been permitted to assemble at Athens for deliberation on any subject, however important.* The sound of this argument was probably designed to catch the unthinking, and to persuade them that the new institutions were really more popular than those which had been abolished. In substance it There were, perhaps, not wanting advocates seems to turn upon the fallacy, that a right of the oligarchy, who represented the erection which can be but seldom exercised is thereof the new council as a return to Solon's insti- fore of little value. But the effect which it tutions. But the spirit of a government hostile would have produced at this time on the minds to the great body of the people, which could of the hearers cannot be estimated; for the only reign, as it had usurped its authority, by deputation was stopped on its way by intelliterror, soon made itself felt in every part of the gence of some untoward events, which had ocadministration. Obnoxious citizens were re-curred at Samos during the time that the Four moved, a few by executions, others by imprison- Hundred were establishing their dominion at ment or exile. Only one of the measures which Athens, and was induced to wait at Delos until commonly accompanied a revolution in a Greek it should find an opportunity of executing its city was wanting on this occasion. The refu- commission with a fairer prospect of success. gees, many of whom might have been useful auxiliaries, were not recalled, through fear of Alcibiades, whom it was probably deemed imprudent to provoke, by excepting him from a general act of indulgence. But still the government was aware that it had no chance of permanently keeping its ground without foreign support; and one of its first objects was to make peace with Sparta. It addressed its overtures to Agis, and urged its claims to the confidence of an oligarchical power. But the Spartan king, believing these proposals to be the effect of conscious weakness, and thinking it impossible that so great a revolution could have been quietly brought about, gave no encouragement to the envoys, but sent for a strong reenforcement from Peloponnesus, and, as soon as he had received it, marched down from Decelea towards Athens. He hoped either to find disorder prevailing within the city, or to create it by the approach of his army; and expected that, even if the gates were not thrown open to him on his own terms, he should at least be able to carry the Long Walls, which, in a time of general confusion, would be left unprotected, at the first assault. But he was disappointed by the unanimity with which the Athenians were inspired by the presence of the invaders. All remained tranquil within, and, as he came near to the city, the foremost of his troops were charged by a body of cavalry, supported by heavy and light infantry, who cut down some, and kept possession of the slain. This repulse convinced him of his error; he gave orders for * This, Dr. Arnold observes, cannot have been literally retreat, and a few days after dismissed the true, since there were occasions which required the presnewly-arrived troops. He now listened more ence of six thousand citizens in the assembly. But the asfavourably to the Athenian oligarchs, who, not sertion is clearly limited to times of war; and it could harddiscouraged by their failure, or by the recently have been ventured upon, even by so imprudent a facdisplay of his hostile designs, renewed their application to him, and, by his advice, sent an embassy to treat for peace at Sparta. They had likewise, as soon as the revolution was accomplished, deputed ten of their number to Samos-where they foresaw that their proceedings would probably give great offence to the mass of the citizens in the fleet, and might provoke a dangerous opposition-to vindicate the purity of their intentions, and to exhibit the changes which had just taken place in the fairest light The seamen were to be informed Pisander, as we have seen, before his departure from Samos, had formed a new oligarchical faction there in the bosom of the commonalty itself, composed of persons who were averse, not to the principles, but only to the power of the defeated party, or who had been forced to dissemble their sentiments. They soon grew into a band of about 300 conspirators, and thought themselves strong enough to overthrow the democratical government; a design in which they were warmly encouraged by their Athenian friends, whom, to prove their zeal, they abetted in several acts of violence, similar to those by which the partisans of oligarchy had silenced opposition at Athens. Hyperbolus was at this time living at Samos; whether he took any part in the late political transactions does not appear. It is probable that he had several enemies in the fleet, and among them Charminus, one of the generals. The Samian conspirators aided them in assassinating him, and it seems that their hatred was not satiated by his death, but that they put his body into a sack, and sank it in the sea. The impunity with which they perpetrated this and like other deeds animated the Samians to the greater enterprise which they were meditating; but it seems also to have rendered them so confident of success, that they did not take sufficient care to conceal their purpose. The commonalty, having discovered its danger, applied to some of the Athenian commanders and other leading men, who were known to be adverse to the plans of the oli learned reader needs not to be informed that Thucydides tion, if it had not been at least generally well founded. The does not make this assertion himself. 72. This is a remark of the Greek scholiast on Thuc., viii., Theopompus, quoted by the Scholiast on Lucian, Timon, c. 30, and Schol. Arist., Pax., 680. It is only for the sake of readers who do not understand the language of Thucydides we need observe, that he does not mean that Char minus was with some others unfortunately killed, but that the Samians, in conjunction with Charminus and some other Athenians, killed Hyperbolus, and committed other like acts. But it required no common effrontery first to omit all mention of Hyperbolus, and then to represent the death of Charminus as an unfortunate accident, because it was supposed to be an oligarchical murder. garchs, for assistance to ward off the blow, the against the oligarchical usurpers. The city, effect of which would be to alienate Samos, they observed, had revolted from them, who, as hitherto the main support of the shaken pow- they were greatly superior in numbers and er of Athens, from the Athenian democracy. strength, might properly regard themselves as Among the generals, Leon and Diomedon were representing the state. Their means of collectsincerely attached to the institutions under ing supplies from their subjects, and of carrying which they had risen to a station which satis-on the war, were just the same as ever, though fied their honourable ambition; and, among the Samos-once a formidable rival of the Athenian persons of chief note in an inferior rank, Thra-power-was now to them what Athens had hithsybulus, son of Lycus, who commanded a gal-erto been. The navy had not only provided for ley, and Thrasyllus, who was serving in the its own subsistence, but had secured that of the army, shared their sentiments, and exerted their city, which, without the protection which they influence with the soldiers and seamen, to en- afforded to its commerce, would soon be reduced gage them to resist the threatened attack. The to distress, and might thus be compelled to recrew of the state galley, the Paralus, which was spect the claims of so numerous a body of citi entirely manned by Athenian citizens, were es- zens, whom the oligarchs had disfranchised. pecially ready to comply with their call; and They might very well dispense with all the aswith their aid the conspirators, when they made sistance they could hope to receive from Athens their attempt, were repulsed and overpowered. in their contest with the enemy. Its treasury Thirty were killed in the affray; but the survi- was empty, and it could not even pretend to divers were treated with extraordinary lenity. rect them with its counsels; for in upholding Three only the principal ringleaders-were their hereditary constitution, they had shown punished with banishment; the rest received as great a superiority in wisdom over those a free pardon and amnesty. who abolished it, as they possessed in power held out as an encouragement. It was still assumed that he was able to transfer the alliance of Persia from the enemy to them, and that he would gladly purchase his own recall at this price. Should all other resorces fail, with such a naval force as they possessed, they had their choice of many cities and territories, where they might find a new home. This event decided the triumph of the demo-to restore it. The name of Alcibiades was also cratical cause in the Athenian armament; and as the revolution which took place about the same time at Athens was not yet known at Samos, Chœreas, one of the persons who had taken the most active part in the late proceedings, was despatched on board the Paralus, to announce what it was supposed would be agreeable news to the government. But on its arrival the Four Hundred threw two or three of the most obnoxious among the ship's company into prison, and transferred the rest to another galley, which was ordered to a station on the coast of Euboea. Chœreas himself made his escape, and, returning to Samos, spread an exaggerated report of the tyranny of the new government, charging it with wanton outrages on the persons and families of the citizens, and with the design of arresting the relatives of those who were serving at Samos, and of keeping them as hostages, to be put to death if the fleet should hold out against the oligarchy. These calumnies so irritated the multitude, that it was with difficulty they were restrained by the remonstrances of their more discreet friends, who pointed out the danger of a tumult in the camp while the enemy was so near at hand, from falling on the chief authors of the oligarchical conspiracy. But Thrasybulus and Thrasyllus took this opportunity to bind them by a solemn oath, which was exacted even from those who were known to entertain opposite sentiments, to maintain democratical government and mutual concord, and to persevere in the war with the Peloponnesians, and in implacable enmity towards the Four Hundred. All the Samians of ripe age took the same oath, and were henceforth indissolubly united with the Athenians of the fleet by a sense of common interests and dangers. Before these disturbances had subsided, the rumour of them reached Miletus, and contributed to irritate the discontent which had for some time prevailed in the armament at the conduct of Astyochus and Tissaphernes. The satrap, after he had gained his point by the treaty concluded in the winter, had become as remiss as before in making the stipulated pay. ments, and the Spartan admiral not only connived at this breach of faith, and omitted to second the remonstrances of Hermocrates and others who loudly complained of it, but, affecting to place entire confidence in the professions of Tissaphernes, under pretence of waiting for the Phoenician galleys, kept the fleet in a state of inaction in which its strength was continually wearing away. Even when the report of the intestine dissensions which were agitating the camp at Samos, while a considerable part of the Athenian forces was in the Hellespont, seemed to offer the most favourable opportunity for attacking the remainder, Astyochus showed no disposition to take advantage of it; till at length the murmurs of the men, especially of the Syracusans, grew so loud, that he no longer ventured to neglect them, but held a council of war, in which it was determined to make an attempt to draw the enemy into a decisive engagement. Accordingly the fleet, which had been raised by the re-enforcements last received from Chios to 112 galleys, moved After this an assembly was held in the camp, towards Mycalé, while the Milesian troops were in which the generals and some of the captains ordered to march in the same direction to supwho were suspected of disaffection were re-port it. The Athenians, with 82 galleys, were moved, and their places filled with more trustworthy men; among the new generals were Thrasybulus and Thrasyllus. The speakers who came forward in this assembly animated their hearers boldly to maintain their rights at this time lying off Glaucé, a point on the coast at the foot of Mycalé divided by a narrow channel from Samos, and perceiving the Pelo ponnesians approaching with a force which they thought it imprudent to encounter, they sailed across to their own camp. No measures, it seems, had been preconcerted for the event, though it was one which might have been reasonably expected, of their declining a battle, and Astyochus did not desire one. He, however, formed an encampment, both for his naval and land forces, on the coast of Mycalé, and the next day prepared to sail up to Samos; but he was stopped by the intelligence that Strombichides had arrived with his squadron from the Hellespont. He had been sent for as soon as it was known that the Peloponnesians were meditating a hostile movement, and the ships which he brought with him raised the numbers of the Athenians to 108. Astyochus immediately led his armament back to Miletus, and when the Athenians came up and challenged him in their turn, he kept within the harbour. ponnesians with such distrust of Tissaphernes as might lead to an open rupture. He therefore did not scruple to pretend that the satrap had assured him that, if he could only rely on the Athenians, they should not want pay for their seamen, no, not if he should be forced to turn the furniture of his palace into money for them, and that he would bring the Phoenician fleet, which had already come westward as far as Aspendus, to their aid instead of the enemy's; but that he could rely upon them only when he saw Alcibiades recalled, and placed in a situation where he might engage for the steadiness of their conduct. The success of these boasts was greater, perhaps, than he hoped or even desired; for the assembly not only created him general, and intrusted him with the whole management of the negotiation with Tissaphernes, but, passing at once to an excess of His judgment in avoiding a battle with an confidence, as if there was no longer anything enemy so little inferior in numerical strength to fear from the Peloponnesian armament, was seems not to have been questioned; but, as of- eager to turn its arms against the Four Hunfensive movements were held to be no longer dred, and a proposition was formally made, and practicable in this quarter, and the difficulty of found many warm supporters, for sailing forthproviding for the subsistence of the armament with to attack Piræus. Alcibiades, however, became more pressing, while the supplies of checked this temerity, and declared that the Tissaphernes grew every day scantier, it was first duty which his new office imposed on him thought expedient to embrace the offers of was to treat with Tissaphernes on the means Pharnabazus, who had sent repeated invita- of finishing the war. And accordingly, as soon tions with the promise of furnishing pay for as as the assembly broke up, he set off for the samany ships as should come to him, and to car-trap's court, at once to make a display of their ry into effect that part of the original plan of operations which related to the Hellespont. Overtures which were received at the same time from Byzantium enforced these motives, and Clearchus was despatched with a squadron of forty galleys; it was, however, dispersed by a storm which overtook it on the open sea, into which he ventured out, to escape the notice of the Athenians, and only ten galleys, under the command of Helixus the Megarian, held on their course to the Hellespont. Their arrival, however, gave the Byzantians courage to revolt. Clearchus himself, with the rest of his squadron, after having put into Delos for shelter, returned to Miletus, and thence he proceeded by land to the Hellespont. The Athenians also despatched a small force to the same quarter from Samos. In the mean while Thrasybulus and his colleagues, who had always looked to Alcibiades as the chief hope of their cause in the contest which they had to maintain against his and their common enemies, at length procured a decree from the camp assembly, by which he was pardoned and recalled. Thrasybulus, who was the principal author of the measure, himself sailed to fetch him from the court of Tissaphernes, and brought him to Samos, where an assembly was held to receive him. He addressed it in language fitted to move its sympathy with his personal misfortunes, and to cheer it with brighter prospects of public affairs. He magnified the influence which he pretended to possess over Tissaphernes to an extravagant degree, and his object, Thucydides observes, in this exaggeration, was not merely to dazzle and encourage his hearers; he knew that an account of his speech would find its way both to Athens and to the Peloponnesian camp, and he hoped that his assertions would inspire the oligarchical faction with terror, and the Pelo intimacy, which would raise his own credit with the Athenians, and by the exhibition of his new dignity to exalt the importance of his friendship in the eyes of Tissaphernes. The recall of Alcibiades, and the means by which it was accomplished, were soon known in the Peloponnesian camp, and the news produced much of the effect which he had expected. It strengthened the suspicions which had long prevailed against Tissaphernes, and revived the murmurs which had before broken out against Astyochus. Not only the common seamen, but persons of higher station in the fleet, charged the admiral with having sold the interests of the service to Tissaphernes; and his imprudence aggravated the popular discontent into an uproar, which threatened his life. The Syracusan and Thurian seamen, accompanied by their commander, Diagoras, came in a body to him, and, with the plainness of men who were not used to restraints on their freedom of speech, demanded the arrears of their pay. Astyochus answered haughtily, threatened the claimants, and at last raised his staff, as if to strike Dorieus, who was foremost to plead the cause of his men. The insolent gesture kindled the indignation of the crowd; they rushed upon the admiral with a fierce outcry, and he only escaped their violence by flying to an altar, where he remained till the tumult was appeased. The temper thus displayed encouraged the people of Miletus to make an attack upon a fortress which Tissaphernes had built in their city, and to expel the garrison which he had placed there, and their proceedings were viewed with approbation by their allies, especially by the Syracusans. Lichas, however, condemned them, and laid it down as a general principle, that the Greeks within the province of Tissaphernes must submit to his authority, if moderately exercised; but at the same time he intimated that their subjection was only to last until the war should have been happily terminated. Yet even this hint did not soothe the anger he excited by his resistance to the popular will on this and some similar occasions; and it showed itself even after his death, which happened at Miletus, when the Milesians interfered to deprive him of the honours which his countrymen wished to pay to his remains. Just at this juncture, by a seasonable coincidence, a new admiral, named Mindarus, arrived from Sparta to take the place of Astyochus, who sailed home. He was accompanied by an agent of Tissaphernes, a Carian, named Gaulites, who was equally familiar with the Greek as with his own tongue, and who was instructed to complain of the conduct of the Milesians, in the expulsion of the Persian garrison, and to vindicate his master from the charges with which he knew himself to be threatened; for Milesian envoys were on their way to Sparta with Hermocrates, to expose the satrap's duplicity, his connexion with Alcibiades, and the injury which the cause of the Peloponnesians had suffered from it. which, however, was designed to conciliate not the Four Hundred, but the great mass of their partisans. As to the Five Thousand, be did not mean to deprive them of their franchise; but he required that the Four Hundred should be deposed, and the old council of Five Hundred reinstated in its legitimate authority. All measures of retrenchment, by which a greater part of the public revenue was spared for the maintenance of the troops, should have his. hearty approbation; and he exhorted his countrymen at home to persevere in resisting the enemy. As long as they all continued to defend themselves against attacks from without there was good hope that they would be able to compose their domestic quarrels; but the disposition for reconciliation would come too late if any fatal blow should be struck either against Athens or against the armament at Samos. The assembly was likewise attended by an embassy which brought offers of assistance from Argos. The Argive envoys came along with the crew of the Paralus, whom the Athenia government had first degraded by transferring them to another vessel, and had then incautiously intrusted them with the charge of conveying three ambassadors to Sparta. But in their passage they stopped at Argos, where they left their oligarchical companions in custody, and sailed with the Argive ministers to Samos. Alcibiades, in the name of the assembly, thanked the Argives for their offers, and expressed his hope that the Athenians would find them equally prompt on future occasions when their aid might be needed. In the mean while Alcibiades had returned to Samos. His presence seems to have encouraged the ministers of the Four Hundred, who, as we have seen, had stopped at Delos, to continue their voyage to the camp. There they were introduced into the military assembly, and executed their commission. It was some time before they could gain a hearing; they were interrupted by cries which threatened the subverters of the constitution with death. But when the tumult was hushed, they defend- Though Tissaphernes had adopted the policy ed the conduct of the Four Hundred, and the suggested to him by Alcibiades towards the changes which had taken place at Athens, and Peloponnesians, so far as to determine that he endeavoured to remove the impression which would never grant them any effectual succours, had been made by the exaggerations and fic- he was still as anxious as ever to avoid an tions of Chæreas. They contended, that if the open breach with them, into which it was the government had ever harboured the design aim of his counsellor to draw him. He therewhich had been imputed to it, of betraying the fore thought it necessary, when the suspicions city to the enemy, it would have seized the op- of his allies had been raised to their greatest portunity afforded by the appearance of Agis height by the restoration of Alcibiades, to make before the walls. It had proved, on that occa- some attempt to recover their confidence, or, sion, that it had no views inconsistent with the at least, to revive their hopes. For this pursafety and honour of the commonwealth. The pose he proceeded in person to Aspendus, with political privileges bestowed by the new order the avowed object of bringing the Phoenician of things were not appropriated to a narrow fleet to join the Peloponnesians. He desired oligarchy, but were to be shared by five thou- that Lichas might accompany him, and appoint sand citizens. All that they had heard of the ed Tamos to provide for the subsistence of the ill treatment of their relatives was a groundless Peloponnesian armament in his absence. The calumny none were molested either in their forethought of Tissaphernes never went beyond persons or their property. But the assembly an expedient for gaining time; and he trusted either did not believe this assertion or was not to his ingenuity for inventing a new one when satisfied with their explanations, and seemed that which served his immediate purpose was to be only irritated by the attempts made to worn out. The journey to Aspendus, which conciliate it. Among various proposals sug- seemed to offer a decisive test of his sincerity, gested by its resentment, that of sailing to Pi- appeased the allies, and probably persuaded ræus was renewed, and was recommended with many that he was at last in earnest. This great vehemence by many voices; but Alcibi- belief was confirmed when, after his arrival ades again interposed to prevent a step which there, he sent for a Lacedæmonian officer to would have left Ionia and the Hellespont in the take charge of the Phoenician fleet; and Phienemy's power; and, manifest as the danger lippus was despatched with two galleys for this was, Thucydides believes that no other man purpose. But Alcibiades knew his mind betpossessed influence enough to have averted it. ter, and, when the news reached Samos, de It was the first great service which he had ren-clared his intention of following him to Aspendered to his country. He silenced those who would have indulged in personal invectives against the envoys with a severe reproof, and dismissed them with a firm but mild answer, dus, and engaged either to return with the Phoenician fleet, or to prevent it from being em ployed in the enemy's service. He was prob ably aware that the Athenians had as little to |