14.11.3But Pharnabazus, on hearing the story, usurped the function of reporter and sent trusted men to disclose the matter to the King. When Pharnabazus did not provide escorts to the capital, Ephorus continues, Alcibiades set out to the satrap of Paphlagonia in order to make the trip with his assistance; but Pharnabazus, fearing lest the King should hear the truth of the affair, sent men after Alcibiades to slay him on the road.
14.11.4These came upon him where he had taken shelter in a village of Phrygia, and in the night enclosed the place with a mass of fuel. When a strong fire was kindled, Alcibiades endeavoured to save himself, but came to his death from the fire and the javelins of his attackers. note
14.11.5About the same time Democritus note the philosopher died at the age of ninety. And Lasthenes the Theban, who was the victor in the Olympic Games of this year, won a race, we are told, against a race horse, the course being from Coroneia to the city of the Thebans. note
14.11.6In Italy the Roman garrison of Erruca, note a city of the Volsci, was attacked by the enemy, who captured the city and slew most of the defenders.
ch. 12 note
14.12.1When the events of this year had come to an end, Eucleides was archon in Athens, and in Rome four military tribunes succeeded to the consular magistracy, Publius Cornelius, Numerius Fabius, and Lucius Valerius. note
14.12.2After these magistrates had taken office, the Byzantines were in serious difficulties both because of factional strife and of a war that they were waging with the neighbouring Thracians; and since they were unable to devise a settlement of their mutual differences, they asked the Lacedaemonians for a general. The Spartans, accordingly, sent them Clearchus to bring order to the affairs of the city;
14.12.3and he, after being entrusted with supreme authority, and having gathered a large body of mercenaries, was no longer their president but their tyrant. First of all, he invited their chief magistrates to attend a festival of some kind and put them to death, and after this, since there was no government in the city, he seized a group of thirty prominent Byzantines, put a cord about their necks, and strangled them to death. After appropriating for himself the property of those he had slain, he also picked out the wealthy among the rest of the citizens, and launching false charges against them, he put some to death and drove others into exile. Having thus acquired a large amount of money and assembled a great body of mercenaries, he made his tyrannical power secure.
14.12.4When the cruelty and power of the tyrant became noised abroad, the Lacedaemonians first of all dispatched ambassadors to him to prevail upon him to lay down his tyrannical power, but when he paid no heed to their requests, they sent an army against him under the command of Panthoedas.
14.12.5Clearchus, on learning of his approach, transferred his army to Selymbria, being master also of this city, for he assumed that after the many crimes he had committed against the Byzantines, he would have as enemies not only the Lacedaemonians, but also the inhabitants of the city.
14.12.6Consequently, having decided that Selymbria would be a safer base for the war, he removed both his treasure and his army to that place. When he learned that the Lacedaemonians were close at hand, he advanced to meet them and joined battle with the troops of Panthoedas at the place called Porus.
14.12.7The struggle lasted a long while, but the Lacedaemonians fought splendidly and the forces of the tyrant were destroyed. Clearchus with a few companions was at first shut up in Selymbria and besieged there, but later he was fearful and slipped away by night, and crossed over to Ionia, where he became intimate with Cyrus, the brother of the Persian King, and won command of his troops.
14.12.8For Cyrus, who had been appointed supreme commander of the satrapies lying on the sea note and was afire with ambition, was planning to lead an army against his brother Artaxerxes.
14.12.9Observing, therefore, that Clearchus possessed daring and a prompt boldness, he supplied him with funds and instructed him to enroll as many mercenaries as he could, believing that he would have in Clearchus an apt partner for his bold undertakings.
ch. 13
14.13.1Lysander the Spartan, after he had introduced governments in all the cities under the Lacedaemonians in accordance with the will of the ephors, establishing a rule of ten men in some and oligarchies in others, was the cynosure of Sparta. For by bringing the Peloponnesian War to an end he had bestowed upon his native land the supreme power, acknowledged by all, both on land and on sea.
14.13.2Consequently, having become filled with pride on this account, he conceived the idea of putting an end to the kingship of the Heracleidae note and making every Spartan eligible to election as king; for he hoped that the kingship would very soon come to him because of his achievements, which were very great and glorious.
