Greek Texts & Translations

From Proconnesus the Athenians sailed on the next day against Cyzicus; 1.1.19and the Cyzicenes admitted them, inasmuch as the Peloponnesians and Pharnabazus had evacuated the city. 1.1.20There Alcibiades remained for twenty days, and after obtaining a great deal of money from the Cyzicenes, but without doing any further harm in the city, sailed back to Proconnesus. From there he sailed to Perinthus and Selymbria. 1.1.21And the Perinthians admitted the Athenian forces to their city, and the Selymbrians, while not admitting them, gave them money. 1.1.22From there they proceeded to Chrysopolis, in Calchedonia, and fortified it, established a custom house in the city, and proceeded to collect the tithe-duty from vessels sailing out of the Pontus ^note; they also left there as a garrison thirty ships and two of the generals, ^note Theramenes and Eumachus, to have charge of the fort, to attend to the outgoing ships, and to harm the enemy in any other way they could. The other generals returned to the Hellespont.

1.1.23Meanwhile a letter dispatched to Lacedaemon by Hippocrates, vice-admiral under Mindarus, was intercepted and taken to Athens; it ran as follows: “The ships are gone. Mindarus is dead. The men are starving. We know not what to do.” 1.1.24Pharnabazus, however, urged the whole Peloponnesian army and their allies not to be discouraged over a matter of ship-timber—for he said there was plenty of that in the King's land—so long as their bodies were safe; and he not only gave to each man a cloak and subsistence for two months, but he also armed the sailors and set them as guards over his own coastline. 1.1.25Furthermore, calling together the generals and ship-captains from the various states, he bade them build triremes at Antandrus to equal the number which they had severally lost, giving them money for the purpose and telling them to get timber from Mount Ida. 1.1.26And while the ship-building was going on, the Syracusans helped the Antandrians to finish a portion of their wall, and in the garrison-duty made themselves most popular. For this reason the Syracusans now enjoy at Antandrus the privileges of benefactors and citizens. As for Pharnabazus, after making these arrangements he went at once to the relief of Calchedon.

1.1.27At this time word came from home to the Syracusan generals that they had been banished by the democratic party. ^note Accordingly they called together their soldiers and, through Hermocrates as spokesman, ^note lamented their misfortune in being unjustly and illegally banished, all without exception. They urged their soldiers to continue zealous in the future, as they had been in the past, and to be true men in obeying every order; and they directed them to choose new commanders, to hold office until those who had been chosen to fill their places should arrive from Syracuse. 1.1.28The men, however, and particularly the captains and marines and steersmen, set up a shout at this and bade the generals remain in command. They replied that they ought not to indulge in partizan opposition to their own government. “But if anyone,” they said, “has any charge to bring against us, you should give us a hearing, remembering how many naval battles you have won and how many ships you have captured when fighting by yourselves, and how often when associated with others you have proved yourselves invincible under our leadership, occupying the most honourable post in the line of battle on account of our skill and your own zealous spirit, exhibited both on land and sea.”