‘In war was never lion raged more fierce,
In peace was never gentle lamb more mild,
Than was this young and princely gentleman.’
Richard II.
As they drew near Magnesia they were struck with the beauty and splendour of the place, differing so greatly from the magnificence of Athens or any other place they had seen. There was little architectural art in the form of temples or of statues. Art here was found chiefly in the beauty of the gardens, in directing Nature, and in adding to man’s luxury and comfort. As they reached the dwelling of the satrap, they were astonished at the vastness of the grounds through which they rode, the trees, the flowering shrubs, the roses, the citrons, and the myrtles. At length they reached the palace. Servants in gay Eastern dresses, bright with many colours, were about the doors, the courts and the arcades, some actively engaged in preparing for the banquet, others lounging about or squatting on the ground as though they had nothing else to do in life but to enjoy its sunshine, till a court-official came with whip in hand to set the lazy dogs to work.
The Nubian porter was surprised at the appearance of the travellers. The commanding presence of one of them increased his wonder. When he saw the eager joy with which his lord and master, the mighty satrap, embraced him, his surprise was great indeed. The slaves had never heard of Alkibiades. They looked upon the Greeks as pale islanders who had settled on the coast, protected by the satrap of the King of Kings, and allowed by him to live as long as they paid tribute.
The reception by Tissaphernes was as warm and cordial as could be. After the traveller had refreshed himself by rest and a luxurious bath, such as he had not been able to enjoy for many a day, a banquet of more than usual splendour was given in honour of the Athenian.
He soon became the inseparable companion of the satrap, for there was a joyaunce in his whole demeanour, something peculiar and loveable about him, a gaiety and sprightliness in all he said and did, that relieved the monotony of life, and shed a lustre round it day by day; a spaciousness and beauty in his graver thoughts, a brightness even in the small, familiar opinions he expressed, on men and manners, that made all listen to him when he spoke; while there was a grace and beauty in his countenance which brightened and adorned everything about him.
He who lately had made the Spartans wonder at the hardness and simplicity of his life now astonished the effeminate Persians by the softness, gentleness, even the effeminacy, of his ways. He adopted all their habits, and amongst those luxurious Easterns none was more splendidly luxurious than he, or a more joyous companion in the pleasures and the pastimes of the satrap’s court. But when the viceregal hunt took place in the vast Magnesian “paradise,” the supple Greek threw off, for the time, his newly-assumed soft, dallying ways, and showed how his horse was fleetest in pursuit of deer, his spear of surest aim when the wild boar came across his path. And when high matters of state had to be considered, there was no counsellor so wise, none whose judgment was so luminous, or on whose sage diplomacy his friend and host could so implicitly rely. In a short time he gained a complete ascendancy in the councils of the Persian, who entered on no course of action save by the guidance of his constant companion and incomparable friend.
Alkibiades began by suggesting that perhaps it was not wise to let the Lakedaimonians become too strong. Athens, he said, was well-nigh crushed in Greece. Sparta had Athens in her power by land; if she was aided further by the Persian fleet and Persian money, she would gain complete mastery by sea, become too strong, be puffed up with pride and insolence, and kick against the terms of her treaty with the Persian king. The Spartans were a people of proverbially bad faith. It was better that these two powers should balance one another than that either should preponderate. It was the best course to let them go on destroying one another. Then Persia would gain an ascendancy in Ionia and in the Aigaian Sea. On the other hand, if it should happen that Athens ever did become a tributary state to Sparta, which now seemed not impossible, the Persians would have at great expense and loss to combat the successful state, in order to keep it within reasonable limits. These arguments had no little weight with Tissaphernes.