Alkibiades, a tale of the Great Athenian War

by Charles Hamilton Bromby

The hoplites stationed at Samos did not smile. They had a short time back listened for a moment to Peisandros, when he talked eloquently to them of the necessity of modifying somewhat their old form of government; but they never liked the notion of the change, and only tolerated it on the condition that Alkibiades was to come back to them, with or without the Persian fleet and Persian gold. It was the man they wanted more than the help of barbarous Persians.

The healthy democrats of Samos did not long suffer oligarchic daggers to be used on them. Luckily two of the generals of the Athenian army there were democratic. The stirring times called forth two other men, of whom we shall hear a good deal before long—Thrasyboulos, captain of a trireme, and Thrasyllos, now only a soldier serving in the ranks.

News of the attempted rising and its speedy overthrow was sent off to Athens by the Paralos, the other sacred state trireme, whose sturdy crew had given invaluable help in quelling the abortive Samian revolution. It was supposed that this good news would be joyously received at the Peiræus. One can imagine the astonishment of Chaireas, the captain, and the crew of the sacred ship, when they saw the change which had come over Athens, and found that they were, almost as prisoners, taken from the Paralos and sent off on board another vessel to Euboia. Chaireas alone escaped, and after hiding at Athens for some time made his way back to Samos.

There he painted before his fellow-countrymen in vivid, highly-coloured pictures the state of things at home, and how it had been brought about: the miserable condition of the people; the savage triumph of the oligarchs; no assembly of the people now, no tribunals to which the injured could appeal. The traitors, he said, were even making overtures to Sparta to come and sustain them in their power on the ruins of the state.

On hearing this, the soldiers could hardly be prevented from rushing on any whom they suspected of having been in the late plot. They were only restrained by some with cooler heads, who pointed out the danger of fighting among themselves while Sparta’s fleet was but a few miles off at Miletos, ready to come down upon them and destroy both parties. They had good reason to be united and to respect themselves. Athens gone, who was there left to carry on Athenian institutions but this band of Athenians at Samos? Athens was there.

Thrasyllos and Thrasyboulos came forward and impressed upon them the responsibilities they lay under. By keeping united, by firmness and good faith, they might restore order and right at home, and make such examples of the traitors as would be a warning to all others who might in the future contemplate like treason.

‘You have here—indeed, you are yourselves—the chief part of all the force now left to our ill-fated land. Here is a strong town from which you can issue to attack the enemy, and to which you can retire at need. Athens has little left now but you. Expect no further aid from her. Rely upon yourselves. Continue the war. And if the worst should happen, you have ships to carry you to some place where you will not want for fields to till, nor towns to live in, and where you may found a new and happier Athens beyond the seas.’

The soldiers rose and swore a solemn oath to act together, and never to separate till they had done their duty to their old country. Some of the suspected leaders they deposed. Thrasyboulos and Thrasyllos were chosen in their place. The soldiers were animated by a new confidence in one another, and in their mission, ready to live and die in the cause of liberty.

But to make sure against their twofold enemy a strong general was wanted, and they felt, too, that if aid could be obtained on honest terms from Persia, they would be more than a match for Sparta. In this state of feeling they met again a few days afterwards. Thrasyboulos boldly advised that Alkibiades should be invited to come to Samos, and be invested with supreme command. The proposal was received with acclamation, and Thrasyboulos himself went off to the Court of Tissaphernes with the invitation. He found the great Athenian still at Magnesia amid his eastern pleasures, with the satrap as much under his influence as ever.

Alkibiades at first supposed it was on some fresh quest for Persian help that this new deputy was come. When he heard what the message was his heart bounded; he could scarce conceal his feelings. To be free from the clogging atmosphere of Asia, the cloying, enervating, unworthy life; to breathe again among free men; to have fresh opportunities of action—here was at last one step on towards his end, the end of these long years of effort and of disappointment. He broke the news to the regretful Tissaphernes, and set out with his new-found friend, with whom he was soon to do so much for Athens.