To some this seemed mere
boasting, while others thought that he could very possibly effect it by
bringing many Thracian light-armed troops and cavalry to assault the
camp on the land side. However, the result soon proved that he had
rightly seen the fault of the Athenian position. Lysander suddenly and
unexpectedly assailed it, and except eight triremes which escaped under
Konon, took all the rest, nearly two hundred in number. Lysander also
put three thousand prisoners to the sword. He shortly afterwards
captured Athens, burned her ships, and pulled down her Long Walls.
Alkibiades, terrified at seeing the Lacedaemonians omnipotent by sea and
land, shifted his quarters to Bithynia, sending thither a great amount
of treasure, and taking much with him, but leaving much more in his
Thracian fortresses. In Bithynia, however, he suffered much loss at the
hands of the natives, and determined to proceed to the court of
Artaxerxes, thinking that the Persian king, if he would make trial of
him, would find that he was not inferior to Themistokles in ability,
while he sought him in a much more honourable way; for it was not to
revenge himself on his fellow-citizens, as Themistokles did, but to
assist his own country against its enemy that he meant to solicit the
king's aid. Imagining that Pharnabazus would be able to grant him a safe
passage to the Persian court, he went into Phrygia to meet him, and
remained there for some time, paying his court to the satrap, and
receiving from him marks of respect.
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