XXXVIII. The Athenians were terribly cast down at the loss of their
empire; but when Lysander robbed them of their liberty as well, by
establishing the government of the Thirty Tyrants, they began to
entertain thoughts which never had occurred to them before, while it was
yet possible that the State might be saved from ruin. They bewailed
their past blunders and mistakes, and of these they considered their
second fit of passion with Alkibiades to have been the greatest. They
had cast him off for no fault of his own, but merely because they were
angry with his follower for having lost a few ships disgracefully; they
had much more disgraced themselves by losing the services of the ablest
and bravest general whom they possessed. Even in their present abasement
a vague hope prevailed among them that Athens could not be utterly lost
while Alkibiades was alive; for he had not during his former exile been
satisfied with a quiet life, and surely now, however prosperous his
private circumstances might be, he would not endure to see the triumph
of the Lacedaemonians, and the arrogant tyranny of the Thirty. Indeed
this was proved to be no vain dream by the care which the Thirty took to
watch all the motions of Alkibiades. At last, Kritias informed Lysander,
that while Athens was governed by a democracy, the Lacedaemonian empire
in Greece could never be safe; and if the Athenians were ever so much
inclined to an oligarchical form of government, Alkibiades, if he lived,
would not long suffer them to submit to it.
Pages:
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548