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The generals of the Athenians, on learning that the Lacedaemonians in full force were besieging Lampsacus, assembled their triremes from all quarters and put forth against them in haste with one hundred and eighty ships. [2] But finding the city already taken, at the time they stationed their ships at Aegospotami1 but afterward sailed out each day against the enemy and offered battle. When the Peloponnesians persisted in not coming out against them, the Athenians were at a loss what to do in the circumstances, since they were unable to find supplies for their armaments for any further length of time where they were. [3] Alcibiades2 now came to them and said that Medocus and Seuthes, the kings of the Thracians, were friends of his and had agreed to give him a large army if he wished to make war to a finish on the Lacedaemonians; he therefore asked them to give him a share in the command, promising them one of two things, either to compel the enemy to accept battle or to contend with them on land with the aid of the Thracians.3 [4] This offer Alcibiades made from a desire to achieve by his own efforts some great success for his country and through his benefactions to bring the people back to their old affection for him. But the generals of the Athenians, considering that in case of defeat the blame would attach to them and that in case of success all men would attribute it to Alcibiades, quickly bade him to be gone and not come near the camp ever again.

1 The "Goat-rivers," about five miles across the strait from Lampsacus.

2 He had retired to two castles in Thrace, one of which was at Pactye, only some twenty miles from where the Athenians were anchored (cp. supra, chap. 74.2).

3 Xenophon (Xen. Hell. 2.1.25 f.) says nothing about this demand of Alcibiades, but only that he urged the generals to base upon Sestus.

Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.

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