[29]
Thus—and it is only by calling the past to mind that one can properly determine policy—we began by making a truce with the Great King and establishing a permanent accord with him, thanks to the diplomacy of my mother's brother, Epilycus, the son of Teisander.1 But later the king's runaway slave, Amorges,2 induced us to discard the powerful support of his master as worthless. We chose instead what we imagined to be a more advantageous understanding with Amorges himself. The king in his anger replied by allying himself with Sparta,3 and furnished her with five thousand talents with which to prosecute the war; nor was he satisfied until he had overthrown our empire. That is one instance of such policy.
1 Epilycus is not mentioned elsewhere. The last formal peace negotiated between Athens and Persia had been the Peace of Callias, c. 462-460 B.C. Andocides may have in mind the deputation which was sent to the Persian Court in 424 （Thuc. 4.50）.
2 Amorges was the son of a rebel satrap of Lydia named Pissuthnes. After the recovery of Lydia by Tissaphernes Amorges took refuge in Caria. He was given shelter by Iasus, a member of the Athenian Confederacy. Iasus was stormed by the Spartans in 412 on the instigation of Tissaphernes, and Amorges was handed over to the Persians （Thuc. 8.5.5）.
3 In 413. The sum mentioned is an exaggeration. From 413 to 407 Tissaphernes made it a point of policy to withhold subsidies from the Spartans as far as possible in order to prolong the war and weaken both combatants. In 407 he was superseded by Cyrus, who brought with him 500 talents for the improvement of the Spartan navy.
Andocides. Minor Attic Orators in two volumes 1, Antiphon Andocides, with an English translation by K. J. Maidment, M.A. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1968.
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