The Fall of the Athenian Empire-(A New History of the Peloponnesian War) Donald Kagan - (1987)

90 THE FALL OF THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE
Astyochus' fleet was now joined with Antisthenes' ships at Cnidus.
Since the xymbouloi had orders to investigate and evaluate the charges
against Astyochus, and since important matters in which the navarch
must be involved impended, we may assume that they made their
inquiries and held their hearings at once. There can be no doubt that
they acquitted Astyochus, because he continued in office and carried
out his duties until replaced some time in the summer of 411. 87 Their
failure to remove him, although specifically empowered to do so and
provided with a potential replacement, should discredit any idea that
sending the board of xymbouloi was part of a political maneuver on the
part of one Spartan faction to remove the representative of another.
It would have been easy enough to find a pretext: he had enjoyed little
naval success, disappointed the allies, quarreled with Pedaritus, and
failed to carry out the order to capture and kill Alcibiades. The inquisitors
could not have been determined in advance to dislodge the
navarch, and their investigation must have shown him to be innocent
of wrong-doing.
With that matter out of the way, the Spartans were prepared to
meet Tissaphernes when he came to Cnidus to discuss their grievances
with them. Lichas took the leading role in the conference. The earlier
draft agreements negotiated by Chalcideus and Therimenes had never
been ratified at Sparta, as Lichas' easy dismissal of them shows. 88 The
Spartan commanders in lonia had acted as though the agreements were
binding, but even so, the treaty of Therimenes contained a clause
permitting further negotiation if either party should be dissatisfied. 89
Lichas, therefore, made assault on the previous agreements. "It was
scandalous that the King still claimed to rule all the territory that he
and his ancestors ruled in the past, for that would mean that all the
islands would again be enslaved by him, as well as Thessaly, Locris,
and everything as far as Boeotia; instead of freedom the Spartans would
bring the Greeks subjugation to the Persian Empire." If a better treaty
were not concluded, "the Spartans would not abide by these, nor did
he ask for support on such terms.""'
Lichas' intentions are not easy to determine. On the surface it might
appear that he was expressing his own and Sparta's sincere outrage at
the price in Greek freedom that the previous negotiators had paid for