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

124 THE FALL OF THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE
Phrynichus now found himself in a most dangerous position. The
news of his opposition would certainly get to Alcibiades before too
long, and the plan to recall the renegade was under way. He needed
a scheme to prevent the return of his enemy, and he produced an
imaginative and daring one. Phrynichus wrote a letter secretly to Astyochus,
the Spartan navarch who was at Miletus, revealing the details
of Alcibiades' plot, including the plan to bring Tissaphernes and the
Persians over to the Athenian side. His excuse, as we have seen, was
the hostility of Alcibiades and the threat it posed to his own safety.
Apparently, Phrynichus had not yet learned of Alcibiades' flight from
the Peloponnesian camp and assumed that Astyochus could easily lay
hands on the Athenian exile. 72 The stratagem, therefore, would have
been doomed from the first if Astyochus had merely done the obvious
and ignored the letter about which he could do nothing. Instead, he
took the initiative and went to Magnesia to see Tissaphernes and Alcibiades.
He told them the contents of the letter and established a close
relationship with Tissaphernes. It was later rumored that his actions
in this affair and in other matters were prompted by bribes from the
sa trap. 73
Alcibiades' reaction was to write a letter to those in charge at Samos
revealing Phrynichus' treachery and asking that they put him to death.
Phrynichus was now in great peril. His mistake about the whereabouts
of Alcibiades and his misjudgment of Astyochus had produced a situation
in which he might be killed by the leaders at Samos even before
the restoration of his enemy. He now concocted an even more imaginative
and desperate scheme. He wrote another letter to Astyochus,
complaining of his breach of honor, but offering a great opportunity.
He was prepared to offer the Peloponnesians a way to destroy the
entire Athenian army at Samos, since it was without walls. He explained
his action, once again on the grounds of the increased danger
to his own life at the hands of his greatest enemy. Once again Astyochus
turned the information over to Alcibiades.
Somehow Phrynichus learned that Astyochus had betrayed him and
was working against his interests. 74 Alcibiades had again written a
letter to Samos, which had all but arrived, telling of Phrynichus' latest
72 This point is well made by H. D. Westlake in}HS LXXVI (1956), 101. Although
I do not accept some of his conclusions, I have learned much from his close and
perceptive reading of Thucydides.
7l8.so. 3 ; s 3 . 3 .
74 HCT V, IIf!-120, suggests how he might have done so.