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

THE RETURN OF ALCIBIADES 277
ritory even before the arrival of the main Athenian force. Alcibiades
and Thrasyllus left an adequate garrison to guard Lampsacus and sailed
for the Bosporus. When they joined forces and made camp before
Chalcedon, the combined fleet may have reached a total of almost 190
ships." On learning of the vast armada sailing against them, the Chalcedonians
turned over what remained of their portable property to
their friendly neighbors, the Thracians of Bithynia, for safekeeping ..
Alcibiades took a force of infantry and cavalry, marching them along
the shore protected by the fleet, into Bithynian territory. The frightened
Bithynians surrendered the booty on demand, agreed to a treaty,
and were not heard from again."
The entire army then turned to the siege of Chalcedon. The Athenians
constructed a wooden wall running from the Bosporus to the
Sea of Marmora. This enclosed the Chalcedonians within a triangle
of land, with the Athenian army and the wooden palisade between
them and the Persians. The Athenians were free to throw most of
their force against the city, since the wall, manned by only a few men,
could hold off Pharnabazus. Since the Athenian fleet controlled the
seas, the encirclement was complete. Hippocrates, the Spartan harmost
of the city, chose to march his hoplites out and offer battle, and Thrasyllus
led the main force of Athenian hoplites against him. The battle
was hard-fought and, for- a long time, confined to the two hoplite
phalanxes. Pharnabazus had a large force of infantry and cavalry, but
the wall kept him from using them to good effect. Alcibiades was once
again in command of the cavalry and a small body of hoplites and
joined the battle only after it had been long in progress; whether or
not he waited intentionally, we cannottell. In any case, his intervention
was valuable; Hippocrates was killed and his army forced to flee. The
battle, however, was not decisive, for the defending army made good
its escape to the city, closed its gates, and continued the siege. Alcibiades
did not stay to see it through to the end but went off instead
to seek money on the Hellespontine shores, leaving the last chapter to
Theramenes and Thrasyllus."
nxen. I.J.I-2; Diod. q.66.I; Pint. Ale. 29-3· For the calculation of Athenian
numbers, see Hatzfeld, Alcibiade, 281, n. 4·
uXen. I.J.2-4; Plut. Ale. 29.J. Busolt (GG lll:z, 1556 n. z) doubts Diodorus' story
that Theramenes wasted the territory of Chalcedon before the arrival of the main force,
but E. F. Bloedow (Alcibiades Reexamined [Wiesbaden, I97J], 6o, n. 350) shows there
is no reason for disbelief.
14
This account is based mainly on Xenophon (LJ-4-8). Diodorus (IJ.66.I-J) and
Plutarch (Ak. JO. 1) offer brief descriptions that add nothing of value.