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

288 -THE FALL OF THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE
must have heen comforting. The new board of generals included Alcibiades,
his friend and supporter Thrasybulus, and Adeimantus, his
fellow demesman who, like him, had been condemned and exiled for
his role in the affair of the Mysteries. The three others whose names
we know-Phanosthenes, Aristocrates, and Conon-seem not yet to
have played any prominent role in political life but were probably
chosen for their military and naval expertise." Neither Theramenes
nor Thrasyllus was reelected. Theramenes had performed superbly as
a general in the straits, and his omission may well be the result of
political considerations. The father of the regime of the Five Thousand
was clearly not at the height of popularity at a time when the jubilant
democracy was rejoicing over its achievements and those of its rediscovered
hero, Alcibiades. The failure of Thrasyllus to be chosen, on
the other hand, needs no political explanation. His failure at Ephesus
had not been redeemed by extraordinary achievements in the campaigns
in the straits, where he played a secondary role. There was
good reason to pass him by in 407. The new board of generals included
some of Alcibiades' friends and none of his enemies.
This encouraging news was accompanied and followed by personal
notes from his supporters urging him to return to Athens, but even
they did not entirely allay his fears. He could not forget that he was
still legally a condemned man, an exile who had fled judgment, and a
man accursed by the most solemn religious ceremonies or that a stele
bearing his condemnation and the curse against him still stood on the
Acropolis. 48 He therefore approached the Piraeus cautiously and modestly,
with only his small force of twenty triremes. 49 Even after drop-
47 Hatzfeld, Alcibiade, 293-294. Meritt (Athenian Financial Documents, 1 1 J) has supplied
the name of Pericles the younger, son of the great Pericles, as a general mentioned in
an inscription honoring Archelaus of Macedon, which he dates to 407/6 (GH/ no. 91,
277, u.s-6). That reading is accepted by Meiggs and Lewis, and on the basis of it,
Fornara (Generals, 69) includes Pericles among the generals for that year. The stone in
its present condition contains only the initial letter P, which seems to me insufficient
to make any suggestion. I think if more prudent not to include the young Pericles.
48
Hatzfeld, Alcihiade, 294-295.
49
Such is the account of Xenophon (1.4-11-12). Diodorus (q.68.2-3) and Nepos
(Ale. 6. J) have all the generals arriving together with a vast fleet leading captive ships,
soldiers, and booty. Plutarch (Ale. p.I-J) also portrays Alcibiades arriving with
hundreds of captured ships, men, and booty, but he rejects the excesses of Duris of
Samos, who claimed to be a descendant of Alcibiades and described his entry into the
Piraeus in an implausibly gorgeous setting. He points out that the accounts of Xenophon,
Theopompus, and Ephorus omit such details and concludes that this was an
unlikely occasion for Alcibiades to display his magnificence to the Athenians. It is very