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

THE WAR IN THE AEGEAN 29
developments was that two Persian satraps, each acting under the
urging of the Great King, offered to cooperate with Sparta in the war
against Athens.
What led Darius to abandon his recent treaty with Athens, not a
dozen years old, and the older Persian policy of maintaining peace
with Athens that dated from mid-century? Thucydides tells us that
both satraps had lately been pressed by the Great King once again to
collect tribute from the Greek cities in their provinces. The king plainly
was also holding his satraps responsible for the payment of arrears of
tribute, which they had been unable to collect from the Greek cities
because of the Athenians. 18 Both, therefore, hoped to weaken the Athenian
power and remove Athens' hold over the cities, and both sought
an alliance with the Spartans for that purpose. Tissaphernes had a
special reason for wanting an alliance with Sparta. Amorges, bastard
son of Pissuthne_s, was in rebellion against the Great King in Caria,
and Tissaphernes had been ordered to bring in Amorges, dead or
alive. 19 Thucydides later makes it clear that soon after the Persian
negotiations with Sparta, the Athenians were allied with Amorges,
and the orator Andocides says that the Athenian decision to make an
alliance with Amorges was the cause of Persia's decision to join with
Sparta. 20
Andocides considered the alliance with Amorges an example of Athens'
"customary mischief," the abandonment of powerful allies in favor
of weaker ones. 21
Modern scholars, assuming that the alliance with
Amorges was concluded before the Persian negotiations with Sparta,
regard the alliance as a foolish and frivolous gamble that was respon-
18
8.5. 5. In theory these cities could be thought of as owing payment ever since their
liberation in the Persian War of 480/79, but Herodotus tells of a law whereby arrears
in tribute were forgiven upon the accession of a new king (6. 59), so the arrears demanded
could date no earlier than 424. 0. Murray (Historia XV [1966], 148-149) makes a
persuasive argument, however, that Darius demanded only the arrears for the period
since each satrap took over his province, in Tissaphernes' case "some time after 420
and before 412-a maximum of eight years, and probably less than four." Andrewes
(HCT V, 16) rightly points out that Thucydides' language, especially his use of the
word vewCTTi., "lately," for the timing of the king's demand, suggests something new
that had recently changed the situation and suggests that "the obvious new factor is
Athens' support of Amorges and breach with Darius." But the date of that support
and breach is not known and is not the only possible "new factor," as will be argued
below.
198·5·5·
20
8.28.2-5, 54.3; And. 3.29.
21
3· 29·