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

34 THE FALL OF THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE
through the Hellespont, the quickest and surest way to end the war.
Pharnabazus' offer had a similar appeal, with the additional attraction
of Persian financial support.
The Spartans, however, were much more attracted to the proposal
from the Chians and Tissaphernes. The offers from Euboea and Lesbos
were less tempting because they carried with them neither a Greek
fleet nor the promise of Persian support. ,At first, the proposal of
Pharnabazus might seem the best, for success in the Hellespont promised
the quickest victory, and his envoys brought with them 2 5 talents
in hard cash. 4 ' Pharnabazus, though independent of Tissaphernes,
appears to have had less power than the satrap of Sardis, who may
have held a "superior command in the west for the war against Athens."42
Nor could he offer a significant fleet, as the Chians could, and
the Spartans may have been embarrassed to prefer alliance with a satrap
to an opportunity to come to the rescue of a Greek state seeking
freedom. 43 All of these things were reasons enough for the Spartans
to choose to aid Chios, supported by Tissaphernes, but Thucydides
offers a different reason for their decision. He clearly implies that the
fact that Alcibiades, working through the ephor Endius, supported the
Chians and Tissaphernes was what decided the issue. 44
Here, as elsewhere, Thucydides appears to exaggerate the influence
of Alcibiades, but we should not doubt that the Athenian renegade
advocated the course described or that his advice had some effect on
his friend and, through him, on the Spartan decision. That advice in
41 8.8. I.
42 Such is Andrewes' plausible interpretation ofThucydides' account ofTissaphernes'
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