The Athenians, then, having struggled for two years in Sicily, not without loss to the Lacedaemonians, were beset by other evils at home. For Alcibiades, who had earlier been proclaimed general against Syracuse, and was soon held for trial on a certain charge,
1 Igitur Athenienses, biennio apud Siciliam non sine Lacedaemoniorum damno conflictati, aliis domi malis circumueniuntur. Alcibiades enim, dux pridem aduersus Syracusas pronuntiatus, mox ad iudicium pro quadam insimulatione detentus,
betook himself in voluntary exile to Lacedaemon and drove the Spartans to press upon the Athenians, in their disarray, with a new war once more, and not to allow them any breathing-space in which they might escape being crushed.
2 uoluntario exilio Lacedaemonem se contulit inpulitque Spartanos, ut turbatis Atheniensibus nouo rursus bello insisterent, neque eis respirandi spatium, quin opprimerentur, relaxarent.
All Greece lent its support to this undertaking, as though, by forces gathered together for the public good, provision were being made to put out a common conflagration.
3 cui incepto ita Graecia omnis adstipulata est, quasi ad commune incendium restinguendum bono publico congestis uiribus consuleretur.
Darius too, king of the Persians, mindful of his father’s and grandfather’s hatred of this city, concluded a treaty with the Lacedaemonians through Tissaphernes, the prefect of Lydia, and promised them the costs of the war and troops.
4 Darius etiam rex Persarum, memor paterni auitique in hanc urbem odii, per Tissafernen praefectum Lydiae cum Lacedaemoniis foedus paciscitur eisque sumptus belli et copias pollicetur.
Wonderful to tell, so great was the might of the Athenians at that time that, though they — that is, a single city — were assailed by the forces of Greece, of Asia and of the whole East, by fighting often and never yielding they seem to have been worn out rather than conquered.
5 mirum dictu, Atheniensium tantas ea tempestate opes fuisse, ut, cum aduersus eos, hoc est aduersus unam urbem, Graeciae Asiae totiusque orientis uiribus incursum sit, pugnando saepe nec umquam cedendo consumpti magis uideantur fuisse quam uicti.
For at the outset Alcibiades compelled all their allies to desert them for the Lacedaemonians; but he, too, attacked by the Lacedaemonians in plots born of envy, fled from them as well and withdrew to Tissaphernes.
6 principio enim Alcibiades omnes socios deficere ab his ad Lacedaemonios coegit, sed et ab his quoque per inuidiam insidiis adpetitus aufugit et ad Tissafernen [in Mediam] concessit.
Becoming at once more intimate with him through the charm of an accommodating wit and apt eloquence, he persuaded him not to help the Lacedaemonians with such lavish wealth; he ought rather, he said, to become the umpire and spectator of this contest, and the strength of Lydia should be kept intact against the victor.
7 cui statim accommodato ingenio et apti eloquii gratia familiarior factus persuadet, ne Lacedaemonios tam profusis opibus iuuet; eum potius istius certaminis arbitrum spectatoremque fieri debere, integrasque Lydiae uires aduersum uictorem reseruandas.
Tissaphernes therefore ordered part of his fleet, with a considerable force, to be led to Lacedaemon, so that the Lacedaemonians should neither fight in safety at another’s risk through an abundance of support, nor, wholly abandoned, give up the contest they had undertaken.
8 quamobrem Tissafernes partem classis cum aliquanta manu deduci Lacedaemonam iubet, ne uel abundantes suffragiis alieno tuti periculo dimicarent uel in totum destituti susceptum certamen omitterent.