History of the Peloponnesian War

Thucydides

Thucydides, Vol. 1-4. Smith, Charles Foster, translator. London and Cambridge, MA: Heinemann and Harvard University Press, 1919-1923.

For Alcibiades made such excessive demands, speaking himself on behalf of Tissaphernes and in his presence, that although for a long time the Athenians yielded whatever he demanded, the blame for the failure must nevertheless fall upon them; for he insisted that all Ionia should be given up, after that the adjacent islands, and so on. When the Athenians did not oppose these demands, finally, at the third conference, fearing that his utter lack of influence would be openly exposed, he insisted that the King be permitted to build ships and sail along the Athenian coasts wherever he wished and with as many ships as he pleased. At that point the Athenians yielded no further, but believing that there was no way out of the matter and that they had been deceived by Alcibiades, departed in anger and made their way back to Samos.

Immediately after this, in the course of the same winter, Tissaphernes proceeded to Caunus, wishing to bring the Peloponnesians back to Miletus, and after concluding with them such other agreements as he found practicable, to supply them with maintenance, and not be in a state of complete hostility; for he was afraid that, if they should be in difficulty about the maintenance of a large fleet, they might either be forced to fight the Athenians and suffer defeat, or that, their ships being emptied of men by desertion, the Athenians might get what they wanted without his help; and he was afraid, furthermore and chiefly, that in searching for supplies they might ravage the mainland.

Taking all these possibilities into consideration, therefore, and as a precaution against them, and acting consistently with his policy to reduce the Hellenes to an equality with each other, he sent for the Peloponnesians and gave them supplies, and concluded with them a a third treaty to the following effect: