Page:The Anabasis of Alexander.djvu/101

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Death of Memnon.
79

time be himself fell ill and died, and his death at that crisis, was exceedingly injurious to the king's interests. Nevertheless Autophradates, and Pharnabazns, son of Artabazus, prosecuted the siege with vigour. To the latter indeed, Memnon, when dying, had entrusted his command, as he was his sister's son, till Darius should come to some decision on the matter. The Mitylenaeans, therefore, being excluded from the land, and being blockaded on the sea by many ships lying at anchor, sent to Pharnabazus and came to the following agreement:—That the auxiliary troops which had come to their aid from Alexander should depart, that the citizens should demolish the pillars on which the treaty made by them with Alexander was inscribed,[1] that they should become allies of Darius on the terms of the peace which was made with King Darius in the time of Antalcidas,[2] and that their exiles should return from banishment on condition of receiving back half the property which they possessed when they were banished. Upon these terms the compact was made between the Mitylenaeans and the Persians. But as soon as Pharnabazus and Autophradates once got within the city, they introduced a garrison with Lycomedes, a Rhodian, as its commandant. They also appointed Diogenes, one of the exiles, to be despot of the city, and exacted money from the Mitylenaeans, taking part of it by violence for themselves from the wealthy citizens, and laying the rest as a tax upon the community.


  1. In accordance with the convention of Corinth. Compare next chapter. For the pillars compare Herodotus (ii. 102, 106); Thucydides v. 18, 47, 56); Aristophanes (Acharnians, 727; Lysistrata, 513).
  2. This treaty was concluded by the Spartans with the king of Persia, B.C. 387. It was designed to break up the Athenian supremacy. It stipulated that all the Grecian colonies in Asia were to be given to the Persian king; the Athenians were to retain only Imbros, Lesbos, and Scyros; and all the other Grecian cities were to be autonomous. See Xenophon (Hellenics, iv. 8; v.1).