ETSONIKUS AT CHIOS. 211 much doubt, and I think it most probable that no mch proposi tion.3 were made. Great as the victory was, we look in vain for any positive results accruing to Athens. After an unsuccessful attempt on Chios, the victorious fleet went to Sanios, where it seems to have remained until the following year, without any farther movements than were necessary for the puipose of pro- niring money. Meanwhile Eteonikus, who collected the remains of the de- feated Peloponnesian fleet at Chios, being left unsupplied with money by Cyrus, found himself much straitened, and was com pelled to leave the seamen unpaid. During the later summer and autumn, these men maintained themselves by laboring for hire on the Chian lands ; but when winter came, this resource ceased, so that they found themselves unable to procure even clothes or shoes. In such forlorn condition, many of them entered into a conspiracy to assail and plunder the town of Chios ; a day was named for the enterprise, and it was agreed that the conspir- ators should know each other by wearing a straw, or reed. In- formed of the design, Eteonikus was at the same time intimidated by the number of these straw-bearers ; he saw that if he dealt with the conspirators openly and ostensibly, they might perhaps rush to arms and succeed in plundering the town ; at any rate, a conflict would arise in which many of the allies would be slain, which would produce the worst effect upon all future operations. Accordingly, resorting to stratagem, he took with him a guard of fifteen men armed with daggers, and marched through the town of Chios. Meeting presently one of these straw-bearers, a man with a complaint in his eyes, coming out of a surgeon's house, he directed his guards to put the man to death on the spot. A crowd gathered round, with astonishment as well as sympathy, Now, the supposition that on two several occasions the Lacedaemonians made propositions of peace, and that both arc left unnoticed by Xcnophon, appears to me highly improbable. In reference to the propositions after the battle of Ky/.iku>, the testimony of Diodorus outweighed, in my judg- ment, the silence of Xenophon ; but here Diodorus is silent also. In addition to this, the exact sameness of the two alleged events makes me think that the second is only a duplication of the first, and that th Scholiast, in citing from Aristotle, mistook the battle of Arginusae for thiv of Ky/i'uis, which li ttcr was by far the more decisive of the two.
