Kitap 8
48.4
Phrynichus, however, who was still general, did not find them at all satisfactory, but was of opinion that Alcibiades had really no more desire for an oligarchy than for a democracy, and had no other object in view than in some manner, by bringing about in the state a change from its present order, to secure his own return at the invitation of his party associates. The Athenians, however, in the opinion of Phrynichus, must make it their chief concern to avoid being rent with factions. Neither was it in the interest of the King, he said, now that the Peloponnesians were at home on the sea quite as much as the Athenians and held possession of cities in his empire which were not the smallest, to attach himself to the Athenians, whom he did not trust, and thus involve himself in trouble, when it was possible to make friends of the Peloponnesians, from whom he had suffered no harm.
48.5
As for the allied cities, to which forsooth they would promise an oligarchical form of government for the reason that they themselves would not be under a democracy, he said that he knew well that neither those which had revolted from the Athenians would be any more likely to come back into the alliance nor would those which still remained allies be more staunch; for they would not want to be slaves with either an oligarchy or a democracy in preference to being free with whichever form they might perchance have such freedom.
