1Yet by these services they were not made friends to Alcibiades so much as alienated from him by fear. 1For when they recognised the outstanding shrewdness of this most energetic man in every matter, they became afraid that, led by love of his country, he might one day desert them and be reconciled with his own people. 1So they began to look for an opportunity to kill him. 2Alcibiades could not be kept in the dark about this for long: for he was of such keenness that he could not be deceived, especially when he had turned his mind to being on his guard. 2So he went over to Tissaphernes, the governor of King Darius.
3When he had become his intimate friend, and saw that, after the Athenians' failure in Sicily, their strength was declining while that of the Spartans, on the other hand, was growing, he at first confers through go-betweens with Pisander the general, who had an army at Samos, and raises the question of his return. 3For Pisander was of the same mind as Alcibiades, no friend to the power of the people and a supporter of the aristocrats. 4Let down by him, he is first received by the army through Thrasybulus, son of Lycus, and made general at Samos; later, on the motion of Theramenes, he is restored by a decree of the people and, though absent, is put in command with equal authority together with Thrasybulus and Theramenes.
5Under their command so great a change in affairs took place that the Spartans, who shortly before had flourished as victors, were thoroughly frightened and sought peace. 5For they had been defeated in five battles on land and three at sea, in which they had lost two hundred triremes, which had been captured and fallen into the enemy's power. 6Alcibiades together with his colleagues had recovered Ionia, the Hellespont, and many Greek cities besides that lie on the coast of Thrace, of which they had stormed several, among them Byzantium, while they had won over no fewer to friendship by policy, because they had shown mercy to the captured. 7So, laden with plunder, having enriched the army and achieved very great things, they came to Athens.