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Pharnabazus, after the truce had been made with the Lacedaemonians, went back to the King and won him over to the plan of preparing a fleet and appointing Conon the Athenian as its admiral; for Conon was experienced in the encounters of war and especially in combat with the present enemy,1 and although he excelled in warfare, he was at the time in Cyprus at the court of Evagoras the king.2 After the King had been persuaded, Pharnabazus took five hundred talents of silver and prepared to fit out a naval force. [2] Sailing across to Cyprus, he ordered the kings there to make ready a hundred triremes and then, after discussions with Conon about the command of the fleet, he appointed him supreme commander at sea, giving indications in the name of the King of great hopes Conon might entertain. [3] Conon, in the hope not only that he would recover the leadership in Greece for his native country if the Lacedaemonians were subdued in war but also that he would himself win great renown, accepted the command. [4] And before the entire fleet had been made ready, he took the forty ships which were at hand and sailed across to Cilicia, where he began preparations for the war.

Pharnabazus and Tissaphernes gathered soldiers from their own satrapies and marched out, making their way towards Ephesus, since the enemy had their forces in that city. [5] The army accompanying them numbered twenty thousand infantry and ten thousand cavalry. On hearing of the approach of the Persians Dercylidas, the commander of the Lacedaemonians, led out his army, having in all not more than seven thousand men. [6] But when the forces drew near each other, they concluded a truce and set a period of time during which Pharnabazus should send word to the King regarding the terms of the treaty, should he be ready to end the war, and Dercylidas should explain the matter to the Spartans. So upon this understanding the commanders dispersed their armies.

1 i.e. the Lacedaemonians. But the text may have mentioned instead his special experience in fighting at sea.

2 Conon had taken refuge with him after the battle of Aegospotami, fearing to return to Athens (Book 13.106).

Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.

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