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.