Tissaphernes

Family: Persian · Role: commander · First appears: Book 8 · Chapter 24 · Part 1

At Lacedaemon, Tissaphernes invited the Peloponnesians to join him and promised to maintain their army, seeking help against Amorges. After the Milesians revolted, he and Chalcideus concluded an alliance between the King and the Lacedaemonians; he later completed the demolition of the remaining wall at Teos. At Miletus, he fought alongside Alcibiades and the Milesians against the Athenians. At Iasus, he received the captured town and its captives, including Amorges, who was handed over for delivery to the King.

That winter, Tissaphernes paid the Peloponnesian fleet a month’s wages, then limited its pay and agreed to a new convention with the Peloponnesians. When Alcibiades withdrew to him, Alcibiades advised him and persuaded him to cut the army’s pay and pay it irregularly. Alcibiades also offered to make Tissaphernes, and later the King, friends of the Athenians if they abandoned democracy and restored him. The proposed agreement with Athens failed, while Tissaphernes quarrelled with the Peloponnesians over their treaty.

In the thirteenth year of Darius’s reign, Tissaphernes, Hieramenes, and the sons of Pharnaces concluded a convention with the Lacedaemonians and their allies. He then prepared to bring up the Phoenician fleet and fulfill his other promises, or at least appear to do so. At Aspendus, he appointed Tamos to provide pay during his absence; later, Philip the Lacedaemonian and Hippocrates the Spartan reported that the ships were not coming and that Tissaphernes was abusing them. After Alcibiades reported making him friendlier to Athens, Tissaphernes decided to rejoin the Peloponnesians at the Hellespont and answer their complaints.