 Alcibiades, ostensibly working for the Spartans at the time, encouraged the ideas developing among the oligarchs by claiming he could secure much needed funds for Athens from Persian satraps in western Anatolia, such as Tissaphernes (who was giving him protection) under the promise that the democracy would end).This also would open the way for Alcibiades to be allowed to return to Athens from his exile.His negotiations with the Persians already had raised suspicions among the Spartans, who worried he was concerned only with his own self-interests.