Tissaphernes' first set of instructions from Darius, to bring in or kill Amorges (Thuc. vni.5.5), were carried out by the end of the summer of 412 (vm.28). To do this, he had used Spartan help against Athens, Amorges' ally (vm.54.3; And. 111.29), and had committed the King by treaty to make war jointly with the Spartans (vni.18). All this was presumably covered by his instructions, but may not have been worked out in detail at Susa, since in early winter 412 he is still claiming that he will need to refer to the King before he pays the Spartans a full drachma a day (viii.29.1,45.6).

The results of his report to the King on the operations of 412 emerge next spring in the third treaty with the Spartans (vIII.58). This is made before the end of Thucydides' winter, but after 29 March 411, since it is in Darius' thirteenth year. The Spartans will only be paid for their operations until the arrival of the King's fleet; if they still want money after that, they will have to repay it at the end of the war. When the King's fleet arrives, it will fight the war at the side of the Spartans and their allies, in whatever way Tissaphernes, the Spartans and their allies think best. The fleet, therefore, has been mobilised in Phoenicia towards the end of the winter, on the King's instructions (see also VIII.87.5), and is on its way by the spring (VIII.59). There is no clear account of its arrival at Aspendos, but it maybe thought of as there by June, 147 in number (VIII.87.3).