While the democracy in Athens was being overthrown, Athenian forces on the island of Samos supported the Samian democrats in removing the oligarchy Peisander had set up there. The fleet headquartered at Samos consisted of about one hundred ships, each with a complement of two hundred men. The great majority of these were oarsmen, who came from the lowest class in Athens. They were all pro-democratic, because only in a radical democracy did they enjoy the privileges of citizenship. So with twenty thousand armed supporters of democracy in one place, Samos would remain a center of democratic power. After replacing the oligarchy, the men at Samos sent a ship to Athens to report, only to find out that Athens had become oligarchic.[59] The base at Samos now became virtually a democratic government in exile, hostile to the developments in the mother city. Thrasybulus and Thrasyllus emerged as leaders of the forces at Samos; they proposed inviting Alcibiades to join them and worked to reinstate him as an Athenian citizen.[60] They duly brought him back from the court of Tissaphernes, and after Alcibiades addressed the assembly in Samos with promises of Persian aid, he was voted to be their commander in chief.[61] Alcibiades had now managed to return to favor with Athens, or at least with the democratic forces in Samos.
The Athenian sailors at Samos wanted to sail back to Athens immediately to overthrow the oligarchs. But Alcibiades wisely counseled against the move. It would leave Ionia undefended and result in the loss of the Athenian empire. Mindarus, the new Spartan “navarch” or admiral of the fleet, having replaced the duplicitous Astyochus, was still nearby at Miletus with a large navy. Tissaphernes brought a large fleet of 147 Phoenician ships up for the Persians, to threaten Ionia from the south. Tissaphernes went down to their base to confer with the fleet commanders. While the Spartans sent two ships to ask Tissaphernes to bring the Persian fleet to assist the Spartans, Alcibiades sailed with thirteen ships to Tissaphernes allegedly to try to get the Persians to join the Athenian cause, or failing that, to keep Tissaphernes from deploying his fleet in the Aegean. In fact, he already knew that Tissaphernes had no desire to deploy them, since his policy, inspired by Alcibiades, was to let the Greek enemies wear each other down. So when the Phoenician fleet sailed away, Alcibiades took credit for saving the Athenians from an overwhelming Persian force.
Mindarus and the Spartans, fed up with Tissaphernes’ lukewarm support, found a promising ally in Pharnabazus, Persian satrap in the north. At the invitation of Pharnabazus, the Spartans sent ships into the Hellespont to threaten Athenian allies there. The narrow outlet from the Black Sea, the Bosporus, widens into the Propontis (Sea of Marmara), and then narrows again at the Hellespont before flowing into the Aegean. The Athenians imported much of their grain from the Black Sea, and as long as they controlled the “choke points” of the passageway, they could feed themselves, even with their own territory being overrun by Spartans. Now the Spartans sent a squadron of ships into the passageway and won over Byzantium, Cyzicus, and other cities. If they could succeed here, they could starve Athens out. The Athenians were compelled to dispatch ships from Samos to counter the Spartans. Finally, both fleets ended up in the Hellespont and Propontis. The Athenians won crucial victories at Cynossema and Abydus to keep the sea lanes open. Finally, in early 410 in the Propontis, the Athenians, with Alcibiades as one of the three commanders, destroyed most of the Spartan fleet at Cyzicus and killed Mindarus in the battle. Pharnabazus retired with his army and the city of Cyzicus became an Athenian ally once more.[62] The Athenians intercepted a dispatch to Sparta from the Spartan forces, a poignant laconic telegram: “The ships are gone. Mindarus is dead. The men are starving. We know not what to do.”[63]
[59].Thucydides 8.73-74.
[60].Thucydides 8.76.
[61].Thucydides 8.81-82.
[62].Xenophon Hellenica 1.1.13-19.
[63].Xenophon Hellenica 1.1.23, trans. Brownson.