19.1 Showdown at Lesbos
After staying four months in Athens, Alcibiades set sail with a fleet for the Aegean. He attacked the island of Andros, which had recently rebelled against Athens, winning a battle and beginning siege operations against the town. He then sailed on to the main Athenian base in Samos.[1]
The Spartans sent out Lysander as the admiral of their fleet, which he led to Ephesus on the Asian mainland opposite the island of Samos. He set his fleet in order and waited for the arrival in Sardis of a new Persian commander. The Persians had sent out a new leader with extraordinary powers, Prince Cyrus, son of the Great King Darius. He came with the title of Karanos or Viceroy of the maritime provinces of Asia Minor, Lydia, Greater Phrygia, and Cappodocia.[2] Though only seventeen years old at the time of his appointment, he was aggressive and ambitious, and he planned to use his appointment as a springboard to greater things, as we shall see later. He would not follow the temporizing policy of the satrap Tissaphernes, playing off one side against another; that policy seemed to have given the Persians’ worst enemies, the Athenians, the advantage. He had a huge treasury of 500 talents at his disposal, and he intended to spend it to support the Spartans.
As soon as Cyrus arrived in Sardis, Lysander went up to meet him. The admiral asked the prince for a drachma a day pay for his sailors. The prince said he was only authorized to pay three obols (half a drachma), roughly minimum wage at the time. After some horse trading, Cyrus agreed to pay four obols, a significant raise for the sailors. He also agreed to pay their back wages that Tissaphernes had always been slow to deliver, and even pay a month in advance.[3] The new arrangement immediately raised the morale of the Spartan forces, and news of it worried the Athenians. Soon, the Athenians found, some of their sailors switched sides to row for higher wages, since the Athenians were paying only three obols.
Alcibiades brought his fleet to the harbor of Ephesus, hoping to force a battle before the financial advantages of the Spartans had time to make a significant difference. But Lysander declined to fight, so Alcibiades anchored his fleet at Notium nearby. Soon Alcibiades departed with some ships to help Thrasybulus, who was besieging Phocaea just to the north. He left his lieutenant Antiochus in charge of the fleet at Notium, with orders not to engage the enemy. Antiochus, however, provoked a battle. It went badly for the Athenians, causing them to lose fifteen ships. When Alcibiades returned, he took the combined Athenian fleet to Ephesus again to challenge Lysander to battle, but again Lysander refused to fight on even terms.
The news of the defeat angered the Athenians, who had expected miraculous results from their rehabilitated leader. In the spring election of 406 they did not elect Alcibiades general again. Fearing his old enemies in Athens, who now brought lawsuits against him, Alcibiades sailed off for a castle he had in the Thracian Chersonese, near the Hellespont. He had fallen from grace a second time, after only a year of popularity.[4]
The Spartans had a policy to send out a new admiral every year. In 406 they sent Callicratidas to command the fleet. The Spartan forces, pleased with the successes of Lysander, resented a new commander and resisted his authority. Callicratidas, however, called their bluff and offered to sail back and tell the Spartans of their disobedience. If this should happen, the sailors knew, heads would roll. Soon he had his sailors’ support. He then went to the court of Cyrus to ask for funds, but was kept waiting for two days without being granted an audience, perhaps because Cyrus too resented the change of leadership. Callicratidas refused to suffer Cyrus’ snub and walked out, saying that he would raise his own funds—which he did from allied cities.[5] His independence put Cyrus in an awkward position. If the Persian prince were not bankrolling the Spartan forces, he could not dictate policy or take credit for Spartan military successes, which would freeze the Persians out of any future settlements.
Now firmly in command, Callicratidas sailed to the island of Lesbos and captured the city of Methymna on the north coast. The new Athenian commander, Conon, was already en route to Samos with a fleet of 70 ships to relieve Methymna. When he learned that the city had already fallen, he planned to return to his base. But Callicratidas came after him with a fleet of 170 ships. The Spartan ships pursued the Athenian ships to the city of Mytilene on the east coast of the island. The Athenians reached the harbor just as they were overtaken by the Spartans. They lost thirty ships at the mouth of the harbor, but their crews swam ashore to escape capture. The reduced Athenian fleet was now bottled up by a far superior enemy. Callicratidas next transported an army to the island to attack Mytilene and received belated funding from Cyrus.[6]
Conon got a ship through the blockade, which hastened to Athens to report his desperate plight. Another ship sent out at the same time was captured; this may have been the one commanded by the general Leon, whom we shall meet later in the story (ch. 21*).[7] The Athenians now needed to raise a large rescue fleet without enough sailors to man the ships. They voted to draft foreign residents of Athens with the promise of citizenship, slaves with the promise of freedom, and knights, who normally served in the cavalry and eschewed the laborious work of rowing. Within a month they manned 110 ships, including ships that had lain empty in Samos for want of crews. Their allies contributed forty more to make up a fleet of 150.[8] The great Athenian armada, commanded by eight generals, sailed north to relieve Conon’s force. They had the advantage of numbers, but, in contrast to past campaigns, the Spartan fleet now had the advantage of experience, while the Athenian fleet was made up largely of new recruits who had little experience in the intricate maneuvers of naval warfare.
[1].Xenophon Hellenica 1.4.21-23.
[2].Xenophon Hellenica 1.4.2-4.
[3].Xenophon Hellenica 1.5.1-7.
[4].Xenophon Hellenica 1.5.11-17; Diodorus Siculus 13.74; Plutarch Alcibiades 36.1-3. It is possible that Alcibiades was elected general, but then removed soon after on a complaint. In any case, he lost his command. See Kagan 1987: 322 n. 120.
[5].Xenophon Hellenica 1.6.1-12.
[6].Xenophon Hellenica 1.6.12-18.
[7]. Xenophon Hellenica 1.6.20-22; McCoy 1975:192-193.
[8].Xenophon Hellenica 1.6.24-25; Diodorus Siculus 13.97.1-2.