ATHENS. 



SI 



His return 

 to Athens. 



A.C406. 



Athens, command, and that of Thrasybulus, every thing pros- 



v~ ' pered. The latter, with 55 vessels against 73, gained 



a victory over the Peloponnesians, taking 21 ot their 

 ships. Soon after Alcibiades gained a still more sig- 

 nal victory at Cyzicus. By a skilful stratagem, he 

 surrounded the enemy, drove them on shore, took al- 

 most their whole fleet, and then landing, put their 

 army to flight. 



Meanwhile all was disaster and confusion at Athens. 

 In vain did the aristocratical leaders endeavour to con- 

 ciliate the peopb by changes in the government ; the 

 discontents rose higher and higher, when a Lacede- 

 monian fleet of 40 sail appeared in the bay of Salamis. 

 Without, however, making any attempt upon Athens, 

 it sailed to Euboea ; but the Athenian fleet sent to 

 oppose it was completely defeated. This disaster 

 produced the immediate dissolution of the new go- 

 vernment : Pisander and his accomplices fled to the 

 Lacedemonians : the people resumed their power, and 

 exerted themselves, with their wonted activity, in re- 

 pairing their losses. Alcibiades was made command- 

 er in chief, and continued his career of victory, by 

 reducing Byzantium, and other great towns on the 

 Thracian coast, always a favourite object of Athenian 

 ambition. He then returned to Athens, where every 

 honour was lavished upon him which ingenuity could 

 devise ; and where he distinguished himself, by con- 

 ducting the procession of the Eleusinian mysteries in 

 safety from Athens to Eleusis, which had not been 

 effected since the loss of Decelia. 



Alcibiades was now again sent out with the full 

 command of the fleet ; but having gone in person to 

 raise contributions, he left the command of it to an 

 unworthy favourite of the name of Antiochus, who, 

 having rashly left the harbour, and being attacked by 

 Lysander near Ephesus, was entirely defeated. The 

 tide of popular favour was instantly turned ; Alcibia- 

 des, so late its idol, was dismissed from all his em- 

 ployments, and banished. Ten commanders were then 

 appointed, who seem to have been well chosen, since, 

 besides Thrasybulus and Thrasyllus, they included 

 Conon, one of the greatest of the Athenians, who 

 now for the first time appears on the theatre of his- 

 tory. His first enterprise was, however, unfortunate. 

 Being sent with an inadequate squadron to relieve 

 Lesbos, he was overpowered by numbers, and blocked 

 up in the harbour of Mitylene. The Athenians made 

 extraordinary exertions to relieve him. A fleet of 

 1.30 sail was soon fitted out, and sent thither under 

 the command of the other admirals. A battle was 

 then fought at Arginussae, in which the Athenian 

 fleet was completely victorious. Theramenes, how- 

 ever, one of the commanders, raised an accusation 

 against the rest, for having neglected the bodies of 

 the slain, and even for having abandoned a number of 

 shipwrecked citizens, whose lives might have been 

 saved. The people, in a paroxysm of frenry, con- 

 demned to death all who had not sought safety in 

 flight ; and six of the best Athenian commanders, 

 among whom were in particular Thrasyllus, Diome- 

 don, and the only son of the famous Pericles, were 

 executed. 

 A. C. 405. Conon was now placed at the head of the fleet ; 

 but all his measures were cramped by unworthy col- 

 leagues, who were associated with him. Meanwhile 



Again ba- 

 nished. 



Battle of 

 Arginussae. 



the Lacedemonians, determining to make a great ef- Athens. 

 fort, had fitted out a large armament, and entrusted 

 the command of it to Lysander, the most able and 

 enterprising of their officers. Lysander immediately 

 proceeded to lay siege to Lampsacus, which he took 

 after an obstinate defence. The Athenian fleet ar- 

 rived too late to save it ; but being superior in num. ^ 

 ber, it offered battle. The offer was declined by 

 Lysander, who kept himself shut up in the harbour 

 of Lampsacus, and assumed a studied appearance of 

 alarm and consternation. The Athenians, after battle Destrue- 

 had been thus declined for five successive days, retired t10 " oi . t,ic 

 and anchored in the river of vEgos Potamos, on the % ' t ema j' 

 Thracian side of the Bosphorus. They now aban- arm y M 

 doned themselves to the utmost excess of exultation JEgos Po- 

 and security. They straggled on shore, threw aside tamos, 

 all restraint of discipline, and indulged in every kind 

 of licentiousness. Their motions were carefully watch- 

 ed by Lysander, who at length conceiving the oppor- 

 tunity favourable, fell upon them suddenly with his 

 whole force. They were so completely unprepared, 

 as to be hardly in a condition to make even a show of 

 resistance. The whole fleet of 180 sail, with the ex- 

 ception of nine ships, fell into the hands of the vic- 

 tors. Lysander then landed his army, and gained an 

 easy victory over the detached and straggling bands 

 of the Athenians. The few who escaped sought 

 safety among the mountains in the interior of Thrace. 

 Conon, after vain attempts to rally his countrymen, 

 found means to escape, with eight gallies, to Cyprus. 

 This blow was mortal to Athens ; yet she still con- 

 tinued, for some time, to protract a languishing ex- 

 istence. Lysander did not dare at once to attack her 

 almost impregnable walls and harbours. He content- 

 ed himself, for the present, with reducing or alienating 

 those maritime states which she had so long held in 

 subjection, particularly the rich and advantageous set- 

 tlements on the coast of Thrace. He at the same 

 time closely blockaded the city by sea and land, and, 

 to increase the want of provisions, obliged the garri- 

 sons of the captured places to return into the city. 

 Athens was soon reduced to extreme distress ; yet 

 still, with a resolution worthy of her former great- 

 ness, she struggled against her fate. Her liberty, 

 however, was assailed, not only by foreign but by in- 

 testine enemies. The party attached to the Lacede- 

 monian form of government, hoped, by the success of 

 that people, to establish themselves in power. This 

 party gained continually new strength, as the pro- 

 bable aera of their triumph approached. At length 

 Theramenes, a new convert to this party, but whose 

 former conduct had gained him the confidence of the 

 people, procured their consent to the opening of a 

 treaty with Sparta. The negotiation continued four 

 months, and was concluded on terms the most dis- 

 graceful and ruinous to Athens. All the fortifica- 

 tions both of their city and harbours were to be de- 

 molished : they were to renounce all their foreign 

 possessions ; to receive back the banished aristocrats; 

 to follow in war the standard of the Lacedemonians : 

 and to become in every respect on a footing with the 

 rest of their subject allies. These terms were re- 

 ceived by the body of the people with the deepest 

 consternation ; but their spirit was now broken by a 

 long series of calamities ; the aristocratical party were 



