HELLENICA
BOOK I
I
B.C. 411. To follow the order
of events (1). A few days later Thymochares arrived from Athens with a
few ships, when another sea fight between the Lacedaemonians and
Athenians at once took place, in which the former, under the command of
Agesandridas, gained the victory.
(1) Lit. "after these events"; but is hard to conjecture to what
events the author refers. For the order of events and the
connection between the closing chapter of Thuc. viii. 109, and the
opening words of the "Hellenica," see introductory remarks above.
The scene of this sea-fight is, I think, the Hellespont.
Another short interval brings
us to a morning in early winter, when Dorieus, the son of Diagoras, was
entering the Hellespont with fourteen ships from Rhodes at break of day.
The Athenian day-watch descrying him, signalled to the generals, and
they, with twenty sail, put out to sea to attack him. Dorieus made good
his escape, and, as he shook himself free of the narrows, (2) ran his
triremes aground off Rhoeteum. When the Athenians had come to close
quarters, the fighting commenced, and was sustained at once from ships
and shore, until at length the Athenians retired to their main camp at
Madytus, having achieved nothing.
(2) Lit. "as he opened" {os enoige}. This is still a mariner's phrase
in modern Greek, if I am rightly informed.
Meanwhile Mindarus, while
sacrificing to Athena at Ilium, had observed the battle. He at once
hastened to the sea, and getting his own triremes afloat, sailed out to
pick up the ships with Dorieus. The Athenians on their side put out to
meet him, and engaged him off Abydos. From early morning till the
afternoon the fight was kept up close to the shore. (3) Victory and
defeat hung still in even balance, when Alcibiades came sailing up with
eighteen ships. Thereupon the Peloponnesians fled towards Abydos, where,
however, Pharnabazus brought them timely assistance. (4) Mounted on
horseback, he pushed forward into the sea as far as his horse would let
him, doing battle himself, and encouraging his troopers and the infantry
alike to play their parts. Then the Peloponnesians, ranging their ships
in close-packed order, and drawing up their battle line in proximity to
the land, kept up the fight. At length the Athenians, having captured
thirty of the enemy's vessels without their crews, and having recovered
those of their own which they had previously lost, set sail for Sestos.
Here the fleet, with the exception of forty vessels, dispersed in
different directions outside the Hellespont, to collect money; while
Thrasylus, one of the generals, sailed to Athens to report what had
happened, and to beg for a reinforcement of troops and ships. After the
above incidents, Tissaphernes arrived in the Hellespont, and received a
visit from Alcibiades, who presented him with a single ship, bringing
with him tokens of friendship and gifts, whereupon Tissaphernes seized
him and shut him up in Sardis, giving out that the king's orders were to
go to war with the Athenians. Thirty days later Alcibiades, accompanied
by Mantitheus, who had been captured in Caria, managed to procure horses
and escaped by night to Clazomenae.
(3) The original has a somewhat more poetical ring. The author uses
the old Attic or Ionic word {eona}. This is a mark of style, of
which we shall have many instances. One might perhaps produce
something of the effect here by translating: "the battle hugged
the strand."
(4) Or, "came to their aid along the shore."
B.C. 410. And now the Athenians
at Sestos, hearing that Mindarus was meditating an attack upon them with
a squadron of sixty sail, gave him the slip, and under cover of night
escaped to Cardia. Hither also Alcibiades repaired from Clazomenae,
having with him five triremes and a light skiff; but on learning that
the Peloponnesian fleet had left Abydos and was in full sail for Cyzicus,
he set off himself by land to Sestos, giving orders to the fleet to sail
round and join him there. Presently the vessels arrived, and he was on
the point of putting out to sea with everything ready for action, when
Theramenes, with a fleet of twenty ships from Macedonia, entered the
port, and at the same instant Thrasybulus, with a second fleet of twenty
sail from Thasos, both squadrons having been engaged in collecting
money. Bidding these officers also follow him with all speed, as soon as
they had taken out their large sails and cleared for action, Alcibiades
set sail himself for Parium. During the following night the united
squadron, consisting now of eighty-six vessels, stood out to sea from
Parium, and reached Proconnesus next morning, about the hour of
breakfast. Here they learnt that Mindarus was in Cyzicus, and that
Pharnabazus, with a body of infantry, was with him. Accordingly they
waited the whole of this day at Proconnesus. On the following day
Alcibiades summoned an assembly, and addressing the men in terms of
encouragement, warned them that a threefold service was expected of
them; that they must be ready for a sea fight, a land fight, and a wall
fight all at once, "for look you," said he, "we have no money, but the
enemy has unlimited supplies from the king."
Now, on the previous day, as
soon as they were come to moorings, he had collected all the sea-going
craft of the island, big and little alike, under his own control, that
no one might report the number of his squadron to the enemy, and he had
further caused a proclamation to be made, that any one caught sailing
across to the opposite coast would be punished with death. When the
meeting was over, he got his ships ready for action, and stood out to
sea towards Cyzicus in torrents of rain. Off Cyzicus the sky cleared,
and the sun shone out and revealed to him the spectacle of Mindarus's
vessels, sixty in number, exercising at some distance from the harbour,
and, in fact, intercepted by himself. The Peloponnesians, perceiving at
a glance the greatly increased number of the Athenian galleys, and
noting their proximity to the port, made haste to reach the land, where
they brought their vessels to anchor in a body, and prepared to engage
the enemy as he sailed to the attack. But Alcibiades, sailing round with
twenty of his vessels, came to land and disembarked. Seeing this,
Mindarus also landed, and in the engagement which ensued he fell
fighting, whilst those who were with him took to flight. As for the
enemy's ships, the Athenians succeeded in capturing the whole of them
(with the exception of the Syracusan vessels, which were burnt by their
crews), and made off with their prizes to Proconnesus. From thence on
the following day they sailed to attack Cyzicus. The men of that place,
seeing that the Peloponnesians and Pharnabazus had evacuated the town,
admitted the Athenians. Here Alcibiades remained twenty days, obtaining
large sums of money from the Cyzicenes, but otherwise inflicting no sort
of mischief on the community. He then sailed back to Proconnesus, and
from there to Perinthus and Selybria. The inhabitants of the former
place welcomed his troops into their city, but the Selybrians preferred
to give money, and so escape the admission of the troops. Continuing the
voyage the squadron reached Chrysopolis in Chalcedonia, (5) where they
built a fort, and established a custom-house to collect the tithe dues
which they levied on all merchantmen passing through the Straights from
the Black Sea. Besides this, a detachment of thirty ships was left there
under the two generals, Theramenes and Eubulus, with instructions not
only to keep a look-out on the port itself and on all traders passing
through the channel, but generally to injure the enemy in any way which
might present itself. This done, the rest of the generals hastened back
to the Hellespont.
(5) This is the common spelling, but the coins of Calchedon have the
letters {KALKH}, and so the name is written in the best MSS. of
Herodotus, Xenophon, and other writers, by whom the place is
named. See "Dict. of Greek and Roman Geog." "Chalcedon."
Now a despatch from
Hippocrates, Mindarus's vice-admiral, (6) had been intercepted on its
way to Lacedaemon, and taken to Athens. It ran as follows (in broad
Doric): (7) "Ships gone; Mindarus dead; the men starving; at our wits'
end what to do."
(6) "Epistoleus," i.e. secretary or despatch writer, is the Spartan
title of the officer second in command to the admiral.
(7) Reading {'Errei ta kala} (Bergk's conjecture for {kala}) =
"timbers," i.e. "ships" (a Doric word). Cf. Aristoph., "Lys."
1253, {potta kala}. The despatch continues: {Mindaros apessoua}
(al. {apessua}), which is much more racy than the simple word
"dead." "M. is gone off." I cannot find the right English or
"broad Scotch" equivalent. See Thirlwall, "Hist. Gr." IV. xxix. 88
note.
Pharnabazus, however, was ready
to meet with encouragement the despondency which afflicted the whole
Peloponnesian army and their allies. "As long as their own bodies were
safe and sound, why need they take to heart the loss of a few wooden
hulls? Was there not timber enough and to spare in the king's
territory?" And so he presented each man with a cloak and maintenance
for a couple of months, after which he armed the sailors and formed them
into a coastguard for the security of his own seaboard.
He next called a meeting of the
generals and trierarchs of the different States, and instructed them to
build just as many new ships in the dockyards of Antandrus as they had
respectively lost. He himself was to furnish the funds, and he gave them
to understand that they might bring down timber from Mount Ida. While
the ships were building, the Syracusans helped the men of Antandrus to
finish a section of their walls, and were particularly pleasant on
garrison duty; and that is why the Syracusans to this day enjoy the
privilege of citizenship, with the title of "benefactors," at Antandrus.
Having so arranged these matters, Pharnabazus proceeded at once to the
rescue of Chalcedon.
It was at this date that the
Syracusan generals received news from home of their banishment by the
democratic party. Accordingly they called a meeting of their separate
divisions, and putting forward Hermocrates (8) as their spokesman,
proceeded to deplore their misfortune, insisting upon the injustice and
the illegality of their banishment. "And now let us admonish you," they
added, "to be eager and willing in the future, even as in the past:
whatever the word of command may be, show yourselves good men and true:
let not the memory of those glorious sea fights fade. Think of those
victories you have won, those ships you have captured by your own
unaided efforts; forget not that long list of achievements shared by
yourselves with others, in all which you proved yourselves invincible
under our generalship. It was to a happy combination of our merit and
your enthusiasm, displayed alike on land and sea, that you owe the
strength and perfection of your discipline."
(8) Hermocrates, the son of Hermon. We first hear of him in Thuc. iv.
58 foll. as the chief agent in bringing the Sicilian States
together in conference at Gela B.C. 424, with a view to healing
their differences and combining to frustrate the dangerous designs
of Athens. In 415 B.C., when the attack came, he was again the
master spirit in rendering it abortive (Thuc. vi. 72 foll.) In 412
B.C. it was he who urged the Sicilians to assist in completing the
overthrow of Athens, by sending a squadron to co-operate with the
Peloponnesian navy—for the relief of Miletus, etc. (Thuc. viii.
26, 27 foll.) At a later date, in 411 B.C., when the Peloponnesian
sailors were ready to mutiny, and "laid all their grievances to
the charge of Astyochus (the Spartan admiral), who humoured
Tissaphernes for his own gain" (Thuc. viii. 83), Hermocrates took
the men's part, and so incurred the hatred of Tissaphernes.
With these words they called
upon the men to choose other commanders, who should undertake the duties
of their office, until the arrival of their successors. Thereupon the
whole assembly, and more particularly the captains and masters of
vessels and marines, insisted with loud cries on their continuance in
command. The generals replied, "It was not for them to indulge in
faction against the State, but rather it was their duty, in case any
charges were forthcoming against themselves, at once to render an
account." When, however, no one had any kind of accusation to prefer,
they yielded to the general demand, and were content to await the
arrival of their successors. The names of these were—Demarchus, the son
of Epidocus; Myscon, the son of Mencrates; and Potamis, the son of
Gnosis.
The captains, for their part,
swore to restore the exiled generals as soon as they themselves should
return to Syracuse. At present with a general vote of thanks they
despatched them to their several destinations. It particular those who
had enjoyed the society of Hermocrates recalled his virtues with regret,
his thoroughness and enthusiasm, his frankness and affability, the care
with which every morning and evening he was wont to gather in his
quarters a group of naval captains and mariners whose ability he
recognised. These were his confidants, to whom he communicated what he
intended to say or do: they were his pupils, to whom he gave lessons in
oratory, now calling upon them to speak extempore, and now again after
deliberation. By these means Hermocrates had gained a wide reputation at
the council board, where his mastery of language was no less felt than
the wisdom of his advice. Appearing at Lacedaemon as the accuser of
Tissaphernes, (9) he had carried his case, not only by the testimony of
Astyochus, but by the obvious sincerity of his statements, and on the
strength of this reputation he now betook himself to Pharnabazus. The
latter did not wait to be asked, but at once gave him money, which
enabled him to collect friends and triremes, with a view to his ultimate
recall to Syracuse. Meanwhile the successors of the Syracusans had
arrived at Miletus, where they took charge of the ships and the army.
(9) The matter referred to is fully explained Thuc. viii. 85.
It was at this same season that
a revolution occurred in Thasos, involving the expulsion of the
philo-Laconian party, with the Laconian governor Eteonicus. The Laconian
Pasippidas was charged with having brought the business about in
conjunction with Tissaphernes, and was banished from Sparta in
consequence. The naval force which he had been collecting from the
allies was handed over to Cratesippidas, who was sent out to take his
place in Chios.
About the same period, while
Thrasylus was still in Athens, Agis (10) made a foraging expedition up
to the very walls of the city. But Thrasylus led out the Athenians with
the rest of the inhabitants of the city, and drew them up by the side of
the Lyceum Gymnasium, ready to engage the enemy if they approached;
seeing which, Agis beat a hasty retreat, not however without the loss of
some of his supports, a few of whom were cut down by the Athenian light
troops. This success disposed the citizens to take a still more
favourable view of the objects for which Thrasylus had come; and they
passed a decree empowering him to call out a thousand hoplites, one
hundred cavalry, and fifty triremes.
(10) The reader will recollect that we are giving in "the Deceleian"
period of the war, 413-404 B.C. The Spartan king was in command of
the fortress of Deceleia, only fourteen miles distant from Athens,
and erected on a spot within sight of the city. See Thuc. vii. 19,
27, 28.
Meanwhile Agis, as he looked
out from Deceleia, and saw vessel after vessel laden with corn running
down to Piraeus, declared that it was useless for his troops to go on
week after week excluding the Athenians from their own land, while no
one stopped the source of their corn supply by sea: the best plan would
be to send Clearchus, (11) the son of Rhamphius, who was proxenos (12)
of the Byzantines, to Chalcedon and Byzantium. The suggestion was
approved, and with fifteen vessels duly manned from Megara, or furnished
by other allies, Clearchus set out. These were troop-ships rather than
swift-sailing men-of-war. Three of them, on reaching the Hellespont,
were destroyed by the Athenian ships employed to keep a sharp look-out
on all merchant craft in those waters. The other twelve escaped to
Sestos, and thence finally reached Byzantium in safety.
(11) Of Clearchus we shall hear more in the sequel, and in the
"Anabasis."
(12) The Proxenus answered pretty nearly to our "Consul," "Agent,"
"Resident"; but he differed in this respect, that he was always a
member of the foreign State. An Athenian represented Sparta at
Athens; a Laconian represented Athens at Sparta, and so forth. See
Liddell and Scott.
So closed the year—a year
notable also for the expedition against Sicily of the Carthaginians
under Hannibal with one hundred thousand men, and the capture, within
three months, of the two Hellenic cities of Selinus and Himera.
II
B.C. 409. Next year (1)... the
Athenians fortified Thoricus; and Thrasylus, taking the vessels lately
voted him and five thousand of his seamen armed to serve as peltasts,
(2) set sail for Samos at the beginning of summer. At Samos he stayed
three days, and then continued his voyage to Pygela, where he proceeded
to ravage the territory and attack the fortress. Presently a detachment
from Miletus came to the rescue of the men of Pygela, and attacking the
scattered bands of the Athenian light troops, put them to flight. But to
the aid of the light troops came the naval brigade of peltasts, with two
companies of heavy infantry, and all but annihilated the whole
detachment from Miletus. They captured about two hundred shields, and
set up a trophy. Next day they sailed to Notium, and from Notium, after
due preparation, marched upon Colophon. The Colophonians capitulated
without a blow. The following night they made an incursion into Lydia,
where the corn crops were ripe, and burnt several villages, and captured
money, slaves, and other booty in large quantity. But Stages, the
Persian, who was employed in this neighbourhood, fell in with a
reinforcement of cavalry sent to protect the scattered pillaging parties
from the Athenian camp, whilst occupied with their individual plunder,
and took one trooper prisoner, killing seven others. After this
Thrasylus led his troops back to the sea, intending to sail to Ephesus.
Meanwhile Tissaphernes, who had wind of this intention, began collecting
a large army and despatching cavalry with a summons to the inhabitants
one and all to rally to the defence of the goddess Artemis at Ephesus.
(1) The MSS. here give a suspected passage, which may be rendered
thus: "The first of Olympiad 93, celebrated as the year in which
the newly-added two-horse race was won by Evagorias the Eleian,
and the stadion (200 yards foot-race) by the Cyrenaean Eubotas,
when Evarchippus was ephor at Sparta and Euctemon archon at
Athens." But Ol. 93, to which these officers,and the addition of
the new race at Olympia belong, is the year 408. We must therefore
suppose either that this passage has been accidentally inserted in
the wrong place by some editor or copyist, or that the author was
confused in his dates. The "stadium" is the famous foot-race at
Olympia, 606 3/4 English feet in length, run on a course also
called the "Stadion," which was exactly a stade long.
(2) Peltasts, i.e. light infantry armed with the "pelta" or light
shield, instead of the heavy {aspis} of the hoplite or heavy
infantry soldiers.
On the seventeenth day after
the incursion above mentioned Thrasylus sailed to Ephesus. He
disembarked his troops in two divisions, his heavy infantry in the
neighbourhood of Mount Coressus; his cavalry, peltasts, and marines,
with the remainder of his force, near the marsh on the other side of the
city. At daybreak he pushed forward both divisions. The citizens of
Ephesus, on their side, were not slow to protect themselves. They had to
aid them the troops brought up by Tissaphernes, as well as two
detachments of Syracusans, consisting of the crews of their former
twenty vessels and those of five new vessels which had opportunely
arrived quite recently under Eucles, the son of Hippon, and Heracleides,
the son of Aristogenes, together with two Selinuntian vessels. All these
several forces first attacked the heavy infantry near Coressus; these
they routed, killing about one hundred of them, and driving the
remainder down into the sea. They then turned to deal with the second
division on the marsh. Here, too, the Athenians were put to flight, and
as many as three hundred of them perished. On this spot the Ephesians
erected a trophy, and another at Coressus. The valour of the Syracusans
and Selinuntians had been so conspicuous that the citizens presented
many of them, both publicly and privately, with prizes for distinction
in the field, besides offering the right of residence in their city with
certain immunities to all who at any time might wish to live there. To
the Selinuntians, indeed, as their own city had lately been destroyed,
they offered full citizenship.
The Athenians, after picking up
their dead under a truce, set sail for Notium, and having there buried
the slain, continued their voyage towards Lesbos and the Hellespont.
Whilst lying at anchor in the harbour of Methymna, in that island, they
caught sight of the Syracusan vessels, five-and-twenty in number,
coasting along from Ephesus. They put out to sea to attack them, and
captured four ships with their crews, and chased the remainder back to
Ephesus. The prisoners were sent by Thrasylus to Athens, with one
exception. This was an Athenian, Alcibiades, who was a cousin and
fellow-exile of Alcibiades. Him Thrasylus released. (3) From Methymna
Thrasylus set sail to Sestos to join the main body of the army, after
which the united forces crossed to Lampsacus. And now winter was
approaching. It was the winter in which the Syracusan prisoners who had
been immured in the stone quarries of Piraeus dug through the rock and
escaped one night, some to Decelia and others to Megara. At Lampsacus
Alcibiades was anxious to marshal the whole military force there
collected in one body, but the old troops refused to be incorporated
with those of Thrasylus. "They, who had never yet been beaten, with
these newcomers who had just suffered a defeat." So they devoted the
winter to fortifying Lampsacus. They also made an expedition against
Abydos, where Pharnabazus, coming to the rescue of the place,
encountered them with numerous cavalry, but was defeated and forced to
flee, Alcibiades pursuing hard with his cavalry and one hundred and
twenty infantry under the command of Menander, till darkness intervened.
After this battle the soldiers came together of their own accord, and
freely fraternised with the troops of Thrasylus. This expedition was
followed by other incursions during the winter into the interior, where
they found plenty to do ravaging the king's territory.
(3) Reading {apelusen}. Wolf's conjecture for the MSS. {katelousen} =
stoned. See Thirlwall, "Hist. Gr." IV. xxix. 93 note.
It was at this period also that
the Lacedaemonians allowed their revolted helots from Malea, who had
found an asylum at Coryphasium, to depart under a flag of truce. It was
also about the same period that the Achaeans betrayed the colonists of
Heracleia Trachinia, when they were all drawn up in battle to meet the
hostile Oetaeans, whereby as many as seven hundred of them were lost,
together with the governor (4) from Lacedaemon, Labotas. Thus the year
came to its close—a year marked further by a revolt of the Medes from
Darius, the king of Persia, followed by renewed submission to his
authority.
(4) Technically {armostes} (harmost), i.e. administrator.
III
B.C. 408. The year following is
the year in which the temple of Athena, in Phocaea, was struck by
lightning and set on fire. (1) With the cessation of winter, in early
spring, the Athenians set sail with the whole of their force to
Proconnesus, and thence advanced upon Chalcedon and Byzantium, encamping
near the former town. The men of Chalcedon, aware of their approach, had
taken the precaution to deposit all their pillageable property with
their neighbours, the Bithynian Thracians; whereupon Alcibiades put
himself at the head of a small body of heavy infantry with the cavalry,
and giving orders to the fleet to follow along the coast, marched
against the Bithynians and demanded back the property of the
Chalcedonians, threatening them with war in case of refusal. The
Bithynians delivered up the property. Returning to camp, not only thus
enriched, but with the further satisfaction of having secured pledges of
good behaviour from the Bithynians, Alcibiades set to work with the
whole of his troops to draw lines of circumvallation round Chalcedon
from sea to sea, so as to include as much of the river as possible
within his wall, which was made of timber. Thereupon the Lacedaemonian
governor, Hippocrates, let his troops out of the city and offered
battle, and the Athenians, on their side, drew up their forces opposite
to receive him; while Pharnabazus, from without the lines of
circumvallation, was still advancing with his army and large bodies of
horse. Hippocrates and Thrasylus engaged each other with their heavy
infantry for a long while, until Alcibiades, with a detachment of
infantry and the cavalry, intervened. Presently Hippocrates fell, and
the troops under him fled into the city; at the same instant Pharnabazus,
unable to effect a junction with the Lacedaemonian leader, owing to the
circumscribed nature of the ground and the close proximity of the river
to the enemy's lines, retired to the Heracleium, (2) belonging to the
Chalcedonians, where his camp lay. After this success Alcibiades set off
to the Hellespont and the Chersonese to raise money, and the remaining
generals came to terms with Pharnabazus in respect of Chalcedon;
according to these, the Persian satrap agreed to pay the Athenians
twenty talents (3) in behalf of the town, and to grant their ambassadors
a safe conduct up country to the king. It was further stipulated by
mutual consent and under oaths provided, that the Chalcedonians should
continue the payment of their customary tribute to Athens, being also
bound to discharge all outstanding debts. The Athenians, on their side,
were bound to desist from all hostilities until the return of their
ambassadors from the king. These oaths were not witnessed by Alcibiades,
who was now in the neighbourhood of Selybria. Having taken that place,
he presently appeared before the walls of Byzantium at the head of the
men of Chersonese, who came out with their whole force; he was aided
further by troops from Thrace and more than three hundred horse.
Accordingly Pharnabazus, insisting that he too must take the oath,
decided to remain in Chalcedon, and to await his arrival from Byzantium.
Alcibiades came, but was not prepared to bind himself by any oaths,
unless Pharnabazus would, on his side, take oaths to himself. After
this, oaths were exchanged between them by proxy. Alcibiades took them
at Chrysopolis in the presence of two representatives sent by
Pharnabazus—namely, Mitrobates and Arnapes. Pharnabazus took them at
Chalcedon in the presence of Euryptolemus and Diotimus, who represented
Alcibiades. Both parties bound themselves not only by the general oath,
but also interchanged personal pledges of good faith.
(1) The MSS. here give the words, "in the ephorate of Pantacles and
the archonship of Antigenes, two-and-twenty years from the
beginning of the war," but the twenty-second year of the war =
B.C. 410; Antigenes archon, B.C. 407 = Ol. 93, 2; the passage must
be regarded as a note mis-inserted by some editor or copyist (vide
supra, I. 11.)
(2) I.e. sacred place or temple of Heracles.
(3) Twenty talents = 4800 pounds; or, more exactly, 4875 pounds.
This done, Pharnabazus left
Chalcedon at once, with injunctions that those who were going up to the
king as ambassadors should meet him at Cyzicus. The representatives of
Athens were Dorotheus, Philodices, Theogenes, Euryptolemus, and
Mantitheus; with them were two Argives, Cleostratus and Pyrrholochus. An
embassy of the Lacedaemonians was also about to make the journey. This
consisted of Pasippidas and his fellows, with whom were Hermocrates, now
an exile from Syracuse, and his brother Proxenus. So Pharnabazus put
himself at their head. Meanwhile the Athenians prosecuted the siege of
Byzantium; lines of circumvallation were drawn; and they diversified the
blockade by sharpshooting at long range and occasional assaults upon the
walls. Inside the city lay Clearchus, the Lacedaemonian governor, and a
body of Perioci with a small detachment of Neodamodes. (4) There was
also a body of Megarians under their general Helixus, a Megarian, and
another body of Boeotians, with their general Coeratadas. The Athenians,
finding presently that they could effect nothing by force, worked upon
some of the inhabitants to betray the place. Clearchus, meanwhile, never
dreaming that any one would be capable of such an act, had crossed over
to the opposite coast to visit Pharnabazus; he had left everything in
perfect order, entrusting the government of the city to Coeratadas and
Helixus. His mission was to obtain pay for the soldiers from the Persian
satrap, and to collect vessels from various quarters. Some were already
in the Hellespont, where they had been left as guardships by Pasippidas,
or else at Antandrus. Others formed the fleet which Agesandridas, who
had formerly served as a marine (5) under Mindarus, now commanded on the
Thracian coast. Others Clearchus purposed to have built, and with the
whole united squadron to so injure the allies of the Athenians as to
draw off the besieging army from Byzantium. But no sooner was he fairly
gone than those who were minded to betray the city set to work. Their
names were Cydon, Ariston, Anaxicrates, Lycurgus, and Anaxilaus. The
last-named was afterwards impeached for treachery in Lacedaemon on the
capital charge, and acquitted on the plea that, to begin with, he was
not a Lacedaemonian, but a Byzantine, and, so far from having betrayed
the city, he had saved it, when he saw women and children perishing of
starvation; for Clearchus had given away all the corn in the city to the
Lacedaemonian soldiers. It was for these reasons, as Anaxilaus himself
admitted, he had introduced the enemy, and not for the sake of money,
nor out of hatred to Lacedaemon.
(4) According to the constitution of Lacedaemon the whole government
was in Dorian hands. The subject population was divided into (1)
Helots, who were State serfs. The children of Helots were at times
brought up by Spartans and called "Mothakes"; Helots who had
received their liberty were called "Neodamodes" ({neodamodeis}).
After the conquest of Messenia this class was very numerous. (2)
Perioeci. These were the ancient Achaean inhabitants, living in
towns and villages, and managing their own affairs, paying
tribute, and serving in the army as heavy-armed soldiers. In 458
B.C. they were said to number thirty thousand. The Spartans
themselves were divided, like all Dorians, into three tribes,
Hylleis, Dymanes, and Pamphyli, each of which tribes was divided
into ten "obes," which were again divided into {oikoi} or families
possessed of landed properties. In 458 B.C. there were said to be
nine thousand such families; but in course of time, through
alienation of lands, deaths in war, and other causes, their
numbers were much diminished; and in many cases there was a loss
of status, so that in the time of Agis III., B.C. 244, we hear of
two orders of Spartans, the {omoioi} and the {upomeiones}
(inferiors); seven hundred Spartans (families) proper and one
hundred landed proprietors. See Mullers "Dorians," vol. ii. bk.
iii. ch. x. S. 3 (Eng. trans.); Arist. "Pol." ii. 9, 15; Plut.
("Agis").
(5) The greek word is {epibates}, which some think was the title of an
inferior naval officer in the Spartan service, but there is no
proof of this. Cf. Thuc. viii. 61, and Prof. Jowett's note; also
Grote, "Hist. of Greece," viii. 27 (2d ed.)
As soon as everything was
ready, these people opened the gates leading to the Thracian Square, as
it is called, and admitted the Athenian troops with Alcibiades at their
head. Helixus and Coeratadas, in complete ignorance of the plot,
hastened to the Agora with the whole of the garrison, ready to confront
the danger; but finding the enemy in occupation, they had nothing for it
but to give themselves up. They were sent off as prisoners to Athens,
where Coeratadas, in the midst of the crowd and confusion of debarkation
at Piraeus, gave his guards the slip, and made his way in safety to
Decelia.
IV
B.C. 407. Pharnabazus and the
ambassadors were passing the winter at Gordium in Phrygia, when they
heard of the occurrences at Byzantium. Continuing their journey to the
king's court in the commencement of spring, they were met by a former
embassy, which was now on its return journey. These were the
Lacedaemonian ambassadors, Boeotius and his party, with the other
envoys; who told them that the Lacedaemonians had obtained from the king
all they wanted. One of the company was Cyrus, the new governor of all
the seaboard districts, who was prepared to co-operate with the
Lacedaemonians in war. He was the bearer, moreover, of a letter with the
royal seal attached. It was addressed to all the populations of Lower
Asia, and contained the following words: "I send down Cyrus as 'Karanos'"
(1)—that is to say, supreme lord—"over all those who muster at Castolus."
The ambassadors of the Athenians, even while listening to this
announcement, and indeed after they had seen Cyrus, were still desirous,
if possible, to continue their journey to the king, or, failing that, to
return home. Cyrus, however, urged upon Pharnabazus either to deliver
them up to himself, or to defer sending them home at present; his object
being to prevent the Athenians learning what was going on. Pharnabazus,
wishing to escape all blame, for the time being detained them, telling
them, at one time, that he would presently escort them up country to the
king, and at another time that he would send them safe home. But when
three years had elapsed, he prayed Cyrus to let them go, declaring that
he had taken an oath to bring them back to the sea, in default of
escorting them up to the king. Then at last they received safe conduct
to Ariobarzanes, with orders for their further transportation. The
latter conducted them a stage further, to Cius in Mysia; and from Cius
they set sail to join their main armament.
(1) {Karanos.} Is this a Greek word, a Doric form, {karanos}, akin to
{kara} (cf. {karenon}) = chief? or is it not more likely a Persian
or native word, Karanos? and might not the title be akin
conceivably to the word {korano}, which occurs on many Indo-
Bactrian coins (see A. von Sallet, "Die Nachfolger Alexanders des
Grossen," p. 57, etc.)? or is {koiranos} the connecting link? The
words translated "that is to say, supreme lord," {to de karanon
esti kurion}, look very like a commentator's gloss.
Alcibiades, whose chief desire
was to return home to Athens with the troops, immediately set sail for
Samos; and from that island, taking twenty of the ships, he sailed to
the Ceramic Gulf of Caria, where he collected a hundred talents, and so
returned to Samos.
Thrasybulus had gone
Thrace-wards with thirty ships. In this quarter he reduced various
places which had revolted to Lacedaemon, including the island of Thasos,
which was in a bad plight, the result of wars, revolutions, and famine.
Thrasylus, with the rest of the
army, sailed back straight to Athens. On his arrival he found that the
Athenians had already chosen as their general Alcibiades, who was still
in exile, and Thrasybulus, who was also absent, and as a third, from
among those at home, Conon.
Meanwhile Alcibiades, with the
moneys lately collected and his fleet of twenty ships, left Samos and
visited Paros. From Paros he stood out to sea across to Gytheum, (2) to
keep an eye on the thirty ships of war which, as he was informed, the
Lacedaemonians were equipping in that arsenal. Gytheum would also be a
favourable point of observation from which to gauge the disposition of
his fellow-countrymen and the prospects of his recall. When at length
their good disposition seemed to him established, not only by his
election as general, but by the messages of invitation which he received
in private from his friends, he sailed home, and entered Piraeus on the
very day of the festival of the Plunteria, (3) when the statue of Athena
is veiled and screened from public gaze. This was a coincidence, as some
thought, of evil omen, and unpropitious alike to himself and the State,
for no Athenian would transact serious business on such a day.
(2) Gytheum, the port and arsenal of Sparta, situated near the head of
the Laconian Gulf (now Marathonisi).
(3) {ta Plunteria}, or feast of washings, held on the 25th of the
month Thargelion, when the image of the goddess Athena was
stripped in order that her clothes might be washed by the
Praxiergidae; neither assembly nor court was held on that day, and
the Temple was closed.
As he sailed into the harbour,
two great crowds—one from the Piraeus, the other from the city
(4)—flocked to meet the vessels. Wonderment, mixed with a desire to see
Alcibiades, was the prevailing sentiment of the multitude. Of him they
spoke: some asserting that he was the best of citizens, and that in his
sole instance banishment had been ill-deserved. He had been the victim
of plots, hatched in the brains of people less able than himself,
however much they might excel in pestilent speech; men whose one
principle of statecraft was to look to their private gains; whereas this
man's policy had ever been to uphold the common weal, as much by his
private means as by all the power of the State. His own choice, eight
years ago, when the charge of impiety in the matter of the mysteries was
still fresh, would have been to submit to trial at once. It was his
personal foes, who had succeeded in postponing that undeniably just
procedure; who waited till his back was turned, and then robbed him of
his fatherland. Then it was that, being made the very slave of
circumstance, he was driven to court the men he hated most; and at a
time when his own life was in daily peril, he must see his dearest
friends and fellow-citizens, nay, the very State itself, bent on a
suicidal course, and yet, in the exclusion of exile, be unable to lend a
helping hand. "It is not men of this stamp," they averred, "who desire
changes in affairs and revolution: had he not already guaranteed to him
by the Democracy a position higher than that of his equals in age, and
scarcely if at all inferior to his seniors? How different was the
position of his enemies. It had been the fortune of these, though they
were known to be the same men they had always been, to use their lately
acquired power for the destruction in the first instance of the better
classes; and then, being alone left surviving, to be accepted by their
fellow-citizens in the absence of better men."
(4) Or, "collected to meet the vessels from curiosity and a desire to
see Alcibiades."
Others, however, insisted that
for all their past miseries and misfortunes Alcibiades alone was
responsible: "If more trials were still in store for the State, here was
the master mischief-maker ready at his post to precipitate them."
When the vessels came to their
moorings, close to the land, Alcibiades, from fear of his enemies, was
unwilling to disembark at once. Mounting on the quarterdeck, he scanned
the multitude, (5) anxious to make certain of the presence of his
friends. Presently his eyes lit upon Euryptolemus, the son of Peisianax,
who was his cousin, and then on the rest of his relations and other
friends. Upon this he landed, and so, in the midst of an escort ready to
put down any attempt upon his person, made his way to the city.
(5) Or, "he looked to see if his friends were there."
In the Senate and Public
Assembly (6) he made speeches, defending himself against the charge of
impiety, and asserting that he had been the victim of injustice, with
other like topics, which in the present temper of the assembly no one
ventured to gainsay.
(6) Technically the "Boule" ({Boule}) or Senate, and "Ecclesia" or
Popular Assembly.
He was then formally declared
leader and chief of the State, with irresponsible powers, as being the
sole individual capable of recovering the ancient power and prestige of
Athens. Armed with this authority, his first act was to institute anew
the processional march to Eleusis; for of late years, owing to the war,
the Athenians had been forced to conduct the mysteries by sea. Now, at
the head of the troops, he caused them to be conducted once again by
land. This done, his next step was to muster an armament of one thousand
five hundred heavy infantry, one hundred and fifty cavalry, and one
hundred ships; and lastly, within three months of his return, he set
sail for Andros, which had revolted from Athens.
The generals chosen to
co-operate with him on land were Aristocrates and Adeimantus, the son of
Leucophilides. He disembarked his troops on the island of Andros at
Gaurium, and routed the Andrian citizens who sallied out from the town
to resist the invader; forcing them to return and keep close within
their walls, though the number who fell was not large. This defeat was
shared by some Lacedaemonians who were in the place. Alcibiades erected
a trophy, and after a few days set sail himself for Samos, which became
his base of operations in the future conduct of the war.
V
At a date not much earlier than
that of the incidents just described, the Lacedaemonians had sent out
Lysander as their admiral, in the place of Cratesippidas, whose period
of office had expired. The new admiral first visited Rhodes, where he
got some ships, and sailed to Cos and Miletus, and from the latter place
to Ephesus. At Ephesus he waited with seventy sail, expecting the advent
of Cyrus in Sardis, when he at once went up to pay the prince a visit
with the ambassadors from Lacedaemon. And now an opportunity was given
to denounce the proceedings of Tissaphernes, and at the same time to beg
Cyrus himself to show as much zeal as possible in the prosecution of the
war. Cyrus replied that not only had he received express injunction from
his father to the same effect, but that his own views coincided with
their wishes, which he was determined to carry out to the letter. He
had, he informed them, brought with him five hundred talents; (1) and if
that sum failed, he had still the private revenue, which his father
allowed him, to fall back upon, and when this resource was in its turn
exhausted, he would coin the gold and silver throne on which he sat,
into money for their benefit. (2)
(1) About 120,000 pounds. One Euboic or Attic talent = sixty minae =
six thousand drachmae = 243 pounds 15 shillings of our money.
(2) Cf. the language of Tissaphernes, Thuc. viii. 81.
His audience thanked him for
what he said, and further begged him to fix the rate of payment for the
seamen at one Attic drachma per man, (3) explaining that should this
rate of payment be adopted, the sailors of the Athenians would desert,
and in the end there would be a saving of expenditure. Cyrus
complimented them on the soundness of their arguments, but said that it
was not in his power to exceed the injunctions of the king. The terms of
agreement were precise, thirty minae (4) a month per vessel to be given,
whatever number of vessels the Lacedaemonians might choose to maintain.
(3) About 9 3/4 pence; a drachma (= six obols) would be very high pay
for a sailor—indeed, just double the usual amount. See Thuc. vi.
8 and viii. 29, and Prof. Jowett ad loc. Tissaphernes had, in the
winter of 412 B.C., distributed one month's pay among the
Peloponnesian ships at this high rate of a drachma a day, "as his
envoy had promised at Lacedaemon;" but this he proposed to reduce
to half a drachma, "until he had asked the king's leave, promising
that if he obtained it, he would pay the entire drachma. On the
remonstrance, however, of Hermocrates, the Syracusan general, he
promised to each man a payment of somewhat more than three obols."
(4) Nearly 122 pounds; and thirty minae a month to each ship (the crew
of each ship being taken at two hundred) = three obols a day to
each man. The terms of agreement to which Cyrus refers may have
been specified in the convention mentioned above in chap. iv,
which Boeotius and the rest were so proud to have obtained. But
see Grote, "Hist. of Greece," vol. viii. p. 192 note (2d ed.)
To this rejoinder Lysander at
the moment said nothing. But after dinner, when Cyrus drank to his
health, asking him "What he could do to gratify him most?" Lysander
replied, "Add an obol (5) to the sailors' pay." After this the pay was
raised to four instead of three obols, as it hitherto had been. Nor did
the liberality of Cyrus end here; he not only paid up all arrears, but
further gave a month's pay in advance, so that, if the enthusiasm of the
army had been great before, it was greater than ever now. The Athenians
when they heard the news were proportionately depressed, and by help of
Tissaphernes despatched ambassadors to Cyrus. That prince, however,
refused to receive them, nor were the prayers of Tissaphernes of any
avail, however much he insisted that Cyrus should adopt the policy which
he himself, on the advice of Alcibiades, had persistently acted on. This
was simply not to suffer any single Hellenic state to grow strong at the
expense of the rest, but to keep them all weak alike, distracted by
internecine strife.
(5) An obol = one-sixth of a drachma; the Attic obol = rather more
than 1 1/2 pence.
Lysander, now that the
organisation of his navy was arranged to his satisfaction, beached his
squadron of ninety vessels at Ephesus, and sat with hands folded, whilst
the vessels dried and underwent repairs. Alcibiades, being informed that
Thrasybulus had come south of the Hellespont and was fortifying Phocaea,
sailed across to join him, leaving his own pilot Antiochus in command of
the fleet, with orders not to attack Lysander's fleet. Antiochus,
however, was tempted to leave Notium and sail into the harbour of
Ephesus with a couple of ships, his own and another, past the prows of
Lysander's squadron. The Spartan at first contented himself with
launching a few of his ships, and started in pursuit of the intruder;
but when the Athenians came out with other vessels to assist Antiochus,
he formed his whole squadron into line of battle, and bore down upon
them, whereupon the Athenians followed suit, and getting their remaining
triremes under weigh at Notium, stood out to sea as fast as each vessel
could clear the point. (6) Thus it befell in the engagement which
ensued, that while the enemy was in due order, the Athenians came up in
scattered detachments and without concert, and in the end were put to
flight with the loss of fifteen ships of war. Of the crews, indeed, the
majority escaped, though a certain number fell into the hands of the
enemy. Then Lysander collected his vessels, and having erected a trophy
on Cape Notium, sailed across to Ephesus, whilst the Athenians retired
to Samos.
(6) {os ekastos enoixen}, for this nautical term see above.
On his return to Samos a little
later, Alcibiades put out to sea with the whole squadron in the
direction of the harbour of Ephesus. At the mouth of the harbour he
marshalled his fleet in battle order, and tried to tempt the enemy to an
engagement; but as Lysander, conscious of his inferiority in numbers,
refused to accept the challenge, he sailed back again to Samos. Shortly
after this the Lacedaemonians captured Delphinium and Eion. (7)
(7) This should probably be Teos, in Ionia, in spite of the MSS.
{'Eiona}. The place referred to cannot at any rate be the well-
known Eion at the mouth of the Strymon in Thrace.
But now the news of the late
disaster at Notium had reached the Athenians at home, and in their
indignation they turned upon Alcibiades, to whose negligence and lack of
self-command they attributed the destruction of the ships. Accordingly
they chose ten new generals—namely Conon, Diomedon, Leon, Pericles,
Erasinides, Aristocrates, Archestratus, Protomachus, Thrasylus, and
Aristogenes. Alcibiades, who was moreover in bad odour in the camp,
sailed away with a single trireme to his private fortress in the
Chersonese.
After this Conon, in obedience
to a decree of the Athenian people, set sail from Andros with the twenty
vessels under his command in that island to Samos, and took command of
the whole squadron. To fill the place thus vacated by Conon,
Phanosthenes was sent to Andros with four ships. That captain was
fortunate enough to intercept and capture two Thurian ships of war,
crews and all, and these captives were all imprisoned by the Athenians,
with the exception of their leader Dorieus. He was the Rhodian, who some
while back had been banished from Athens and from his native city by the
Athenians, when sentence of death was passed upon him and his family.
This man, who had once enjoyed the right of citizenship among them, they
now took pity on and released him without ransom.
When Conon had reached Samos he
found the armament in a state of great despondency. Accordingly his
first measure was to man seventy ships with their full complement,
instead of the former hundred and odd vessels. With this squadron he put
to sea accompanied by the other generals, and confined himself to making
descents first at one point and then at another of the enemy's
territory, and to collecting plunder.
And so the year drew to its
close: a year signalled further by an invasion of Sicily by the
Carthaginians, with one hundred and twenty ships of war and a land force
of one hundred and twenty thousand men, which resulted in the capture of
Agrigentum. The town was finally reduced to famine after a siege of
seven months, the invaders having previously been worsted in battle and
forced to sit down before its walls for so long a time.
VI
B.C. 406. In the following
year—the year of the evening eclipse of the moon, and the burning of the
old temple of Athena (1) at Athens (2)—the Lacedaemonians sent out
Callicratidas to replace Lysander, whose period of office had now
expired. (3) Lysander, when surrendering the squadron to his successor,
spoke of himself as the winner of a sea fight, which had left him in
undisputed mastery of the sea, and with this boast he handed over the
ships to Callicratidas, who retorted, "If you will convey the fleet from
Ephesus, keeping Samos (4) on your right" (that is, past where the
Athenian navy lay), "and hand it over to me at Miletus, I will admit
that you are master of the sea." But Lysander had no mind to interfere
in the province of another officer. Thus Callicratidas assumed
responsibility. He first manned, in addition to the squadron which he
received from Lysander, fifty new vessels furnished by the allies from
Chios and Rhodes and elsewhere. When all these contingents were
assembled, they formed a total of one hundred and forty sail, and with
these he began making preparations for engagement with the enemy. But it
was impossible for him not to note the strong current of opposition
which he encountered from the friends of Lysander. Not only was there
lack of zeal in their service, but they openly disseminated an opinion
in the States, that it was the greatest possible blunder on the part of
the Lacedaemonians so to change their admirals. Of course, they must
from time to time get officers altogether unfit for the post—men whose
nautical knowledge dated from yesterday, and who, moreover, had no
notion of dealing with human beings. It would be very odd if this
practice of sending out people ignorant of the sea and unknown to the
folk of the country did not lead to some catastrophe. Callicratidas at
once summoned the Lacedaemonians there present, and addressed them in
the following terms:—
(1) I.e. as some think, the Erechtheion, which was built partly on the
site of the old temple of Athena Polias, destroyed by the
Persians. According to Dr. Dorpfeld, a quite separate building of
the Doric order, the site of which (S. of the Erechtheion) has
lately been discovered.
(2) The MSS. here add "in the ephorate of Pityas and the archonship of
Callias at Athens;" but though the date is probably correct (cf.
Leake, "Topography of Athens," vol. i. p. 576 foll.), the words
are almost certainly a gloss.
(3) Here the MSS. add "with the twenty-fourth year of the war,"
probably an annotator's gloss; the correct date should be twenty-
fifth. Pel. war 26 = B.C. 406. Pel. war 25 ended B.C. 407.
(4) Lit. on the left (or east) of Samos, looking south from Ephesus.
"For my part," he said, "I am
content to stay at home: and if Lysander or any one else claim greater
experience in nautical affairs than I possess, I have no desire to block
his path. Only, being sent out by the State to take command of this
fleet, I do not know what is left to me, save to carry out my
instructions to the best of my ability. For yourselves, all I beg of
you, in reference to my personal ambitions and the kind of charges
brought against our common city, and of which you are as well aware as I
am, is to state what you consider to be the best course: am I to stay
where I am, or shall I sail back home, and explain the position of
affairs out here?"
No one ventured to suggest any
other course than that he should obey the authorities, and do what he
was sent to do. Callicratidas then went up to the court of Cyrus to ask
for further pay for the sailors, but the answer he got from Cyrus was
that he should wait for two days. Callicratidas was annoyed at the
rebuff: to dance attendance at the palace gates was little to his taste.
In a fit of anger he cried out at the sorry condition of the Hellenes,
thus forced to flatter the barbarian for the sake of money. "If ever I
get back home," he added, "I will do what in me lies to reconcile the
Athenians and the Lacedaemonians." And so he turned and sailed back to
Miletus. From Miletus he sent some triremes to Lacedaemon to get money,
and convoking the public assembly of the Milesians, addressed them
thus:—
"Men of Miletus, necessity is
laid upon me to obey the rulers at home; but for yourselves, whose
neighbourhood to the barbarians has exposed you to many evils at their
hands, I only ask you to let your zeal in the war bear some proportion
to your former sufferings. You should set an example to the rest of the
allies, and show us how to inflict the sharpest and swiftest injury on
our enemy, whilst we await the return from Lacedaemon of my envoys with
the necessary funds. Since one of the last acts of Lysander, before he
left us, was to hand back to Cyrus the funds already on the spot, as
though we could well dispense with them. I was thus forced to turn to
Cyrus, but all I got from him was a series of rebuffs; he refused me an
audience, and, for my part, I could not induce myself to hang about his
gates like a mendicant. But I give you my word, men of Miletus, that in
return for any assistance which you can render us while waiting for
these aids, I will requite you richly. Only by God's help let us show
these barbarians that we do not need to worship them, in order to punish
our foes."
The speech was effective; many
members of the assembly arose, and not the least eagerly those who were
accused of opposing him. These, in some terror, proposed a vote of
money, backed by offers of further private contributions. Furnished with
these sums, and having procured from Chios a further remittance of five
drachmas (5) a piece as outfit for each seaman, he set sail to Methyma
in Lesbos, which was in the hands of the enemy. But as the Methymnaeans
were not disposed to come over to him (since there was an Athenian
garrison in the place, and the men at the head of affairs were partisans
of Athens), he assaulted and took the place by storm. All the property
within accordingly became the spoil of the soldiers. The prisoners were
collected for sale by Callicratidas in the market-place, where, in
answer to the demand of the allies, who called upon him to sell the
Methymnaeans also, he made answer, that as long as he was in command,
not a single Hellene should be enslaved if he could help it. The next
day he set at liberty the free-born captives; the Athenian garrison with
the captured slaves he sold. (6) To Conon he sent word:—He would put a
stop to his strumpeting the sea. (7) And catching sight of him, as he
put out to sea, at break of day, he gave chase, hoping to cut him off
from his passage to Samos, and prevent his taking refuge there.
(5) About 4d.
(6) Grote, "Hist. of Greece," vol. viii. p. 224 (2d ed.), thinks that
Callicratidas did not even sell the Athenian garrison, as if the
sense of the passage were: "The next day he set at liberty the
free-born captives with the Athenian garrison, contenting himself
with selling the captive slaves." But I am afraid that no
ingenuity of stopping will extract that meaning from the Greek
words, which are, {te d' usteraia tous men eleutherous apheke tous
de ton 'Athenaion phrourous kai ta andrapoda ta doula panta
apedoto}. To spare the Athenian garrison would have been too
extraordinary a proceeding even for Callicratidas. The idea
probably never entered his head. It was sufficiently noble for him
to refuse to sell the Methymnaeans. See the remarks of Mr. W. L.
Newman, "The Pol. of Aristotle," vol. i. p. 142.
(7) I.e. the sea was Sparta's bride.
But Conon, aided by the sailing
qualities of his fleet, the rowers of which were the pick of several
ships' companies, concentrated in a few vessels, made good his escape,
seeking shelter within the harbour of Mitylene in Lesbos, and with him
two of the ten generals, Leon and Erasinides. Callicratidas, pursuing
him with one hundred and seventy sail, entered the harbour
simultaneously; and Conon thus hindered from further or final escape by
the too rapid movements of the enemy, was forced to engage inside the
harbour, and lost thirty of his ships, though the crews escaped to land.
The remaining, forty in number, he hauled up under the walls of the
town. Callicratidas, on his side, came to moorings in the harbour; and,
having command of the exit, blocked the Athenian within. His next step
was to send for the Methymnaeans in force by land, and to transport his
army across from Chios. Money also came to him from Cyrus.
Conon, finding himself besieged
by land and sea, without means of providing himself with corn from any
quarter, the city crowded with inhabitants, and aid from Athens, whither
no news of the late events could be conveyed, impossible, launched two
of the fastest sailing vessels of his squadron. These he manned, before
daybreak, with the best rowers whom he could pick out of the fleet,
stowing away the marines at the same time in the hold of the ships and
closing the port shutters. Every day for four days they held out in this
fashion, but at evening as soon as it was dark he disembarked his men,
so that the enemy might not suspect what they were after. On the fifth
day, having got in a small stock of provisions, when it was already
mid-day and the blockaders were paying little or no attention, and some
of them even were taking their siesta, the two ships sailed out of the
harbour: the one directing her course towards the Hellespont, whilst her
companion made for the open sea. Then, on the part of the blockaders,
there was a rush to the scene of action, as fast as the several crews
could get clear of land, in bustle and confusion, cutting away the
anchors, and rousing themselves from sleep, for, as chance would have
it, they had been breakfasting on shore. Once on board, however, they
were soon in hot pursuit of the ship which had started for the open sea,
and ere the sun dipped they overhauled her, and after a successful
engagement attached her by cables and towed her back into harbour, crew
and all. Her comrade, making for the Hellespont, escaped, and eventually
reached Athens with news of the blockade. The first relief was brought
to the blockaded fleet by Diomedon, who anchored with twelve vessels in
the Mitylenaean Narrows. (8) But a sudden attack of Callicratidas, who
bore down upon him without warning, cost him ten of his vessels,
Diomedon himself escaping with his own ship and one other.
(8) Or, "Euripus."
Now that the position of
affairs, including the blockade, was fully known at Athens, a vote was
passed to send out a reinforcement of one hundred and ten ships. Every
man of ripe age, (9) whether slave or free, was impressed for this
service, so that within thirty days the whole one hundred and ten
vessels were fully manned and weighed anchor. Amongst those who served
in this fleet were also many of the knights. (10) The fleet at once
stood out across to Samos, and picked up the Samian vessels in that
island. The muster-roll was swelled by the addition of more than thirty
others from the rest of the allies, to whom the same principle of
conscription applied, as also it did to the ships already engaged on
foreign service. The actual total, therefore, when all the contingents
were collected, was over one hundred and fifty vessels.
(9) I.e. from eighteen to sixty years.
(10) See Boeckh. "P. E. A." Bk. II. chap. xxi. p. 263 (Eng. trans.)
Callicratidas, hearing that the
relief squadron had already reached Samos, left fifty ships, under
command of Eteonicus, in the harbour of Mitylene, and setting sail with
the other one hundred and twenty, hove to for the evening meal off Cape
Malea in Lesbos, opposite Mitylene. It so happened that the Athenians on
this day were supping on the islands of Arginusae, which lie opposite
Lesbos. In the night the Spartan not only saw their watch-fires, but
received positive information that "these were the Athenians;" and about
midnight he got under weigh, intending to fall upon them suddenly. But a
violent downpour of rain with thunder and lightning prevented him
putting out to sea. By daybreak it had cleared, and he sailed towards
Arginusae. On their side, the Athenian squadron stood out to meet him,
with their left wing facing towards the open sea, and drawn up in the
following order:—Aristocrates, in command of the left wing, with fifteen
ships, led the van; next came Diomedon with fifteen others, and
immediately in rear of Aristocrates and Diomedon respectively, as their
supports, came Pericles and Erasinides. Parallel with Diomedon were the
Samians, with their ten ships drawn up in single line, under the command
of a Samian officer named Hippeus. Next to these came the ten vessels of
the taxiarchs, also in single line, and supporting them, the three ships
of the navarchs, with any other allied vessels in the squadron. The
right wing was entrusted to Protomachus with fifteen ships, and next to
him (on the extreme right) was Thrasylus with another division of
fifteen. Protomachus was supported by Lysias with an equal number of
ships, and Thrasylus by Aristogenes. The object of this formation was to
prevent the enemy from manouvring so as to break their line by striking
them amidships, (11) since they were inferior in sailing power.
(11) Lit. "by the diekplous." Cf. Thuc. i. 49, and Arnold's note, who
says: "The 'diecplus' was a breaking through the enemy's line in
order by a rapid turning of the vessel to strike the enemy's ship
on the side or stern, where it was most defenceless, and so to
sink it." So, it seems, "the superiority of nautical skill has
passed," as Grote (viii. p. 234) says, "to the Peloponnesians and
their allies." Well may the historian add, "How astonished would
the Athenian Admiral Phormion have been, if he could have
witnessed the fleets and the order of battle at Arginusae!" See
Thuc. iv. 11.
The Lacedaemonians, on the
contrary, trusting to their superior seamanship, were formed opposite
with their ships all in single line, with the special object of
manouvring so as either to break the enemy's line or to wheel round
them. Callicratidas commanded the right wing in person. Before the
battle the officer who acted as his pilot, the Megarian Hermon,
suggested that it might be well to withdraw the fleet as the Athenian
ships were far more numerous. But Callicratidas replied that Sparta
would be no worse off even if he personally should perish, but to flee
would be disgraceful. (12) And now the fleets approached, and for a long
space the battle endured. At first the vessels were engaged in crowded
masses, and later on in scattered groups. At length Callicratidas, as
his vessel dashed her beak into her antagonist, was hurled off into the
sea and disappeared. At the same instant Protomachus, with his division
on the right, had defeated the enemy's left, and then the flight of the
Peloponnesians began towards Chios, though a very considerable body of
them made for Phocaea, whilst the Athenians sailed back again to
Arginusae. The losses on the side of the Athenians were twenty-five
ships, crews and all, with the exception of the few who contrived to
reach dry land. On the Peloponnesian side, nine out of the ten
Lacedaemonian ships, and more than sixty belonging to the rest of the
allied squadron, were lost.
(12) For the common reading, {oikeitai}, which is ungrammatical,
various conjectures have been made, e.g.
{oikieitai} = "would be none the worse off for citizens,"
{oikesetai} = "would be just as well administered without him,"
but as the readings and their renderings are alike doubtful, I
have preferred to leave the matter vague. Cf. Cicero, "De Offic."
i. 24; Plutarch, "Lac. Apophth." p. 832.
After consultation the Athenian
generals agreed that two captains of triremes, Theramenes and
Thrasybulus, accompanied by some of the taxiarchs, should take
forty-seven ships and sail to the assistance of the disabled fleet and
of the men on board, whilst the rest of the squadron proceeded to attack
the enemy's blockading squadron under Eteonicus at Mitylene. In spite of
their desire to carry out this resolution, the wind and a violent storm
which arose prevented them. So they set up a trophy, and took up their
quarters for the night. As to Etenoicus, the details of the engagement
ware faithfully reported to him by the express despatch-boat in
attendance. On receipt of the news, however, he sent the despatch-boat
out again the way she came, with an injunction to those on board of her
to sail off quickly without exchanging a word with any one. Then on a
sudden they were to return garlanded with wreaths of victory and
shouting "Callicratidas has won a great sea fight, and the whole
Athenian squadron is destroyed." This they did, and Eteonicus, on his
side, as soon as the despatch-boat came sailing in, proceeded to offer
sacrifice of thanksgiving in honour of the good news. Meanwhile he gave
orders that the troops were to take their evening meal, and that the
masters of the trading ships were silently to stow away their goods on
board the merchant ships and make sail as fast as the favourable breeze
could speed them to Chios. The ships of war were to follow suit with
what speed they might. This done, he set fire to his camp, and led off
the land forces to Methymna. Conon, finding the enemy had made off, and
the wind had grown comparatively mild, (13) got his ships afloat, and so
fell in with the Athenian squadron, which had by this time set out from
Arginusae. To these he explained the proceedings of Eteonicus. The
squadron put into Mitylene, and from Mitylene stood across to Chios, and
thence, without effecting anything further, sailed back to Samos.
(13) Or, "had changed to a finer quarter."
VII
All the above-named generals,
with the exception of Conon, were presently deposed by the home
authorities. In addition to Conon two new generals were chosen,
Adeimantus and Philocles. Of those concerned in the late victory two
never returned to Athens: these were Protomachus and Aristogenes. The
other six sailed home. Their names were Pericles, Diomedon, Lysias,
Aristocrates, Thrasylus, and Erasinides. On their arrival Archidemus,
the leader of the democracy at that date, who had charge of the two obol
fund, (1) inflicted a fine on Erasinides, and accused him before the
Dicastery (2) of having appropriated money derived from the Hellespont,
which belonged to the people. He brought a further charge against him of
misconduct while acting as general, and the court sentenced him to
imprisonment.
(1) Reading {tes diobelais}, a happy conjecture for the MSS. {tes
diokelias}, which is inexplicable. See Grote, "Hist. of Greece,"
vol. viii. p. 244 note (2d ed.)
(2) I.e. a legal tribunal or court of law. At Athens the free citizens
constitutionally sworn and impannelled sat as "dicasts"
("jurymen," or rather as a bench of judges) to hear cases
({dikai}). Any particular board of dicasts formed a "dicastery."
These proceedings in the law
court were followed by the statement of the generals before the senate
(3) touching the late victory and the magnitude of the storm. Timocrates
then proposed that the other five generals should be put in custody and
handed over to the public assembly. (4) Whereupon the senate committed
them all to prison. Then came the meeting of the public assembly, in
which others, and more particularly Theramenes, formally accused the
generals. He insisted that they ought to show cause why they had not
picked up the shipwrecked crews. To prove that there had been no attempt
on their part to attach blame to others, he might point, as conclusive
testimony, to the despatch sent by the generals themselves to the senate
and the people, in which they attributed the whole disaster to the
storm, and nothing else. After this the generals each in turn made a
defence, which was necessarily limited to a few words, since no right of
addressing the assembly at length was allowed by law. Their explanation
of the occurrences was that, in order to be free to sail against the
enemy themselves, they had devolved the duty of picking up the
shipwrecked crews upon certain competent captains of men-of-war, who had
themselves been generals in their time, to wit Theramenes and
Tharysbulus, and others of like stamp. If blame could attach to any one
at all with regard to the duty in question, those to whom their orders
had been given were the sole persons they could hold responsible. "But,"
they went on to say, "we will not, because these very persons have
denounced us, invent a lie, and say that Theramenes and Thrasybulus are
to blame, when the truth of the matter is that the magnitude of the
storm alone prevented the burial of the dead and the rescue of the
living." In proof of their contention, they produced the pilots and
numerous other witnesses from among those present at the engagement. By
these arguments they were in a fair way to persuade the people of their
innocence. Indeed many private citizens rose wishing to become bail for
the accused, but it was resolved to defer decision till another meeting
of the assembly. It was indeed already so late that it would have been
impossible to see to count the show of hands. It was further resolved
that the senate meanwhile should prepare a measure, to be introduced at
the next assembly, as to the mode in which the accused should take their
trial.
(3) This is the Senate or Council of Five Hundred. One of its chief
duties was to prepare measures for discussion in the assembly. It
had also a certain amount of judicial power, hearing complaints
and inflicting fines up to fifty drachmas. It sat daily, a
"prytany" of fifty members of each of the ten tribes in rotation
holding office for a month in turn.
(4) This is the great Public Assembly (the Ecclesia), consisting of
all genuine Athenian citizens of more than twenty years of age.
Then came the festival of the
Aparturia, (5) with its family gatherings of fathers and kinsfolk.
Accordingly the party of Theramenes procured numbers of people clad in
black apparel, and close-shaven, (6) who were to go in and present
themselves before the public assembly in the middle of the festival, as
relatives, presumably, of the men who had perished; and they persuaded
Callixenus to accuse the generals in the senate. The next step was to
convoke the assembly, when the senate laid before it the proposal just
passed by their body, at the instance of Callixenus, which ran as
follows: "Seeing that both the parties to this case, to wit, the
prosecutors of the generals on the one hand, and the accused themselves
in their defence on the other, have been heard in the late meeting of
the assembly; we propose that the people of Athens now record their
votes, one and all, by their tribes; that a couple of voting urns be
placed for the convenience of each several tribe; and the public crier
in the hearing of each several tribe proclaim the mode of voting as
follows: 'Let every one who finds the generals guilty of not rescuing
the heroes of the late sea fight deposit his vote in urn No. 1. Let him
who is of the contrary opinion deposit his vote in urn No. 2. Further,
in the event of the aforesaid generals being found guilty, let death be
the penalty. Let the guilty persons be delivered over to the eleven. Let
their property be confiscated to the State, with the exception of one
tithe, which falls to the goddess.'"
(5) An important festival held in October at Athens, and in nearly all
Ionic cities. Its objects were (1) the recognition of a common
descent from Ion, the son of Apollo Patrous; and (2) the
maintenance of the ties of clanship. See Grote, "Hist. of Greece,"
vol. viii. p. 260 foll. (2d ed.); Jebb, "Theophr." xviii. 5.
(6) I.e. in sign of mourning.
Now there came forward in the
assembly a man, who said that he had escaped drowning by clinging to a
meal tub. The poor fellows perishing around him had commissioned him, if
he succeeded in saving himself, to tell the people of Athens how bravely
they had fought for their fatherland, and how the generals had left them
there to drown.
Presently Euryptolemus, the son
of Peisianax, and others served a notice of indictment on Callixenus,
insisting that his proposal was unconstitutional, and this view of the
case was applauded by some members of the assembly. But the majority
kept crying out that it was monstrous if the people were to be hindered
by any stray individual from doing what seemed to them right. And when
Lysicus, embodying the spirit of those cries, formally proposed that if
these persons would not abandon their action, they should be tried by
the same vote along with the generals: a proposition to which the mob
gave vociferous assent; and so these were compelled to abandon their
summonses. Again, when some of the Prytanes (7) objected to put a
resolution to the vote which was in itself unconstitutional, Callixenus
again got up and accused them in the same terms, and the shouting began
again. "Yes, summons all who refuse," until the Prytanes, in alarm, all
agreed with one exception to permit the voting. This obstinate
dissentient was Socrates, the son of Sophroniscus, who insisted that he
would do nothing except in accordance with the law. (8) After this
Euryptolemus rose and spoke in behalf of the generals. He said:—
(7) Prytanes—the technical term for the senators of the presiding
tribe, who acted as presidents of the assembly. Their chairman for
the day was called Epistates.
(8) For the part played by Socrates see further Xenophon's
"Memorabilia," I. i. 18; IV. iv. 2.
"I stand here, men of Athens,
partly to accuse Pericles, though he is a close and intimate connection
of my own, and Diomedon, who is my friend, and partly to urge certain
considerations on their behalf, but chiefly to press upon you what seems
to me the best course for the State collectively. I hold them to blame
in that they dissuaded their colleagues from their intention to send a
despatch to the senate and this assembly, which should have informed you
of the orders given to Theramenes and Thrasybulus to take forty-seven
ships of war and pick up the shipwrecked crews, and of the neglect of
the two officers to carry out those orders. And it follows that though
the offence was committed by one or two, the responsibility must be
shared by all; and in return for kindness in the past, they are in
danger at present of sacrificing their lives to the machinations of
these very men, and others whom I could mention. In danger, do I say, of
losing their lives? No, not so, if you will suffer me to persuade you to
do what is just and right; if you will only adopt such a course as shall
enable you best to discover the truth and shall save you from too late
repentance, when you find you have transgressed irremediably against
heaven and your own selves. In what I urge there is no trap nor plot
whereby you can be deceived by me or any other man; it is a
straightforward course which will enable you to discover and punish the
offender by whatever process you like, collectively or individually. Let
them have, if not more, at any rate one whole day to make what defence
they can for themselves; and trust to your own unbiased judgment to
guide you to the right conclusion.
"You know, men of Athens, the
exceeding stringency of the decree of Cannonus, (9) which orders that
man, whosoever he be, who is guilty of treason against the people of
Athens, to be put in irons, and so to meet the charge against him before
the people. If he be convicted, he is to be thrown into the Barathron
and perish, and the property of such an one is to be confiscated, with
the exception of the tithe which falls to the goddess. I call upon you
to try these generals in accordance with this decree. Yes, and so help
me God—if it please you, begin with my own kinsman Pericles for base
would it be on my part to make him of more account than the whole of the
State. Or, if you prefer, try them by that other law, which is directed
against robbers of temples and betrayers of their country, which says:
if a man betray his city or rob a sacred temple of the gods, he shall be
tried before a law court, and if he be convicted, his body shall not be
buried in Attica, and his goods shall be confiscated to the State. Take
your choice as between these two laws, men of Athens, and let the
prisoners be tried by one or other. Let three portions of a day be
assigned to each respectively, one portion wherein they shall listen to
their accusation, a second wherein they shall make their defence, and a
third wherein you shall meet and give your votes in due order on the
question of their guilt or innocence. By this procedure the malefactors
will receive the desert of their misdeeds in full, and those who are
innocent will owe you, men of Athens, the recovery of their liberty, in
place of unmerited destruction. (10)
(9) "There was a rule in Attic judicial procedure, called the psephism
of Kannonus (originally adopted, we do not know when, on the
proposition of a citizen of that name, as a psephism or decree for
some particular case, but since generalised into common practice,
and grown into great prescriptive reverence), which peremptorily
forbade any such collective trial or sentence, and directed that a
separate judicial vote should in all cases be taken for or against
each accused party." Grote, "Hist. of Greece," vol. viii. p. 266
(2d ed.)
(10) Reading {adikos apolountai}.
"On your side, in trying the
accused by recognised legal procedure, you will show that you obey the
dictates of pious feeling, and can regard the sanctity of an oath,
instead of joining hands with our enemies the Lacedaemonians and
fighting their battles. For is it not to fight their battles, if you
take their conquerors, the men who deprived them of seventy vessels, and
at the moment of victory sent them to perdition untried and in the teeth
of the law? What are you afraid of, that you press forward with such hot
haste? Do you imagine that you may be robbed of the power of life and
death over whom you please, should you condescend to a legal trial? but
that you are safe if you take shelter behind an illegality, like the
illegality of Callixenus, when he worked upon the senate to propose to
this assembly to deal with the accused by a single vote? But consider,
you may actually put to death an innocent man, and then repentance will
one day visit you too late. Bethink you how painful and unavailing
remorse will then be, and more particularly if your error has cost a
fellow-creature his life. What a travesty of justice it would be if in
the case of a man like Aristarchus, (11) who first tried to destroy the
democracy and then betrayed Oenoe to our enemy the Thebans, you granted
him a day for his defence, consulting his wishes, and conceded to him
all the other benefits of the law; whereas now you are proposing to
deprive of these same privileges your own generals, who in every way
conformed to your views and defeated your enemies. Do not you, of all
men, I implore you, men of Athens, act thus. Why, these laws are your
own, to them, beyond all else you owe your greatness. Guard them
jealously; in nothing, I implore you, act without their sanction.
(11) See below, II. iii; also cf. Thuc. viii. 90, 98.
"But now, turn for a moment and
consider with me the actual occurrences which have created the suspicion
of misconduct on the part of our late generals. The sea-fight had been
fought and won, and the ships had returned to land, when Diomedon urged
that the whole squadron should sail out in line and pick up the wrecks
and floating crews. Erasinides was in favour of all the vessels sailing
as fast as possible to deal with the enemy's forces at Mitylene. And
Thrasylus represented that both objects could be effected, by leaving
one division of the fleet there, and with the rest sailing against the
enemy; and if this resolution were agreed to, he advised that each of
the eight generals should leave three ships of his own division with the
ten vessels of the taxiarchs, the ten Samian vessels, and the three
belonging to the navarchs. These added together make forty-seven, four
for each of the lost vessels, twelve in number. Among the taxiarchs left
behind, two were Thrasybulus and Theramenes, the men who in the late
meeting of this assembly undertook to accuse the generals. With the
remainder of the fleet they were to sail to attack the enemy's fleet.
Everything, you must admit, was duly and admirably planned. It was only
common justice, therefore, that those whose duty it was to attack the
enemy should render an account for all miscarriages of operations
against the enemy; while those who were commissioned to pick up the dead
and dying should, if they failed to carry out the instructions of the
generals, be put on trial to explain the reasons of the failure. This
indeed I may say in behalf of both parites. It was really the storm
which, in spite of what the generals had planned, prevented anything
being done. There are witnesses ready to attest the truth of this: the
men who escaped as by a miracle, and among these one of these very
generals, who was on a sinking ship and was saved. And this man, who
needed picking up as much as anybody at that moment, is, they insist, to
be tried by one and the same vote as those who neglected to perform
their orders! Once more, I beg you, men of Athens, to accept your
victory and your good fortune, instead of behaving like the desperate
victims of misfortune and defeat. Recognise the finger of divine
necessity; do not incur the reproach of stony-heartedness by discovering
treason where there was merely powerlessness, and condemning as guilty
those who were prevented by the storm from carrying out their
instructions. Nay! you will better satisfy the demands of justice by
crowning these conquerors with wreaths of victory than by punishing them
with death at the instigation of wicked men."
At the conclusion of his speech
Euryptolemus proposed, as an amendment, that the prisoners should, in
accordance with the decree of Cannonus, be tried each separately, as
against the proposal of the senate to try them all by a single vote.
At the show of hands the
tellers gave the majority in favour of Euryptolemus's amendment, but
upon the application of Menecles, who took formal exception (12) to this
decision, the show of hands was gone through again, and now the verdict
was in favour of the resolution of the senate. At a later date the
balloting was made, and by the votes recorded the eight generals were
condemned, and the six who were in Athens were put to death.
(12) For this matter cf. Schomann, "De Comitiis Athen." p. 161 foll.;
also Grote, "Hist. of Grece," vol. viii. p. 276 note (2d ed.)
Not long after, repentance
seized the Athenians, and they passed a decree authorising the public
prosecution of those who had deceived the people, and the appointment of
proper securities for their persons until the trial was over. Callixenus
was one of those committed for trail. There were, besides Callixenus,
four others against whom true bills were declared, and they were all
five imprisoned by their sureties. But all subsequently effected their
escape before the trial, at the time of the sedition in which Cleophon
(13) was killed. Callixenus eventually came back when the party in
Piraeus returned to the city, at the date of the amnesty, (14) but only
to die of hunger, an object of universal detestation.
(13) Cleophon, the well-known demagogue. For the occasion of his death
see Grote, "Hist. of Greece," vol. viii. pp. 166, 310 (2d ed.);
Prof. Jebb, "Attic Orators," i. 266, ii. 288. For his character,
as popularly conceived, cf. Aristoph. "Frogs," 677.
(14) B.C. 403.
BOOK II
I
To return to Eteonicus and his
troops in Chios. During summer they were well able to support themselves
on the fruits of the season, or by labouring for hire in different parts
of the island, but with the approach of winter these means of
subsistence began to fail. Ill-clad at the same time, and ill-shod, they
fell to caballing and arranging plans to attack the city of Chios. It
was agreed amongst them, that in order to gauge their numbers, every
member of the conspiracy should carry a reed. Eteonicus got wind of the
design, but was at a loss how to deal with it, considering the number of
these reed-bearers. To make an open attack upon them seemed dangerous.
It would probably lead to a rush to arms, in which the conspirators
would seize the city and commence hostilities, and, in the event of
their success, everything hitherto achieved would be lost. Or again, the
destruction on his part of many fellow-creatures and allies was a
terrible alternative, which would place the Spartans in an unenviable
light with regard to the rest of Hellas, and render the soldiers
ill-disposed to the cause in hand. Accordingly he took with him fifteen
men, armed with daggers, and marched through the city. Falling in with
one of the reed-bearers, a man suffering from ophthalmia, who was
returning from the surgeon's house, he put him to death. This led to
some uproar, and people asked why the man was thus slain. By Eteonicus's
orders the answer was set afloat, "because he carried a reed." As the
explanation circulated, one reed-bearer after another threw away the
symbol, each one saying to himself, as he heard the reason given, "I
have better not be seen with this." After a while Eteonicus called a
meeting of the Chians, and imposed upon them a contribution of money, on
the ground that with pay in their pockets the sailors would have no
temptation to revolutionary projects. The Chians acquiesced. Whereupon
Eteonicus promptly ordered his crews to get on board their vessels. He
then rowed alongside each ship in turn, and addressed the men at some
length in terms of encouragement and cheery admonition, just as though
he knew nothing of what had taken place, and so distributed a month's
pay to every man on board.
After this the Chians and the
other allies held a meeting in Ephesus, and, considering the present
posture of affairs, determined to send ambassadors to Lacedaemon with a
statement of the facts, and a request that Lysander might be sent out to
take command of the fleet. Lysander's high reputation among the allies
dated back to his former period of office, when as admiral he had won
the naval victory of Notium. The ambassadors accordingly were despatched,
accompanied by envoys also from Cyrus, charged with the same message.
The Lacedaemonians responded by sending them Lysander as second in
command, (1) with Aracus as admiral, since it was contrary to their
custom that the same man should be admiral twice. At the same time the
fleet was entrusted to Lysander. (2)
(1) Epistoleus. See above.
(2) "At this date the war had lasted five-and-twenty years." So the
MSS. read. The words are probably an interpolation.
It was in this year (3) that
Cyrus put Autoboesaces and Mitraeus to death. These were sons of the
sister of Dariaeus (4) (the daughter of Xerxes, the father of Darius).
(5) He put them to death for neglecting, when they met him, to thrust
their hands into the sleeve (or "kore") which is a tribute of respect
paid to the king alone. This "kore" is longer than the ordinary sleeve,
so long in fact that a man with his hand inside is rendered helpless. In
consequence of this act on the part of Cyrus, Hieramenes (6) and his
wife urged upon Dariaeus the danger of overlooking such excessive
insolence on the part of the young prince, and Dariaeus, on the plea of
sickness, sent a special embassy to summon Cyrus to his bedside.
(3) B.C. 406.
(4) Dariaeus, i.e. Darius, but the spelling of the name is correct,
and occurs in Ctesias, though in the "Anabasis" we have the
spelling Darius.
(5) These words look like the note of a foolish and ignorant scribe.
He ought to have written, "The daughter of Artaxerxes and own
sister of Darius, commonly so called."
(6) For Hieramenes cf. Thuc. viii. 95, and Prof. Jowett ad loc.
B.C. 405. In the following year
(7) Lysander arrived at Ephesus, and sent for Eteonicus with his ships
from Chios, and collected all other vessels elsewhere to be found. His
time was now devoted to refitting the old ships and having new ones
built in Antandrus. He also made a journey to the court of Cyrus with a
request for money. All Cyrus could say was, that not only the money sent
by the king was spent, but much more besides; and he pointed out the
various sums which each of the admirals had received, but at the same
time he gave him what he asked for. Furnished with this money, Lysander
appointed captains to the different men-of-war, and remitted to the
sailors their arrears of pay. Meanwhile the Athenian generals, on their
side, were devoting their energies to the improvements of their navy at
Samos.
(7) The MSS. add "during the ephorate of Archytas and the archonship
at Athens of Alexias," which, though correct enough, is probably
an interpolation.
It was now Cyrus's turn to send
for Lysander. It was the moment at which the envoy from his father had
arrived with the message: "Your father is on his sick-bed and desires
your presence." The king lay at Thamneria, in Media, near the territory
of the Cadusians, against whom he had marched to put down a revolt. When
Lysander presented himself, Cyrus was urgent with him not to engage the
Athenians at sea unless he had many more ships than they. "The king," he
added, "and I have plenty of wealth, so that, as far as money goes, you
can man plenty of vessels." He then consigned to him all the tributes
from the several cities which belonged to him personally, and gave him
the ready money which he had as a gift; and finally, reminding him of
the sincere friendship he entertained towards the state of Lacedaemon,
as well as to himself personally, he set out up country to visit his
father. Lysander, finding himself thus left with the complete control of
the property of Cyrus (during the absence of that prince, so summoned to
the bedside of his father), was able to distribute pay to his troops,
after which he set sail for the Ceramic Gulf of Caria. Here he stormed a
city in alliance with the Athenians named Cedreae, and on the following
day's assault took it, and reduced the inhabitants to slavery. These
were of a mixed Hellene and barbaric stock. From Cedreae he continued
his voyage to Rhodes. The Athenians meanwhile, using Samos as their base
of operations, were employed in devastating the king's territory, or in
swooping down upon Chios and Ephesus, and in general were preparing for
a naval battle, having but lately chosen three new generals in addition
to those already in office, whose names were Menander, Tydeus, and
Cephisodotus. Now Lysander, leaving Rhodes, and coasting along Ionia,
made his way to the Hellespont, having an eye to the passage of vessels
through the Straits, and, in a more hostile sense, on the cities which
had revolted from Sparta. The Athenians also set sail from Chios, but
stood out to open sea, since the seaboard of Asia was hostile to them.
Lysander was again on the move;
leaving Abydos, he passed up channel to Lampsacus, which town was allied
with Athens; the men of Abydos and the rest of the troops advancing by
land, under the command of the Lacedaemonian Thorax. They then attacked
and took by storm the town, which was wealthy, and with its stores of
wine and wheat and other commodities was pillaged by the soldiery. All
free-born persons, however, were without exception released by Lysander.
And now the Athenian fleet, following close on his heels, came to
moorings at Elaeus, in the Chersonesus, one hundred and eighty sail in
all. It was not until they had reached this place, and were getting
their early meal, that the news of what had happened at Lampsacus
reached them. Then they instantly set sail again to Sestos, and, having
halted long enough merely to take in stores, sailed on further to
Aegospotami, a point facing Lampsacus, where the Hellespont is not quite
two miles (8) broad. Here they took their evening meal.
(8) Lit. fifteen stades.
The night following, or rather
early next morning, with the first streak of dawn, Lysander gave the
signal for the men to take their breakfasts and get on board their
vessels; and so, having got all ready for a naval engagement, with his
ports closed and movable bulwarks attached, he issued the order that no
one was to stir from his post or put out to sea. As the sun rose the
Athenians drew up their vessels facing the harbour, in line of battle
ready for action; but Lysander declining to come out to meet them, as
the day advanced they retired again to Aegospotami. Then Lysander
ordered the swiftest of his ships to follow the Athenians, and as soon
as the crews had disembarked, to watch what they did, sail back, and
report to him. Until these look-outs returned he would permit no
disembarkation from his ships. This performance he repeated for four
successive days, and each day the Athenians put out to sea and
challenged an engagement.
But now Alcibiades, from one of
his fortresses, could espy the position of his fellow-countrymen, moored
on an open beach beyond reach of any city, and forced to send for
supplies to Sestos, which was nearly two miles distant, while their
enemies were safely lodged in a harbour, with a city adjoining, and
everything within reach. The situation did not please him, and he
advised them to shift their anchorage to Sestos, where they would have
the advantage of a harbour and a city. "Once there," he concluded, "you
can engage the enemy whenever it suits you." But the generals, and more
particularly Tydeus and Menander, bade him go about his business. "We
are generals now—not you," they said; and so he went away. And now for
five days in succession the Athenians had sailed out to offer battle,
and for the fifth time retired, followed by the same swift sailors of
the enemy. But this time Lysander's orders to the vessels so sent in
pursuit were, that as soon as they saw the enemy's crew fairly
disembarked and dispersed along the shores of the Chersonesus (a
practice, it should be mentioned, which had grown upon them from day to
day owing to the distance at which eatables had to be purchased, and out
of sheer contempt, no doubt, of Lysander, who refused to accept battle),
they were to begin their return voyage, and when in mid-channel to hoist
a shield. The orders were punctually carried out, and Lysander at once
signalled to his whole squadron to put across with all speed, while
Thorax, with the land forces, was to march parallel with the fleet along
the coast. Aware of the enemy's fleet, which he could see bearing down
upon him, Conon had only time to signal to the crews to join their ships
and rally to the rescue with all their might. But the men were scattered
far and wide, and some of the vessels had only two out of their three
banks of rowers, some only a single one, while others again were
completely empty. Conon's own ship, with seven others in attendance on
him and the "Paralus," (9) put out to sea, a little cluster of nine
vessels, with their full complement of men; but every one of the
remaining one hundred and seventy-one vessels were captured by Lysander
on the beach. As to the men themselves, the large majority of them were
easily made prisoners on shore, a few only escaping to the small
fortresses of the neighbourhood. Meanwhile Conon and his nine vessels
made good their escape. For himself, knowing that the fortune of Athens
was ruined, he put into Abarnis, the promontory of Lampsacus, and there
picked up the great sails of Lysander's ships, and then with eight ships
set sail himself to seek refuge with Evagoras in Cyprus, while the "Paralus"
started for Athens with tidings of what had taken place.
(9) The "Paralus"—the Athenian sacred vessel; cf. Thuc. iii. 33 et
passim.
Lysander, on his side, conveyed
the ships and prisoners and all other spoil back to Lampsacus, having on
board some of the Athenian generals, notably Philocles and Adeimantus.
On the very day of these achievements he despatched Theopompus, a
Milesian privateersman, to Lacedaemon to report what had taken place.
This envoy arrived within three days and delivered his message.
Lysander's next step was to convene the allies and bid them deliberate
as to the treatment of the prisoners. Many were the accusations here
levied against the Athenians. There was talk of crimes committed against
the law of Hellas, and of cruelties sanctioned by popular decrees;
which, had they conquered in the late sea-fight, would have been carried
out; such as the proposal to cut off the right hand of every prisoner
taken alive, and lastly the ill-treatment of two captured men-of-war, a
Corinthian and an Andrian vessel, when every man on board had been
hurled headlong down the cliff. Philocles was the very general of the
Athenians who had so ruthlessly destroyed those men. Many other tales
were told; and at length a resolution was passed to put all the Athenian
prisoners, with the exception of Adeimantus, to death. He alone, it was
pleaded, had taken exception to the proposal to cut off the prisoners'
hands. On the other hand, he was himself accused by some people of
having betrayed the fleet. As to Philocles, Lysander put to him one
question, as the officer who had thrown (10) the Corinthians and
Andrians down the cliff: What fate did the man deserve to suffer who had
embarked on so cruel a course of illegality against Hellenes? and so
delivered him to the executioner.
(10) Reading {os... katekremnise}.
II
When he had set the affairs of
Lampsacus in order, Lysander sailed to Byzantium and Chalcedon, where
the inhabitants, having first dismissed the Athenian garrison under a
flag of truce, admitted him within their walls. Those citizens of
Byzantium, who had betrayed Byzantium into the hands of Alcibiades, fled
as exiles into Pontus, but subsequently betaking themselves to Athens,
became Athenian citizens. In dealing with the Athenian garrisons, and
indeed with all Athenians wheresoever found, Lysander made it a rule to
give them safe conduct to Athens, and to Athens only, in the certainty
that the larger the number collected within the city and Piraeus, the
more quickly the want of necessaries of life would make itself felt. And
now, leaving Sthenelaus, a Laconian, as governor-general of Byzantium
and Chalcedon, he sailed back himself to Lampsacus and devoted himself
to refitting his ships.
It was night when the "Paralus"
reached Athens with her evil tidings, on receipt of which a bitter wail
of woe broke forth. From Piraeus, following the line of the long walls
up to the heart of the city, it swept and swelled, as each man to his
neighbour passed on the news. On that night no man slept. There was
mourning and sorrow for those that were lost, but the lamentation for
the dead was merged in even deeper sorrow for themselves, as they
pictured the evils they were about to suffer, the like of which they
themselves had inflicted upon the men of Melos, who were colonists of
the Lacedaemonians, when they mastered them by siege. Or on the men of
Histiaea; on Scione and Torone; on the Aeginetans, and many another
Hellene city. (1) On the following day the public assembly met, and,
after debate, it was resolved to block up all the harbours save one, to
put the walls in a state of defence, to post guards at various points,
and to make all other necessary preparations for a siege. Such were the
concerns of the men of Athens.
(1) With regard to these painful recollections, see (1) for the siege
and surrender of Melos (in B.C. 416), Thuc. v. 114, 116; and cf.
Aristoph. "Birds," 186; Plut. ("Lysander," 14); (2) for the
ejection of the Histiaeans, an incident of the recovery of Euboea
in 445 B.C., see Thuc. i. 14; Plut. ("Pericles," 23); (3) for the
matter of Scione, which revolted in 423 B.C., and was for a long
time a source of disagreement between the Athenians and
Lacedaemonians, until finally captured by the former in 421 B.C.,
when the citizens were slain and the city given to the Plataeans,
see Thuc. iv. 120-122, 129-133; v. 18, 32; (4) for Torone see
Thuc. ib., and also v. 3; (5) for the expulsion of the Aeginetans
in 431 B.C. see Thuc. ii. 27.
Lysander presently left the
Hellespont with two hundred sail and arrived at Lesbos, where he
established a new order of things in Mitylene and the other cities of
the island. Meanwhile he despatched Eteonicus with a squadron of ten
ships to the northern coasts, (2) where that officer brought about a
revolution of affairs which placed the whole region in the hands of
Lacedaemon. Indeed, in a moment of time, after the sea-fight, the whole
of Hellas had revolted from Athens, with the solitary exception of the
men of Samos. These, having massacred the notables, (3) held the state
under their control. After a while Lysander sent messages to Agis at
Deceleia, and to Lacedaemon, announcing his approach with a squadron of
two hundred sail.
(2) Lit. "the Thraceward districts." See above, p. 16.
(3) Or, "since they had slain their notables, held the state under
popular control." See Grote, "Hist. of Greece," vol. viii. p. 303
note 3 (2d ed.), who thinks that the incident referred to is the
violent democratic revolution in Samos described in Thuc. viii.
21, B.C. 412.
In obedience to a general order
of Pausanias, the other king of Lacedaemon, a levy in force of the
Lacedaemonians and all the rest of Peloponnesus, except the Argives, was
set in motion for a campaign. As soon as the several contingents had
arrived, the king put himself at their head and marched against Athens,
encamping in the gymnasium of the Academy, (4) as it is called. Lysander
had now reached Aegina, where, having got together as many of the former
inhabitants as possible, he formally reinstated them in their city; and
what he did in behalf of the Aeginetans, he did also in behalf of the
Melians, and of the rest who had been deprived of their countries. He
then pillaged the island of Salamis, and finally came to moorings off
Piraeus with one hundred and fifty ships of the line, and established a
strict blockade against all merchant ships entering that harbour.
(4) For this most illustrious of Athenian gymnasia, which still
retains its name, see Leake, "Topography of Athens," i. 195 foll.
The Athenians, finding
themselves besieged by land and sea, were in sore perplexity what to do.
Without ships, without allies, without provisions, the belief gained
hold upon them that there was no way of escape. They must now, in their
turn, suffer what they had themselves inflincted upon others; not in
retaliation, indeed, for ills received, but out of sheer insolence,
overriding the citizens of petty states, and for no better reason than
that these were allies of the very men now at their gates. In this frame
of mind they enfranchised those who at any time had lost their civil
rights, and schooled themselves to endurance; and, albeit many succumbed
to starvation, no thought of truce or reconciliation with their foes was
breathed. (5) But when the stock of corn was absolutely insufficient,
they sent an embassage to Agis, proposing to become allies of the
Lacedaemonians on the sole condition of keeping their fortification
walls and Piraeus; and to draw up articles of treaty on these terms.
Agis bade them betake themselves to Lacedaemon, seeing that he had no
authority to act himself. With this answer the ambassadors returned to
Athens, and were forthwith sent on to Lacedaemon. On reaching Sellasia,
(6) a town in (7) Laconian territory, they waited till they got their
answer from the ephors, who, having learnt their terms (which were
identical to those already proposed to Agis), bade them instantly to be
gone, and, if they really desired peace, to come with other proposals,
the fruit of happier reflection. Thus the ambassadors returned home, and
reported the result of their embassage, whereupon despondency fell upon
all. It was a painful reflection that in the end they would be sold into
slavery; and meanwhile, pending the return of a second embassy, many
must needs fall victims to starvation. The razing of their
fortifications was not a solution which any one cared to recommend. A
senator, Archestratus, had indeed put the question in the senate,
whether it were not best to make peace with the Lacedaemonians on such
terms as they were willing to propose; but he was thrown into prison.
The Laconian proposals referred to involved the destruction of both long
walls for a space of more than a mile. And a decree had been passed,
making it illegal to submit any such proposition about the walls. Things
having reached this pass, Theramenes made a proposal in the public
assembly as follows: If they chose to send him as an ambassador to
Lysander, he would go and find out why the Lacedaemonians were so
unyielding about the walls; whether it was they really intended to
enslave the city, or merely that they wanted a guarantee of good faith.
Despatched accordingly, he lingered on with Lysander for three whole
months and more, watching for the time when the Athenians, at the last
pinch of starvation, would be willing to accede to any terms that might
be offered. At last, in the fourth month, he returned and reported to
the public assembly that Lysander had detained him all this while, and
had ended by bidding him betake himself to Lacedaemon, since he had no
authority himself to answer his questions, which must be addressed
directly to the ephors. After this Theramenes was chosen with nine
others to go to Lacedaemon as ambassadors with full powers. Meanwhile
Lysander had sent an Athenian exile, named Aristoteles, in company of
certain Lacedaemonians, to Sparta to report to the board of ephors how
he had answered Theramenes, that they, and they alone, had supreme
authority in matters of peace and war.
(5) Or, "they refused to treat for peace."
(6) Sellasia, the bulwark of Sparta in the valley of the Oenus.
(7) The MSS. have "in the neighbourhood of," which words are
inappropriate at this date, though they may well have been added
by some annotator after the Cleomenic war and the battle of
Sellasia, B.C. 222, when Antigonus of Macedon destroyed the place
in the interests of the Achaean League.
Theramenes and his companions
presently reached Sellasia, and being there questioned as to the reason
of their visit, replied that they had full powers to treat of peace.
After which the ephors ordered them to be summoned to their presence. On
their arrival a general assembly was convened, in which the Corinthians
and Thebans more particularly, though their views were shared by many
other Hellenes also, urged the meeting not to come to terms with the
Athenians, but to destroy them. The Lacedaemonians replied that they
would never reduce to slavery a city which was itself an integral
portion of Hellas, and had performed a great and noble service to Hellas
in the most perilous of emergencies. On the contrary, they were willing
to offer peace on the terms now specified—namely, "That the long walls
and the fortifications of Piraeus should be destroyed; that the Athenian
fleet, with the exception of twelve vessels, should be surrendered; that
the exiles should be restored; and lastly, that the Athenians should
acknowledge the headship of Sparta in peace and war, leaving to her the
choice of friends and foes, and following her lead by land and sea."
Such were the terms which Theramenes and the rest who acted with him
were able to report on their return to Athens. As they entered the city,
a vast crowd met them, trembling lest their mission have proved
fruitless. For indeed delay was no longer possible, so long already was
the list of victims daily perishing from starvation. On the day
following, the ambassadors delivered their report, stating the terms
upon which the Lacedaemonians were willing to make peace. Theramenes
acted as spokesman, insisting that they ought to obey the Lacedaemonians
and pull down the walls. A small minority raised their voice in
opposition, but the majority were strongly in favour of the proposition,
and the resolution was passed to accept the peace. After that, Lysander
sailed into the Piraeus, and the exiles were readmitted. And so they
fell to levelling the fortifications and walls with much enthusiasm, to
the accompaniment of female flute-players, deeming that day the
beginning of liberty to Greece.
Thus the year drew to its close
(8)—during its middle months took place the accession of Dionysius, the
son of Hermocrates the Syracusan, to the tyranny of Syracuse; an
incident itself preceded by a victory gained over the Carthaginians by
the Syracusans; the reduction of Agrigentum through famine by the
Carthaginians themselves; and the exodus of the Sicilian Greeks from
that city.
(8) For the puzzling chronology of this paragraph see Grote, "Hist. of
Greece," vol. x. p 619 (2d ed.) If genuine, the words may perhaps
have slipt out of their natural place in chapter i. above, in
front of the words "in the following year Lysander arrived," etc.
L. Dindorf brackets them as spurious. Xen., "Hist. Gr." ed.
tertia, Lipsiae, MDCCCLXXII. For the incidents referred to see
above; Grote, "Hist. of Greece," vol. x. pp. 582, 598 (2d ed.)
III
B.C. 404. In the following year
(1) the people passed a resolution to choose thirty men who were to
draft a constitution based on the ancestral laws of the State. The
following were chosen to act on this committee:—Polychares, Critias,
Melobius, Hippolochus, Eucleides, Hiero, Mnesilochus, Chremo, Theramenes,
Aresias, Diocles, Phaedrias, Chaereleos, Anaetius, Piso, Sophocles,
Erastosthenes, Charicles, Onomacles, Theognis, Aeschines, Theogones,
Cleomedes, Erasistratus, Pheido, Dracontides, Eumathes, Aristoteles,
Hippomachus, Mnesitheides. After these transactions, Lysander set sail
for Samos; and Agis withdrew the land force from Deceleia and disbanded
the troops, dismissing the contingents to their several cities.
(1) The MSS. here add "it was that year of the Olympiad cycle in which
Crocinas, a Thessalian, won the Stadium; when Endius was ephor at
Sparta, and Pythodorus archon at Athens, though the Athenians
indeed do not call the year by that archon's name, since he was
elected during the oligarchy, but prefer to speak of the year of
'anarchy'; the aforesaid oligarchy originated thus,"—which,
though correct, probably was not written by Xenophon. The year of
anarchy might perhaps be better rendered "the year without
archons."
In was at this date, about the
time of the solar eclipse, (2) that Lycophron of Pherae, who was
ambitious of ruling over the whole of Thessaly, defeated those sections
of the Thessalians who opposed him, such as the men of Larissa and
others, and slew many of them. It was also about this date that
Dionysius, now tyrant of Syracuse, was defeated by the Carthaginians and
lost Gela and Camarina. And again, a little later, the men of Leontini,
who previously had been amalgamated with the Syracusans, separated
themselves from Syracuse and Dionysius, and asserted their independence,
and returned to their native city. Another incident of this period was
the sudden despatch and introduction of Syracusan horse into Catana by
Dionysius.
(2) This took place on 2d September B.C. 404.
Now the Samians, though
besieged by Lysander on all sides, were at first unwilling to come to
terms. But at the last moment, when Lysander was on the point of
assaulting the town, they accepted the terms, which allowed every free
man to leave the island, but not to carry away any part of his property,
except the clothes on his back. On these conditions they marched out.
The city and all it contained was then delivered over to its ancient
citizens by Lysander, who finally appointed ten governors to garrison
the island. (3) After which, he disbanded the allied fleet, dismissing
them to their respective cities, while he himself, with the
Lacedaemonian squadron, set sail for Laconia, bringing with him the
prows of the conquered vessels and the whole navy of Piraeus, with the
exception of twelve ships. He also brought the crowns which he had
received from the cities as private gifts, and a sum of four hundred and
seventy talents (4) in silver (the surplus of the tribute money which
Cyrus had assigned to him for the prosecution of the war), besides other
property, the fruit of his military exploits. All these things Lysander
delivered to the Lacedaemonians in the latter end of summer. (5)
(3) A council of ten, or "decarchy." See Grote, "H. G." viii. 323 (1st
ed.)
(4) About 112,800 pounds.
(5) The MSS. add "a summer, the close of which coincided with the
termination of a war which had lasted twenty-eight and a half
years, as the list of annual ephors, appended in order, serves to
show. Aenesias is the first name. The war began during his
ephorate, in the fifteenth year of the thirty years' truce after
the capture of Euboea. His successors were Brasidas, Isanor,
Sostratidas, Exarchus, Agesistratus, Angenidas, Onomacles,
Zeuxippus, Pityas, Pleistolas, Cleinomachus, Harchus, Leon,
Chaerilas, Patesiadas, Cleosthenes, Lycarius, Eperatus,
Onomantius, Alexippidas, Misgolaidas, Isias, Aracus, Euarchippus,
Pantacles, Pityas, Archytas, and lastly, Endius, during whose year
of office Lysander sailed home in triumph, after performing the
exploits above recorded,"—the interpolation, probably, of some
editor or copyist, the words "twenty-eight and a half" being
probably a mistake on his part for "twenty-seven and a half." Cf.
Thuc. v. 26; also Buchsenschutz, Einleitung, p. 8 of his school
edition of the "Hellenica."
The Thirty had been chosen
almost immediately after the long walls and the fortifications round
Piraeus had been razed. They were chosen for the express purpose of
compiling a code of laws for the future constitution of the State. The
laws were always on the point of being published, yet they were never
forthcoming; and the thirty compilers contented themselves meanwhile
with appointing a senate and the other magistracies as suited their
fancy best. That done, they turned their attention, in the first
instance, to such persons as were well known to have made their living
as informers (6) under the democracy, and to be thorns in the side of
all respectable people. These they laid hold on and prosecuted on the
capital charge. The new senate gladly recorded its vote of condemnation
against them; and the rest of the world, conscious of bearing no
resemblance to them, seemed scarcely vexed. But the Thirty did not stop
there. Presently they began to deliberate by what means they could get
the city under their absolute control, in order that they might work
their will upon it. Here again they proceeded tentatively; in the first
instance, they sent (two of their number), Aeschines and Aristoteles, to
Lacedaemon, and persuaded Lysander to support them in getting a
Lacedaemonian garrison despatched to Athens. They only needed it until
they had got the "malignants" out of the way, and had established the
constitution; and they would undertake to maintain these troops at their
own cost. Lysander was not deaf to their persuasions, and by his
co-operation their request was granted. A bodyguard, with Callibius as
governor, was sent.
(6) Lit. "by sycophancy," i.e. calumnious accusation—the sycophant's
trade. For a description of this pest of Athenian life cf. "Dem."
in Arist. 1, S. 52; quoted in Jebb, "Attic Orators," chap. xxix.
14; cf. Aristoph. "Ach." 904; Xen. "Mem." II. ix. 1.
And now that they had got the
garrison, they fell to flattering Callibius with all servile flattery,
in order that he might give countenance to their doings. Thus they
prevailed on him to allow some of the guards, whom they selected, to
accompany them, while they proceeded to lay hands on whom they would; no
longer confining themselves to base folk and people of no account, but
boldly laying hands on those who they felt sure would least easily brook
being thrust aside, or, if a spirit of opposition seized them, could
command the largest number of partisans.
These were early days; as yet
Critias was of one mind with Theramenes, and the two were friends. But
the time came when, in proportion as Critias was ready to rush headlong
into wholesale carnage, like one who thirsted for the blood of the
democracy, which had banished him, Theramenes balked and thwarted him.
It was barely reasonable, he argued, to put people to death, who had
never done a thing wrong to respectable people in their lives, simply
because they had enjoyed influence and honour under the democracy. "Why,
you and I, Critias," he would add, "have said and done many things ere
now for the sake of popularity." To which the other (for the terms of
friendly intimacy still subsisted) would retort, "There is no choice
left to us, since we intend to take the lion's share, but to get rid of
those who are best able to hinder us. If you imagine, because we are
thirty instead of one, our government requires one whit the less careful
guarding than an actual tyranny, you must be very innocent."
So things went on. Day after
day the list of persons put to death for no just reason grew longer. Day
after day the signs of resentment were more significant in the groups of
citizens banding together and forecasting the character of this future
constitution; till at length Theramenes spoke again, protesting:—There
was no help for it but to associate with themselves a sufficient number
of persons in the conduct of affairs, or the oligarchy would certainly
come to an end. Critias and the rest of the Thirty, whose fears had
already converted Theramenes into a dangerous popular idol, proceeded at
once to draw up a list of three thousand citizens; fit and proper
persons to have a share in the conduct of affairs. But Theramenes was
not wholly satisfied, "indeed he must say, for himself, he regarded it
as ridiculous, that in their effort to associate the better classes with
themselves in power, they should fix on just that particular number,
three thousand, as if that figure had some necessary connection with the
exact number of gentlemen in the State, making it impossible to discover
any respectability outside or rascality within the magic number. And in
the second place," he continued, "I see we are trying to do two things,
diametrically opposed; we are manufacturing a government, which is based
on force, and at the same time inferior in strength to those whom we
propose to govern." That was what he said, but what his colleagues did,
was to institute a military inspection or review. The Three Thousand
were drawn up in the Agora, and the rest of the citizens, who were not
included in the list, elsewhere in various quarters of the city. The
order to take arms was given; (7) but while the men's backs were turned,
at the bidding of the Thirty, the Laconian guards, with those of the
citizens who shared their views, appeared on the scene and took away the
arms of all except the Three Thousand, carried them up to the Acropolis,
and safely deposited them in the temple.
(7) Or, "a summons to the 'place d'armes' was given; but." Or, "the
order to seize the arms was given, and." It is clear from
Aristoph. "Acharn." 1050, that the citizens kept their weapons at
home. On the other hand, it was a custom not to come to any
meeting in arms. See Thuc. vi. 58. It seems probable that while
the men were being reviewed in the market-place and elsewhere, the
ruling party gave orders to seize their weapons (which they had
left at home), and this was done except in the case of the Three
Thousand. Cf. Arnold, "Thuc." II. 2. 5; and IV. 91.
The ground being thus cleared,
as it were, and feeling that they had it in their power to do what they
pleased, they embarked on a course of wholesale butchery, to which many
were sacrificed to the merest hatred, many to the accident of possessing
riches. Presently the question rose, How they were to get money to pay
their guards? and to meet this difficulty a resolution was passed
empowering each of the committee to seize on one of the resident aliens
apiece, to put his victim to death, and to confiscate his property.
Theramenes was invited, or rather told to seize some one or other.
"Choose whom you will, only let it be done." To which he made answer, it
hardly seemed to him a noble or worthy course on the part of those who
claimed to be the elite of society to go beyond the informers (8) in
injustice. "Yesterday they, to-day we; with this difference, the victim
of the informer must live as a source of income; our innocents must die
that we may get their wealth. Surely their method was innocent in
comparison with ours."
(8) See above.
The rest of the Thirty, who had
come to regard Theramenes as an obstacle to any course they might wish
to adopt, proceeded to plot against him. They addressed themselves to
the members of the senate in private, here a man and there a man, and
denounced him as the marplot of the constitution. Then they issued an
order to the young men, picking out the most audacious characters they
could find, to be present, each with a dagger hidden in the hollow of
the armpit; and so called a meeting of the senate. When Theramenes had
taken his place, Critias got up and addressed the meeting:
"If," said he, "any member of
this council, here seated, imagines that an undue amount of blood has
been shed, let me remind him that with changes of constitution such
things can not be avoided. It is the rule everywhere, but more
particularly at Athens it was inevitable there should be found a
specially large number of persons sworn foes to any constitutional
change in the direction of oligarchy, and this for two reasons. First,
because the population of this city, compared with other Hellenic
cities, is enormously large; and again, owing to the length of time
during which the people has battened upon liberty. Now, as to two points
we are clear. The first is that democracy is a form of government
detestable to persons like ourselves—to us and to you; the next is that
the people of Athens could never be got to be friendly to our friends
and saviours, the Lacedaemonians. But on the loyalty of the better
classes the Lacedaemonians can count. And that is our reason for
establishing an oligarchical constitution with their concurrence. That
is why we do our best to rid us of every one whom we perceive to be
opposed to the oligarchy; and, in our opinion, if one of ourselves
should elect to undermine this constitution of ours, he would deserve
punishment. Do you not agree? And the case," he continued, "is no
imaginary one. The offender is here present—Theramenes. And what we say
of him is, that he is bent upon destroying yourselves and us by every
means in his power. These are not baseless charges; but if you will
consider it, you will find them amply established in this unmeasured
censure of the present posture of affairs, and his persistent opposition
to us, his colleagues, if ever we seek to get rid of any of these
demagogues. Had this been his guiding principle of action from the
beginning, in spite of hostility, at least he would have escaped all
imputation of villainy. Why, this is the very man who originated our
friendly and confidential relations with Lacedaemon. This is the very
man who authorised the abolition of the democracy, who urged us on to
inflict punishment on the earliest batch of prisoners brought before us.
But to-day all is changed; now you and we are out of odour with the
people, and he accordingly has ceased to be pleased with our
proceedings. The explanation is obvious. In case of a catastrophe, how
much pleasanter for him once again to light upon his legs, and leave us
to render account for our past performances.
"I contend that this man is
fairly entitled to render his account also, not only as an ordinary
enemy, but as a traitor to yourselves and us. And let us add, not only
is treason more formidable than open war, in proportion as it is harder
to guard against a hidden assassin than an open foe, but it bears the
impress of a more enduring hostility, inasmuch as men fight their
enemies and come to terms with them again and are fast friends; but
whoever heard of reconciliation with a traitor? There he stands
unmasked; he has forfeited our confidence for evermore. But to show you
that these are no new tactics of his, to prove to you that he is a
traitor in grain, I will recall to your memories some points in his past
history.
"He began by being held in high
honour by the democracy; but taking a leaf out of his father's, Hagnon's,
book, he next showed a most headlong anxiety to transform the democracy
into the Four Hundred, and, in fact, for a time held the first place in
that body. But presently, detecting the formation of rival power to the
oligarchs, round he shifted; and we find him next a ringleader of the
popular party in assailing them. It must be admitted, he has well earned
his nickname 'Buskin.' (9) Yes, Theramenes! clever you may be, but the
man who deserves to live should not show his cleverness in leading on
his associates into trouble, and when some obstacle presents itself, at
once veer round; but like a pilot on shipboard, he ought then to
redouble his efforts, until the wind is fair. Else, how in the name of
wonderment are those mariners to reach the haven where they would be, if
at the first contrary wind or tide they turn about and sail in the
opposite direction? Death and destruction are concomitants of
constitutional changes and revolution, no doubt; but you are such an
impersonation of change, that, as you twist and turn and double, you
deal destruction on all sides. At one swoop you are the ruin of a
thousand oligarchs at the hands of the people, and at another of a
thousand democrats at the hands of the better classes. Why, sirs, this
is the man to whom the orders were given by the generals, in the
sea-fight off Lesbos, to pick up the crews of the disabled vessels; and
who, neglecting to obey orders, turned round and accused the generals;
and to save himself murdered them! What, I ask you, of a man who so
openly studied the art of self-seeking, deaf alike to the pleas of
honour and to the claims of friendship? Would not leniency towards such
a creature be misplaced? Can it be our duty at all to spare him? Ought
we not rather, when we know the doublings of his nature, to guard
against them, lest we enable him presently to practise on ourselves? The
case is clear. We therefore hereby cite this man before you, as a
conspirator and traitor against yourselves and us. The reasonableness of
our conduct, one further reflection may make clear. No one, I take it,
will dispute the splendour, the perfection of the Laconian constitution.
Imagine one of the ephors there in Sparta, in lieu of devoted obedience
to the majority, taking on himself to find fault with the government and
to oppose all measures. Do you not think that the ephors themselves, and
the whole commonwealth besides, would hold this renegade worthy of
condign punishment? So, too, by the same token, if you are wise, do you
spare yourselves, not him. For what does the alternative mean? I will
tell you. His preservation will cause the courage of many who hold
opposite views to your own to rise; his destruction will cut off the
last hopes of all your enemies, whether within or without the city."
(9) An annotator seems to have added here the words, occurring in the
MSS., "the buskin which seems to fit both legs equally, but is
constant to neither," unless, indeed, they are an original
"marginal note" of the author. For the character of Theramenes, as
popularly conceived, cf. Aristoph. "Frogs," 538, 968 foll., and
Thuc. viii. 92; and Prof. Jowett, "Thuc." vol. ii. pp. 523, 524.
With these words he sat down,
but Theramenes rose and said: "Sirs, with your permission I will first
touch upon the charge against me which Critias has mentioned last. The
assertion is that as the accuser of the generals I was their murderer.
Now I presume it was not I who began the attack upon them, but it was
they who asserted that in spite of the orders given me I had neglected
to pick up the unfortunates in the sea-fight off Lesbos. All I did was
to defend myself. My defence was that the storm was too violent to
permit any vessel to ride at sea, much more therefore to pick up the
men, and this defence was accepted by my fellow-citizens as highly
reasonable, while the generals seemed to be condemned out of their own
mouths. For while they kept on asserting that it was possible to save
the men, the fact still remained that they abandoned them to their fate,
set sail, and were gone.
"However, I am not surprised, I
confess, at this grave misconception (10) on the part of Critias, for at
the date of these occurrences he was not in Athens. He was away in
Thessaly, laying the foundations of a democracy with Prometheus, and
arming the Penestae (11) against their masters. Heaven forbid that any
of his transactions there should be re-enacted here. However, I must
say, I do heartily concur with him on one point. Whoever desires to
exclude you from the government, or to strength the hands of your secret
foes, deserves and ought to meet with condign punishment; but who is
most capable of so doing? That you will best discover, I think, by
looking a little more closely into the past and the present conduct of
each of us. Well, then! up to the moment at which you were formed into a
senatorial body, when the magistracies were appointed, and certain
notorious 'informers' were brought to trial, we all held the same views.
But later on, when our friends yonder began to hale respectable honest
folk to prison and to death, I, on my side, began to differ from them.
From the moment when Leon of Salamis, (12) a man of high and
well-deserved reputation, was put to death, though he had not committed
the shadow of a crime, I knew that all his equals must tremble for
themselves, and, so trembling, be driven into opposition to the new
constitution. In the same way, when Niceratus, (13) the son of Nicias,
was arrested; a wealthy man, who, no more than his father, had never
done anything that could be called popular or democratic in his life; it
did not require much insight to discover that his compeers would be
converted into our foes. But to go a step further: when it came to
Antiphon (14) falling at our hands—Antiphon, who during the war
contributed two fast-sailing men-of-war out of his own resources, it was
then plain to me, that all who had ever been zealous and patriotic must
eye us with suspicion. Once more I could not help speaking out in
opposition to my colleagues when they suggested that each of us ought to
seize some one resident alien. (15) For what could be more certain than
that their death-warrant would turn the whole resident foreign
population into enemies of the constitution. I spoke out again when they
insisted on depriving the populace of their arms; it being no part of my
creed that we ought to take the strength out of the city; nor, indeed,
so far as I could see, had the Lacedaemonians stept between us and
destruction merely that we might become a handful of people, powerless
to aid them in the day of need. Had that been their object, they might
have swept us away to the last man. A few more weeks, or even days,
would have sufficed to extinguish us quietly by famine. Nor, again, can
I say that the importation of mercenary foreign guards was altogether to
my taste, when it would have been so easy for us to add to our own body
a sufficient number of fellow-citizens to ensure our supremacy as
governors over those we essayed to govern. But when I saw what an army
of malcontents this government had raised up within the city walls,
besides another daily increasing host of exiles without, I could not but
regard the banishment of people like Thrasybulus and Anytus and
Alcibiades (16) as impolitic. Had our object been to strengthen the
rival power, we could hardly have set about it better than by providing
the populace with the competent leaders whom they needed, and the
would-be leaders themselves with an army of willing adherents.
(10) Reading with Cobet {paranenomikenai}.
(11) I.e. serfs—Penestae being the local name in Thessaly for the
villein class. Like the {Eilotes} in Laconia, they were originally
a conquered tribe, afterwards increased by prisoners of war, and
formed a link between the freemen and born slaves.
(12) Cf. "Mem." IV. iv. 3; Plat. "Apol." 8. 32.
(13) Cf. Lysias, "Or." 18. 6.
(14) Probably the son of Lysidonides. See Thirlwall, "Hist. of
Greece," vol. iv. p. 179 (ed. 1847); also Lysias, "Or." 12. contra
Eratosth. According to Lysias, Theramenes, when a member of the
first Oligarchy, betrayed his own closest friends, Antiphon and
Archeptolemus. See Prof. Jebb, "Attic Orators," I. x. p. 266.
(15) The resident aliens, or {metoikoi}, "metics," so technically
called.
(16) Isocr. "De Bigis," 355; and Prof. Jebb's "Attic Orators," ii.
230. In the defence of his father's career, which the younger
Alcibiades, the defendant in this case (B.C. 397 probably) has
occasion to make, he reminds the court, that under the Thirty,
others were banished from Athens, but his father was driven out of
the civilised world of Hellas itself, and finally murdered. See
Plutarch, "Alcibiades," ad fin.
"I ask then is the man who
tenders such advice in the full light of day justly to be regarded as a
traitor, and not as a benefactor? Surely Critias, the peacemaker, the
man who hinders the creation of many enemies, whose counsels tend to the
acquistion of yet more friends, (17) cannot be accused of strengthening
the hands of the enemy. Much more truly may the imputation be retorted
on those who wrongfully appropriate their neighbours' goods and put to
death those who have done no wrong. These are they who cause our
adversaries to grow and multiply, and who in very truth are traitors,
not to their friends only, but to themselves, spurred on by sordid love
of gain.
(17) Or, "the peacemaker, the healer of differences, the cementer of
new alliances, cannot," etc.
"I might prove the truth of
what I say in many ways, but I beg you to look at the matter thus. With
which condition of affairs here in Athens do you think will Thrasybulus
and Anytus and the other exiles be the better pleased? That which I have
pictured as desirable, or that which my colleagues yonder are producing?
For my part I cannot doubt but that, as things now are, they are saying
to themselves, 'Our allies muster thick and fast.' But were the real
strength, the pith and fibre of this city, kindly disposed to us, they
would find it an uphill task even to get a foothold anywhere in the
country.
"Then, with regard to what he
said of me and my propensity to be for ever changing sides, let me draw
your attention to the following facts. Was it not the people itself, the
democracy, who voted the constitution of the Four Hundred? This they
did, because they had learned to think that the Lacedaemonians would
trust any other form of government rather than a democracy. But when the
efforts of Lacedaemon were not a whit relaxed, when Aristoteles,
Melanthius, and Aristarchus, (18) and the rest of them acting as
generals, were plainly minded to construct an intrenched fortress on the
mole for the purpose of admitting the enemy, and so getting the city
under the power of themselves and their associates; (19) because I got
wind of these schemes, and nipped them in the bud, is that to be a
traitor to one's friends?
(18) Cf. Thuc. viii. 90-92, for the behaviour of the Lacedaemonian
party at Athens and the fortification of Eetioneia in B.C. 411.
(19) I.e. of the political clubs.
"Then he threw in my teeth the
nickname 'Buskin,' as descriptive of an endeavour on my part to fit both
parties. But what of the man who pleases neither? What in heaven's name
are we to call him? Yes! you—Critias? Under the democracy you were
looked upon as the most arrant hater of the people, and under the
aristocracy you have proved yourself the bitterest foe of everything
respectable. Yes! Critias, I am, and ever have been, a foe of those who
think that a democracy cannot reach perfection until slaves and those
who, from poverty, would sell the city for a drachma, can get their
drachma a day. (20) But not less am I, and ever have been, a pronounced
opponent of those who do not think there can possibly exist a perfect
oligarchy until the State is subjected to the despotism of a few. On the
contrary, my own ambition has been to combine with those who are rich
enough to possess a horse and shield, and to use them for the benefit of
the State. (21) That was my ideal in the old days, and I hold to it
without a shadow of turning still. If you can imagine when and where, in
conjunction with despots or demagogues, I have set to my hand to deprive
honest gentlefolk of their citizenship, pray speak. If you can convict
me of such crimes at present, or can prove my perpetration of them in
the past, I admit that I deserve to die, and by the worst of deaths."
(20) I.e. may enjoy the senatorial stipend of a drachma a day = 9 3/4
pence.
(21) See Thuc. viii. 97, for a momentary realisation of that "duly
attempered compound of Oligarchy and Democracy" which Thucydides
praises, and which Theramenes here refers to. It threw the power
into the hands of the wealthier upper classes to the exclusion of
the {nautikos okhlos}. See Prof. Jowett, vol. ii. note, ad loc.
cit.
With these words he ceased, and
the loud murmur of the applause which followed marked the favourable
impression produced upon the senate. It was plain to Critias, that if he
allowed his adversary's fate to be decided by formal voting, Theramenes
would escape, and life to himself would become intolerable. Accordingly
he stepped forward and spoke a word or two in the ears of the Thirty.
This done, he went out and gave an order to the attendants with the
daggers to stand close to the bar in full view of the senators. Again he
entered and addressed the senate thus: "I hold it to be the duty of a
good president, when he sees the friends about him being made the dupes
of some delusion, to intervene. That at any rate is what I propose to
do. Indeed our friends here standing by the bar say that if we propose
to acquit a man so openly bent upon the ruin of the oligarchy, they do
not mean to let us do so. Now there is a clause in the new code
forbidding any of the Three Thousand to be put to death without your
vote; but the Thirty have power of life and death over all outside that
list. Accordingly," he proceeded, "I herewith strike this man,
Theramenes, off the list; and this with the concurrence of my
colleagues. And now," he continued, "we condemn him to death."
Hearing these words Theramenes
sprang upon the altar of Hestia, exclaiming: "And I, sirs, supplicate
you for the barest forms of law and justice. Let it not be in the power
of Critias to strike off either me, or any one of you whom he will. But
in my case, in what may be your case, if we are tried, let our trial be
in accordance with the law they have made concerning those on the list.
I know," he added, "but too well, that this altar will not protect me;
but I will make it plain that these men are as impious towards the gods
as they are nefarious towards men. Yet I do marvel, good sirs and honest
gentlemen, for so you are, that you will not help yourselves, and that
too when you must see that the name of every one of you is as easily
erased as mine."
But when he had got so far, the
voice of the herald was heard giving the order to the Eleven to seize
Theramenes. They at that instant entered with their satellites—at their
head Satyrus, the boldest and most shameless of the body—and Critias
exclaimed, addressing the Eleven, "We deliver over to you Theramenes
yonder, who has been condemned according to the law. Do you take him and
lead him away to the proper place, and do there with him what remains to
do." As Critias uttered the words, Satyrus laid hold upon Theramenes to
drag him from the altar, and the attendants lent their aid. But he, as
was natural, called upon gods and men to witness what was happening. The
senators the while kept silence, seeing the companions of Satyrus at the
bar, and the whole front of the senate house crowded with the foreign
guards, nor did they need to be told that there were daggers in reserve
among those present.
And so Theramenes was dragged
through the Agora, in vehement and loud tones proclaiming the wrongs
that he was suffering. One word, which is said to have fallen from his
lips, I cite. It is this: Satyrus, bade him "Be silent, or he would rue
the day;" to which he made answer, "And if I be silent, shall I not rue
it?" Also, when they brought him the hemlock, and the time was come to
drink the fatal draught, they tell how he playfully jerked out the dregs
from the bottom of the cup, like one who plays "Cottabos," (22) with the
words, "This to the lovely Critias." These are but "apophthegms" (23)
too trivial, it may be thought, to find a place in history. Yet I must
deem it an admirable trait in this man's character, if at such a moment,
when death confronted him, neither his wits forsook him, nor could the
childlike sportiveness vanish from his soul.
(22) "A Sicilian game much in vogue at the drinking parties of young
men at Athens. The simplest mode was when each threw the wine left
in his cup so as to strike smartly in a metal basin, at the same
time invoking his mistress's name; if all fell into the basin and
the sound was clear, it was a sign he stood well with her."—
Liddell and Scott, sub. v. For the origin of the game compare
curiously enough the first line of the first Elegy of Critias
himself, who was a poet and political philosopher, as well as a
politician:—
"{Kottabos ek Sikeles esti
khthonos, euprepes ergon on skopon es latagon toxa kathistametha.}"
Bergk. "Poetae Lyr. Graec." Pars II. xxx.
(23) Or, "these are sayings too slight, perhaps, to deserve record;
yet," etc. By an "apophthegm" was meant originally a terse
(sententious) remark, but the word has somewhat altered in
meaning.
IV
So Theramenes met his death;
and, now that this obstacle was removed, the Thirty, feeling that they
had it in their power to play the tyrant without fear, issued an order
forbidding all, whose names were not on the list, to set foot within the
city. Retirement in the country districts was no protection, thither the
prosecutor followed them, and thence dragged them, that their farms and
properties might fall to the possession of the Thirty and their friends.
Even Piraeus was not safe; of those who sought refuge there, many were
driven forth in similar fashion, until Megara and Thebes overflowed with
the crowd of refugees.
Presently Thrasybulus, with
about seventy followers, sallied out from Thebes, and made himself
master of the fortress of Phyle. (1) The weather was brilliant, and the
Thirty marched out of the city to repel the invader; with them were the
Three Thousand and the Knights. When they reached the place, some of the
young men, in the foolhardiness of youth, made a dash at the fortress,
but without effect; all they got was wounds, and so retired. The
intention of the Thirty now was to blockade the place; by shutting off
all the avenues of supplies, they thought to force the garrison to
capitulate. But this project was interrupted by a steady downfall of
snow that night and the following day. Baffled by this all-pervading
enemy they beat a retreat to the city, but not without the sacrifice of
many of their camp-followers, who fell a prey to the men in Phyle. The
next anxiety of the government in Athens was to secure the farms and
country houses against the plunderings and forays to which they would be
exposed, if there were no armed force to protect them. With this object
a protecting force was despatched to the "boundary estates," (2) about
two miles south of Phyle. This corps consisted of the Lacedaemonian
guards, or nearly all of them, and two divisions of horse. (3) They
encamped in a wild and broken district, and the round of their duties
commenced.
(1) "A strong fortress (the remains of which still exist) commanding
the narrow pass across Mount Parnes, through which runs the direct
road from Thebes to Athens, past Acharnae. The precipitous rock on
which it stands can only be approached by a ridge on the eastern
side. The height commands a magnificent view of the whole Athenian
plain, of the city itself, of Mount Hymettus, and the Saronic
Gulf,"—"Dict. of Geog., The demi of the Diacria and Mount
Parnes."
(2) Cf. Boeckh, "P. E. A." p. 63, Eng. ed.
(3) Lit. tribes, each of the ten tribes furnishing about one hundred
horse.
But by this time the small
garrison above them had increased tenfold, until there were now
something like seven hundred men collected in Phyle; and with these
Thrasybulus one night descended. When he was not quite half a mile from
the enemy's encampment he grounded arms, and a deep silence was
maintained until it drew towards day. In a little while the men
opposite, one by one, were getting to their legs or leaving the camp for
necessary purposes, while a suppressed din and murmur arose, caused by
the grooms currying and combing their horses. This was the moment for
Thrasybulus and his men to snatch up their arms and make a dash at the
enemy's position. Some they felled on the spot; and routing the whole
body, pursued them six or seven furlongs, killing one hundred and twenty
hoplites and more. Of the cavalry, Nicostratus, "the beautiful," as men
called him, and two others besides were slain; they were caught while
still in their beds. Returning from the pursuit, the victors set up a
trophy, got together all the arms they had taken, besides baggage, and
retired again to Phyle. A reinforcement of horse sent from the city
could not discover the vestige of a foe; but waited on the scene of
battle until the bodies of the slain had been picked up by their
relatives, when they withdrew again to the city.
After this the Thirty, who had
begun to realise the insecurity of their position, were anxious to
appropriate Eleusis, so that an asylum might be ready for them against
the day of need. With this view an order was issued to the Knights; and
Critias, with the rest of the Thirty, visited Eleusis. There they held a
review of the Eleusians in the presence of the Knights; (4) and, on the
pretext of wishing to discover how many they were, and how large a
garrison they would further require, they ordered the townsfolk to enter
their names. As each man did so he had to retire by a postern leading to
the sea. But on the sea-beach this side there were lines of cavalry
drawn up in waiting, and as each man appeared he was handcuffed by the
satellites of the Thirty. When all had so been seized and secured, they
gave orders to Lysimachus, the commander of the cavalry, to take them
off to the city and deliver them over to the Eleven. Next day they
summoned the heavy armed who were on the list, and the rest of the
Knights (5) to the Odeum, and Critias rose and addressed them. He said:
"Sirs, the constitution, the lines of which we are laying down, is a
work undertaken in your interests no less than ours; it is incumbent on
you therefore to participate in its dangers, even as you will partake of
its honours. We expect you therefore, in reference to these Eleusians
here, who have been seized and secured, to vote their condemnation, so
that our hopes and fears may be identical." Then, pointing to a
particular spot, he said peremptorily, "You will please deposit your
votes there within sight of all." It must be understood that the
Laconian guards were present at the time, and armed to the teeth, and
filling one-half of the Odeum. As to the proceedings themselves, they
found acceptance with those members of the State, besides the Thirty,
who could be satisfied with a simple policy of self-aggrandisement.
(4) Or, "in the cavalry quarters," cf. {en tois ikhthusin} = in the
fish market. Or, "at the review of the horse."
(5) For the various Odeums at Athens vide Prof. Jebb, "Theophr."
xviii. 235, 236. The one here named was near the fountain
Callirhoe by the Ilissus.
But now Thrasybulus at the head
of his followers, by this time about one thousand strong, descended from
Phyle and reached Piraeus in the night. The Thirty, on their side,
informed of this new move, were not slow to rally to the rescue, with
the Laconian guards, supported by their own cavalry and hoplites. And so
they advanced, marching down along the broad carriage road which leads
into Piraeus. The men from Phyle seemed at first inclined to dispute
their passage, but as the wide circuit of the walls needed a defence
beyond the reach of their still scanty numbers, they fell back in a
compact body upon Munychia. (6) Then the troops from the city poured
into the Agora of Hippodmus. (7) Here they formed in line, stretching
along and filling the street which leads to the temple of Artemis and
the Bendideum. (8) This line must have been at least fifty shields deep;
and in this formation they at once began to march up. As to the men of
Phyle, they too blocked the street at the opposite end, and facing the
foe. They presented only a thin line, not more than ten deep, though
behind these, certainly, were ranged a body of targeteers and
light-armed javelin men, who were again supported by an artillery of
stone-throwers—a tolerably numerous division drawn from the population
of the port and district itself. While his antagonists were still
advancing, Thrasybulus gave the order to ground their heavy shields, and
having done so himself, whilst retaining the rest of his arms, he stood
in the midst, and thus addressed them: "Men and fellow-citizens, I wish
to inform some, and to remind others of you, that of the men you see
advancing beneath us there, the right division are the very men we
routed and pursued only five days ago; while on the extreme left there
you see the Thirty. These are the men who have not spared to rob us of
our city, though we did no wrong; who have hounded us from our homes;
who have set the seal of proscription on our dearest friends. But to-day
the wheel of fortune has revolved; that has come about which least of
all they looked for, which most of all we prayed for. Here we stand with
our good swords in our hands, face to face with our foes; and the gods
themselves are with us, seeing that we were arrested in the midst of our
peaceful pursuits; at any moment, whilst we supped, or slept, or
marketed, sentence of banishment was passed upon us: we had done no
wrong—nay, many of us were not even resident in the country. To-day,
therefore, I repeat, the gods do visibly fight upon our side; the great
gods, who raise a tempest even in the midst of calm for our benefit, and
when we lay to our hand to fight, enable our little company to set up
the trophy of victory over the multitude of our foes. On this day they
have brought us hither to a place where the steep ascent must needs
hinder our foes from reaching with lance or arrow further than our
foremost ranks; but we with our volley of spears and arrows and stones
cannot fail to reach them with terrible effect. Had we been forced to
meet them vanguard to vanguard, on an equal footing, who could have been
surprised? But as it is, all I say to you is, let fly your missiles with
a will in right brave style. No one can miss his mark when the road is
full of them. To avoid our darts they must be for ever ducking and
skulking beneath their shields; but we will rain blows upon them in
their blindness; we will leap upon them and lay them low. But, O sirs!
let me call upon you so to bear yourselves that each shall be conscious
to himself that victory was won by him and him alone. Victory—which, God
willing, shall this day restore to us the land of our fathers, our
homes, our freedom, and the rewards of civic life, our children, if
children we have, our darlings, and our wives! Thrice happy those among
us who as conquerors shall look upon this gladdest of all days. Nor less
fortunate the man who falls to-day. Not all the wealth in the world
shall purchase him a monument so glorious. At the right instant I will
strike the keynote of the paean; then, with an invocation to the God of
battle, (9) and in return for the wanton insults they put upon us, let
us with one accord wreak vengeance on yonder men."
(6) The citadel quarter of Piraeus.
(7) Named after the famous architect Hippodamus, who built the town.
It was situated near where the two long walls joined the wall of
Piraeus; a broad street led from it up to the citadel of Munychia.
(8) I.e. the temple of Bendis (the Thracian Artemis). Cf. Plat. "Rep."
327, 354; and Prof. Jowett, "Plato," vol. iii. pp. 193, 226.
(9) Lit. "Enyalius," in Homer an epithet of Ares; at another date (cf.
Aristoph. "Peace," 456) looked upon as a distinct divinity.
Having so spoken, he turned
round, facing the foemen, and kept quiet, for the order passed by the
soothsayer enjoined on them, not to charge before one of their side was
slain or wounded. "As soon as that happens," said the seer, "we will
lead you onwards, and the victory shall be yours; but for myself, if I
err not, death is waiting." And herein he spoke truly, for they had
barely resumed their arms when he himself as though he were driven by
some fatal hand, leapt out in front of the ranks, and so springing into
the midst of the foe, was slain, and lies now buried at the passage of
the Cephisus. But the rest were victorious, and pursued the routed enemy
down to the level ground. There fell in this engagement, out of the
number of the Thirty, Critias himself and Hippomachus, and with them
Charmides, (10) the son of Glaucon, one of the ten archons in Piraeus,
and of the rest about seventy men. The arms of the slain were taken;
but, as fellow-citizens, the conquerors forebore to despoil them of
their coats. This being done, they proceeded to give back the dead under
cover of a truce, when the men, on either side, in numbers stept forward
and conversed with one another. Then Cleocritus (he was the Herald of
the Initiated, (11) a truly "sweet-voiced herald," if ever there was),
caused a deep silence to reign, and addressed their late combatants as
follows: "Fellow-citizens—Why do you drive us forth? why would you slay
us? what evil have we wrought you at any time? or is it a crime that we
have shared with you in the most solemn rites and sacrifices, and in
festivals of the fairest: we have been companions in the chorus, the
school, the army. We have braved a thousand dangers with you by land and
sea in behalf of our common safety, our common liberty. By the gods of
our fathers, by the gods of our mothers, by the hallowed names of
kinship, intermarriage, comradeship, those three bonds which knit the
hearts of so many of us, bow in reverence before God and man, and cease
to sin against the land of our fathers: cease to obey these most
unhallowed Thirty, who for the sake of private gain have in eight months
slain almost more men than the Peloponnesians together in ten years of
warfare. See, we have it in our power to live as citizens in peace; it
is only these men, who lay upon us this most foul burthen, this hideous
horror of fratricidal war, loathed of God and man. Ah! be well assured,
for these men slain by our hands this day, ye are not the sole mourners.
There are among them some whose deaths have wrung from us also many a
bitter tear."
(10) He was cousin to Critias, and uncle by the mother's side to
Plato, who introduces him in the dialogue, which bears his name
(and treats of Temperance), as a very young man at the beginning
of the Peloponnesian War. We hear more of him also from Xenophon
himself in the "Memorabilia," iii. 6. 7; and as one of the
interlocutors in the "Symposium."
(11) I.e. of the Eleusinian mysteries. He had not only a loud voice,
but a big body. Cf. Aristoph. "Frogs," 1237.
So he spoke, but the officers
and leaders of the defeated army who were left, unwilling that their
troops should listen to such topics at that moment, led them back to the
city. But the next day the Thirty, in deep down-heartedness and
desolation, sat in the council chamber. The Three Thousand, wherever
their several divisions were posted, were everywhere a prey to discord.
Those who were implicated in deeds of violence, and whose fears could
not sleep, protested hotly that to yield to the party in Piraeus were
preposterous. Those on the other hand who had faith in their own
innocence, argued in their own minds, and tried to convince their
neighbours that they could well dispense with most of their present
evils. "Why yield obedience to these Thirty?" they asked, "Why assign to
them the privilege of destroying the State?" In the end they voted a
resolution to depose the government, and to elect another. This was a
board of ten, elected one from each tribe.
B.C. 403. As to the Thirty,
they retired to Eleusis; but the Ten, assisted by the cavalry officers,
had enough to do to keep watch over the men in the city, whose anarchy
and mutual distrust were rampant. The Knights did not return to quarters
at night, but slept out in the Odeum, keeping their horses and shields
close beside them; indeed the distrust was so great that from evening
onwards they patrolled the walls on foot with their shields, and at
break of day mounted their horses, at every moment fearing some sudden
attack upon them by the men in Piraeus. These latter were now so
numerous, and of so mixed a company, that it was difficult to find arms
for all. Some had to be content with shields of wood, others of
wicker-work, which they spent their time in coating with whitening.
Before ten days had elapsed guarantees were given, securing full
citizenship, with equality of taxation and tribute to all, even
foreigners, who would take part in the fighting. Thus they were
presently able to take the field, with large detachments both of heavy
infantry and light-armed troops, besides a division of cavalry, about
seventy in number. Their system was to push forward foraging parties in
quest of wood and fruits, returning at nightfall to Piraeus. Of the city
party no one ventured to take the field under arms; only, from time to
time, the cavalry would capture stray pillagers from Piraeus or inflict
some damage on the main body of their opponents. Once they fell in with
a party belonging to the deme Aexone, (12) marching to their own farms
in search of provisions. These, in spite of many prayers for mercy and
the strong disapprobation of many of the knights, were ruthlessly
slaughtered by Lysimachus, the general of cavalry. The men of Piraeus
retaliated by putting to death a horseman, named Callistratus, of the
tribe Leontis, whom they captured in the country. Indeed their courage
ran so high at present that they even meditated an assault upon the city
walls. And here perhaps the reader will pardon the record of a somewhat
ingenious device on the part of the city engineer, who, aware of the
enemy's intention to advance his batteries along the racecourse, which
slopes from the Lyceum, had all the carts and waggons which were to be
found laden with blocks of stone, each one a cartload in itself, and so
sent them to deposit their freights "pele-mele" on the course in
question. The annoyance created by these separate blocks of stone was
enormous, and quite out of proportion to the simplicity of the
contrivance.
(12) On the coast south of Phalerum, celebrated for its fisheries. Cf.
"Athen." vii. 325.
But it was to Lacedaemon that
men's eyes now turned. The Thirty despatched one set of ambassadors from
Eleusis, while another set representing the government of the city, that
is to say the men on the list, was despatched to summon the
Lacedaemonians to their aid, on the plea that the people had revolted
from Sparta. At Sparta, Lysander, taking into account the possibility of
speedily reducing the party in Piraeus by blockading them by land and
sea, and so cutting them off from all supplies, supported the
application, and negotiated the loan of one hundred talents (13) to his
clients, backed by the appointment of himself as harmost on land, and of
his brother, Libys, as admiral of the fleet. And so proceeding to the
scene of action at Eleusis, he got together a large body of
Peloponnesian hoplites, whilst his brother, the admiral, kept watch and
ward by sea to prevent the importation of supplies into Piraeus by
water. Thus the men in Piraeus were soon again reduced to their former
helplessness, while the ardour of the city folk rose to a proportionally
high pitch under the auspices of Lysander.
(13) 24,375 pounds, reckoning one tal. = 243 pounds 15 shillings.
Things were progressing after
this sort when King Pausanias intervened. Touched by a certain envy of
Lysander—(who seemed, by a final stroke of achievement, about to reach
the pinnacle of popularity, with Athens laid like a pocket dependency at
his feet)—the king persuaded three of the ephors to support him, and
forthwith called out the ban. With him marched contingents of all the
allied States, except the Boeotians and Corinthians. These maintained,
that to undertake such an expedition against the Athenians, in whose
conduct they saw nothing contrary to the treaty, was inconsistent with
their oaths. But if that was the language held by them, the secret of
their behaviour lay deeper; they seemed to be aware of a desire on the
part of the Lacedaemonians to annex the soil of the Athenians and to
reduce the state to vassalage. Pausanias encamped on the Halipedon, (14)
as the sandy flat is called, with his right wing resting on Piraeus, and
Lysander and his mercenaries forming the left. His first act was to send
an embassage to the party in Piraeus, calling upon them to retire
peacably to their homes; when they refused to obey, he made, as far as
mere noise went, the semblance of an attack, with sufficient show of
fight to prevent his kindly disposition being too apparent. But gaining
nothing by the feint, he was forced to retire. Next day he took two
Laconian regiments, with three tribes of Athenian horse, and crossed
over to the Mute (15) Harbour, examining the lie of the ground to
discover how and where it would be easiest to draw lines of
circumvallation round Piraeus. As he turned his back to retire, a party
of the enemy sallied out and caused him annoyance. Nettled at the
liberty, he ordered the cavalry to charge at the gallop, supported by
the ten-year-service (16) infantry, whilst he himself, with the rest of
the troops, followed close, holding quietly back in reserve. They cut
down about thirty of the enemy's light troops and pursued the rest hotly
to the theatre in Piraeus. Here, as chance would have it, the whole
light and heavy infantry of the Piraeus men were getting under arms; and
in an instant their light troops rushed out and dashed at the
assailants; thick and fast flew missiles of all sorts—javelins, arrows
and sling stones. The Lacedaemonians finding the number of their wounded
increasing every minute, and sorely called, slowly fell back step by
step, eyeing their opponents. These meanwhile resolutely pressed on.
Here fell Chaeron and Thibrachus, both polemarchs, here also Lacrates,
an Olympic victor, and other Lacedaemonians, all of whom now lie
entombed before the city gates in the Ceramicus. (17)
(14) The Halipedon is the long stretch of flat sandy land between
Piraeus Phalerum and the city.
(15) Perhaps the landlocked creek just round the promontory of
Eetioneia, as Leake conjectures, "Topog. of Athens," p. 389. See
also Prof. Jowett's note, "Thuc." v. 2; vol. ii. p. 286.
(16) I.e. who had already seen ten years of service, i.e. over twenty-
eight, as the Spartan was eligible to serve at eighteen. Cf. Xen.
"Hell." III. iv. 23; VI. iv. 176.
(17) The outer Ceramicus, "the most beautiful spot outside the walls."
Cf. Thuc. ii. 34; through it passes the street of the tombs on the
sacred road; and here was the place of burial for all persons
honoured with a public funeral. Cf. Arist. "Birds," 395.
Watching how matters went,
Thrasybulus began his advance with the whole of his heavy infantry to
support his light troops and quickly fell into line eight deep, acting
as a screen to the rest of his troops. Pausanias, on his side, had
retired, sorely pressed, about half a mile towards a bit of rising
ground, where he sent orders to the Lacedaemonians and the other allied
troops to bring up reinforcements. Here, on this slope, he reformed his
troops, giving his phalanx the full depth, and advanced against the
Athenians, who did not hesitate to receive him at close quarters, but
presently had to give way; one portion being forced into the mud and
clay at Halae, (18) while the others wavered and broke their line; one
hundred and fifty of them were left dead on the field, whereupon
Pausanias set up a trophy and retired. Not even so, were his feelings
embittered against his adversary. On the contrary he sent secretly and
instructed the men of Piraeus, what sort of terms they should propose to
himself and the ephors in attendance. To this advice they listened. He
also fostered a division in the party within the city. A deputation,
acting on his orders, sought an audience of him and the ephors. It had
all the appearance of a mass meeting. In approaching the Spartan
authorities, they had no desire or occasion, they stated, to look upon
the men of Piraeus as enemies, they would prefer a general
reconciliation and the friendship of both sides with Lacedaemon. The
propositions were favourably received, and by no less a person than
Nauclidas. He was present as ephor, in accordance with the custom which
obliges two members of that board to serve on all military expeditions
with the king, and with his colleague shared the political views
represented by Pausanias, rather than those of Lysander and his party.
Thus the authorities were quite ready to despatch to Lacedaemon the
representatives of Piraeus, carrying their terms of truce with the
Lacedaemonians, as also two private individuals belonging to the city
party, whose names were Cephisophon and Meletus. This double deputation,
however, had no sooner set out to Lacedaemon than the "de facto"
government of the city followed suit, by sending a third set of
representatives to state on their behalf: that they were prepared to
deliver up themselves and the fortifications in their possession to the
Lacedaemonians, to do with them what they liked. "Are the men of
Piraeus," they asked, "prepared to surrender Piraeus and Munychia in the
same way? If they are sincere in their profession of friendship to
Lacedaemon, they ought to do so." The ephors and the members of assembly
at Sparta (19) gave audience to these several parties, and sent out
fifteen commissioners to Athens empowered, in conjunction with
Pausanias, to discover the best settlement possible. The terms (20)
arrived at were that a general peace between the rival parties should be
established, liberty to return to their own homes being granted to all,
with the exception of the Thirty, the Eleven, and the Ten who had been
governors in Piraeus; but a proviso was added, enabling any of the city
party who feared to remain at Athens to find a home in Eleusis.
(18) Halae, the salt marshy ground immediately behind the great
harbour of Piraeus, but outside the fortification lines.
(19) Cf. "Hell." VI. iii. 3, {oi ekkletoi}.
(20) Cf. Prof. Jebb, "Orators," i. 262, note 2.
And now that everything was
happily concluded, Pausanias disbanded his army, and the men from
Piraeus marched up under arms into the acropolis and offered sacrifice
to Athena. When they were come down, the generals called a meeting of
the Ecclesia, (21) and Thrasybulus made a speech in which, addressing
the city party, he said: "Men of the city! I have one piece of advice I
would tender to you; it is that you should learn to know yourselves, and
towards the attainment of that self-knowledge I would have you make a
careful computation of your good qualities and satisfy yourselves on the
strength of which of these it is that you claim to rule over us. Is it
that you are more just than ourselves? Yet the people, who are
poorer—have never wronged you for the purposes of plunder; but you,
whose wealth would outweight the whole of ours, have wrought many a
shameful deed for the sake of gain. If, then, you have no monopoly of
justice, can it be on the score of courage that you are warranted to
hold your heads so high? If so, what fairer test of courage will you
propose than the arbitrament of war—the war just ended? Or do you claim
superiority of intelligence?—you, who with all your wealth of arms and
walls, money and Peloponnesian allies, have been paralysed by men who
had none of these things to aid them! Or is it on these Laconian friends
of yours that you pride yourselves? What! when these same friends have
dealt by you as men deal by vicious dogs. You know how that is. They put
a heavy collar round the neck of the brutes and hand them over muzzled
to their masters. So too have the Lacedaemonians handed you over to the
people, this very people whom you have injured; and now they have turned
their backs and are gone. But" (turning to the mass) "do not misconceive
me. It is not for me, sirs, coldly to beg of you, in no respect to
violate your solemn undertakings. I go further; I beg you, to crown your
list of exploits by one final display of virtue. Show the world that you
can be faithful to your oaths, and flawless in your conduct." By these
and other kindred arguments he impressed upon them that there was no
need for anarchy or disorder, seeing that there were the ancient laws
ready for use. And so he broke up (22) the assembly.
(21) I.e. the Public Assembly, see above; and reading with Sauppe
after Cobet {ekklesian epoiesan}, which words are supposed to have
dropt out of the MSS. Or, keeping to the MSS., translate "When the
generals were come down, Thrasybulus," etc. See next note.
(22) The Greek words are {antestese ten ekklesian} (an odd phrase for
the more technical {eluse} or {dieluse ten ekklesian}). Or,
accepting the MSS. reading above (see last note), translate "he
set up (i.e. restored) the Assembly." So Mr. J. G. Philpotts, Mr.
Herbert Hailstone, and others.
At this auspicious moment,
then, they reappointed the several magistrates; the constitution began
to work afresh, and civic life was recommenced. At a subsequent period,
on receiving information that the party at Eleusis were collecting a
body of mercenaries, they marched out with their whole force against
them, and put to death their generals, who came out to parley. These
removed, they introduced to the others their friends and connections,
and so persuaded them to come to terms and be reconciled. The oath they
bound themselves by consisted of a simple asseveration: "We will
remember past offences no more;" and to this day (23) the two parties
live amicably together as good citizens, and the democracy is steadfast
to its oaths.
(23) It would be interesting to know the date at which the author
penned these words. Was this portion of the "Hellenica" written
before the expedition of Cyrus? i.e. in the interval between the
formal restoration of the Democracy, September B.C. 403, and March
B.C. 401. The remaining books of the "Hellenica" were clearly
written after that expedition, since reference is made to it quite
early in Bk. III. i. 2. Practically, then, the first volume of
Xenophon's "History of Hellenic Affairs" ends here. This history
is resumed in Bk. III. i. 3. after the Cyreian expedition (of
which episode we have a detailed account in the "Anabasis" from
March B.C. 401 down to March B.C. 399, when the remnant of the Ten
Thousand was handed over to the Spartan general Thibron in Asia).
Some incidents belonging to B.C. 402 are referred to in the
opening paragraphs of "Hellenica," III. i. 1, 2, but only as an
introduction to the new matter; and with regard to the historian
himself, it is clear that "a change has come o'er the spirit of
his dream." This change of view is marked by a change of style in
writing. I have thought it legitimate, under the circumstances, to
follow the chronological order of events, and instead of
continuing the "Hellenica," at this point to insert the
"Anabasis." My next volume will contain the remaining books of the
"Hellenica" and the rest of Xenophon's "historical" writings.
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