Alcibiades later moved to Notium, on the mainland north of Ephesus, but Lysander stayed in the harbour, apparently adding more ships. With a few ships Alcibiades left Notium (according the Xenophon, he sailed north to assist Thrasybulus in the siege of Phocaea), leaving the bulk of fleet under the command of his helmsman Antiochus (d.406 BC), with the simple instruction that he was not to attack Lysander’s ships. As a fleet this size would normally have been commanded by several generals, the appointment of Antiochus was probably intended to prevent Aristocrates or Adeimantus seizing the opportunity to fight Lysande
However, Antiochus, adopting a plan similar to that which produced the Athenian victory at Cyzicus, sailed out towards Ephesus with ten triremes. Lysander got a few ships under sail and gave chase, but when more of the Athenian ships came to support Antiochus he advanced with his remainder in battle order. The Athenians now also brought out their whole force, but they came out without order and were defeated piecemeal. Antiochus’ galley was sunk, and his death probably hastened the flight of the rest. They took refuge in Samos, leaving fifteen captured and seven more sunk. Upon receiving news of the disaster, Alcibiades returned to Samos and sailed out with his whole force towards Ephesus to offer battle. But Lysander refused to be drawn and the two fleets continued to watch each other across the water.
Alcibiades’ political enemies saw their chance. In the spring elections were held to appoint ten generals for the Attic year 406/5 BC. Alcibiades was not among them; his command was transferred to Conon. Alcibiades decided it was expedient to retire to his property in the Chersonese.
Lysander’s term expired and Callicratidas (d.406 BC) was sent to succeed him. Lysander, to thwart his successor, sent all that was left of the Persian subsidy back to Cyrus. Callicratidas as a traditionalist Spartan was loath to accept money from a Persian. When his half-hearted approach to Cyrus fell through, he moved the Spartan base back to Miletus and the Milesians gave him the money to pay his crews.
Callicratidas with one hundred and forty ships sailed to Chios where he attacked and destroyed the Athenian stronghold at Delphinium. He then went to Teos (which the Athenians had soon recaptured after its attempted breakaway in 412 BC), slipped into the town and sacked it. Coming to Lesbos he took Methymna, the chief city on the island. From here, Callicratidas could move to capture the rest of Lesbos, which cleared the way for him to move his fleet to the Hellespont.
Conon, in command of seventy ships at Samos, was forced to move his fleet to the Hecatonnesi (‘Hundred Islands’) between Lesbos and the mainland. When Callicratidas attacked him with his fleet that had increased to one hundred and seventy ships, Conon lost thirty ships and fled to Mytilene with the forty that were left. Diomedon, who happened to be in the area, was intercepted by Callicratidas and narrowly escaped, leaving ten of his twelve galleys in the enemy’s hands. Callicratidas blockaded Mytilene by both sea and land. Cyrus, on learning of his success, sent him money. Conon was just able to sneak out a trireme to Athens with a message of his plight.
When the Athenians heard of the blockade of Mytilene, they made a huge effort for its relief. Within thirty days a fleet of one hundred and ten triremes was equipped and dispatched from Piraeus. At Samos it was reinforced by scattered Athenian ships and contingents from the allies. The fleet of one hundred and fifty ships then sailed to the small islands of Arginusae, off the coast of Aeolis and opposite Cape Malea on the southeast of Lesbos. Callicratidas took one hundred and twenty ships to Cape Malea to meet them, leaving Eteonicus with fifty ships to continue the blockade at Mytilene.
The Athenian commanders, knowing that this occasion the opposing crews were the more experienced (their own fleet was manned by hastily raised crews most of whom probably had never fought at sea), took up a defensive formation with the wings in a double line and the centre consisting of a single line backed by one of the islands. The object of this formation was to prevent their line being pierced by single ships, which could then turn and ram them broadside (diekplous). If the Spartans attempted this against a double line, a ship from the second line could move up to attack the Spartan ship.
Callicratidas divided his fleet into two flotillas, each in a single line, and attacked both Athenian wings. The weather was stormy and soon after the two lines met, they scattered and fought ship to ship. Callicratidas led the Peloponnesian right and was killed early in the action. When the right wing broke and fled southwards, the left wing fought on under a Theban general Thrasondas until it also broke and fled. The Peloponnesians lost some seventy ships; and the Athenians twenty-five. The Athenian victory was marred by the loss of five thousand oarsmen who were thrown into the sea and could not be rescued because of the storm.
During the night Eteonicus escaped to Chios. Conon, finding the harbour clear, sailed to Arginusae and with two of the generals, Aristogenes and Protomachus, eventually took up station at Samos. The other six generals, Aristocrates, Diomedon, Erasinides, Lysias, Pericles (illegitimate son of the statesman) and Thrasyllus, returned to Athens.
Early in the year Agis had delivered a night attack against Athens. The Athenian army came out and offered battle close to the walls, where they were covered by fire from above. Agis refused to engage under such conditions. This must have shaken the nerve of the people and together with the losses at Arginusae may partly account for what followed.
The loss of the five thousand seamen was exploited by the leading democrat, Archedemus. As a first step he indicted Erasinides in the people’s court for retaining some money he had received in the Hellespont. Erasinides was imprisoned, and the success of the prosecution paved the way for the more serious attack on the six generals who had failed to save the men in the water. A member of the Council, Callixenus, proposed an immediate vote for or against the execution of the generals collectively. After a counter proposal that the generals be tried individually was lost, the six generals were condemned and executed without delay.
After Arginusae, Sparta offered to leave Decelea and make peace on the status quo, but Athens refused to negotiate unless Sparta evacuated all the cities in the Athenian Empire.
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