Two naval engagements on the Hellespont, 411.—Great victory by sea and land won near Cyzicus, 410.—Confirmation of the Athenian dominion over Ionia and Thrace by the capture of Byzantium, 480. Alcibiades returns covered with glory; but in the same year is deposed, and submits to a voluntary exile, 407.
Anabasis of Cyrus, 407.
406.
406.
405—403.
25. Arrival of the younger Cyrus in Asia Minor; the shrewdness of Lysander wins him over to the Spartan interest. The republican haughtiness of Lysander's successor, Callicratidas, shown to Cyrus, was a serious error in policy; for, unassisted by Persian money, Sparta was not in a condition to pay her mariners, nor consequently to support her naval establishment. After the defeat and death of Callicratidas, the command is restored to Lysander, who terminates the twenty seven years' war triumphantly for Sparta.
Naval victory of Lysander over the Athenians at Notium, 407; in consequence of which Alcibiades is deprived of the command.—Appointment of ten new leaders at Athens; Conon among the number.—Naval victory of Callicratidas at Mitylene; Conon is shut up in the harbour of that place, 406.—Great naval victory of the Athenians; defeat and death of Callicratidas at the Æginussæ islands, near Lesbos, 406.—Unjust condemnation of the Athenian generals.—Second command of Lysander, and last decisive victory by sea over the Athenians at Ægospotamos on the Hellespont, Dec. 406.—The loss of the sovereignty of the sea is accompanied by the defection of the confederates, who are successively subjected by Lysander, 406.—Athens is besieged by Lysander in the same year, 405; the city surrenders in May, 404.—Athens is deprived of her walls; her navy is reduced to twelve sail; and, in obedience to Lysander's commands, the constitution is commuted into an oligarchy, under thirty rulers, (tyrants.)
End of the Peloponnesian war.
26. Thus ended a war destructive in its moral, still more than in its political, consequences. Party spirit had usurped the place of patriotic feeling; as national prejudice had that of national energy. Athens being subdued, Sparta stood at the head of confederate Greece; but Greece very soon experienced the yoke of her deliverers to be infinitely more galling than that of the people hitherto called her oppressors. What evils must not have ensued from the revolutions Lysander now found it necessary to effect in most of the Grecian states, in order to place the helm of government in the hands of his own party under the superintendence of a Spartan harmost?—How oppressive must not have been the military rule of the numerous Spartan garrisons?—Nor could any alleviation of tribute be hoped for, now that in Sparta it was acknowledged that the "state must possess an exchequer."—The arrogance and rapacity of the new masters were rendered more grievous by their being more uncivilized and destitute.
History of the reign of terror at Athens under the thirty tyrants, 403.—What happened here must likewise have happened more or less in the other Grecian cities, which Lysander found it necessary to revolutionize. In all quarters his party consisted of men similar to Critias and his colleagues, who appear to have been long before united in clubs (ἑταιρείαι) intimately connected with each other; from which were now taken the most daring revolutionists, in order to place them everywhere at the head of affairs.
Expulsion of the thirty tyrants.
403.
27. Happy revolution in Athens, and expulsion of the thirty tyrants by Thrasybulus, favoured by the party at Sparta opposed to Lysander, and headed by king Pausanias. Restoration and reform of Solon's constitution; general amnesty. It was easy to reestablish forms;—to recall the departed spirit of the nation was impossible!
Ed. Ph. Hinrichs, De Theramenis, Critiæ et Thrasybuli, virorum tempore belli Peloponnesiaci inter Græcos illustrium, rebus et ingenio, Commentatio, Hamburgi, 1820. An inquiry which exhibits much research and impartiality.