The expedition to Sicily was the worst military disaster in Athenian history,
and now, Athens itself was in turmoil. Treacherous oligarchs
conspired to undermine her democracy, while the traitor Alcibiades had defected to Sparta.
In the East, Achaemenid Persia looked upon the Greek world with ambitious eyes,
seeing an opportunity to exploit the perpetual infighting in the Hellenic
world to advance their own interests. The second phase of the Peloponnesian was about to begin.
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EMPIRE IN RUIN: ATHENS AFTER THE EXPEDITION
As the triremes from her Sicilian expedition were set alight upon the Mediterranean sea,
Athens was utterly ruined. Thousands of Athens’ working and fighting-age population had been
lost in that doomed campaign, and her people were furious at the pro-war politicians who
had brought this disaster upon their city. During the war, the arch-traitor Alcibiades had advised
Sparta to take over Decelea in Attica and set up fortifications to starve the population.
As a result of this, the silver mines and fertile agrarian hinterlands of Athens diminished in
revenue due to the Spartan fortifications limiting access. On the pan-Hellenic stage, Athens was
weaker than ever, and her control over her allies and vassals had never been so feeble. Meanwhile,
Sparta had been buoyed by Athens’ humbling, and its pro-war faction was gaining in popularity and
power. However, as weakened as Athens was, it was still the dominant naval power in the Aegean sea,
with even Sparta’s new allies in Syracuse not being enough to tip the balance in that theatre
of the arms race. To compensate for this critical shortcoming, Sparta swallowed its pride and asked
for financial assistance from someone they normally despised; Achaemenid Persia. The King
of Kings probably no longer aspired to conquer all of Hellas as his predecessor Xerxes had two
generations earlier. However, he still hoped that by destabilizing Athens, the Achaemenids
would gain access to the crucial shipping lane of the Hellespont. Thus, Sparta and Persia
were thus, a match made in Ahura Mazda and Zeus’s heaven as Persia could provide monetary support.
SECOND CHANCE AT BLOODSHED: WAR BEGINS According to Thucydides, the second phase of
the war began the same way the first one did, with pre-emptive escalations on both sides.
King Agis set forth to found a Spartan colony at Heraclea where he could build a strategic
location for controlling trade and supplies from the north. In addition, several rebellious cities
under Athenian hegemony sent delegations to seek assistance against their Ionian
overlord. Alcibiades advised the Spartans to slowly build alliances with the island allies of
Athens, such as Chios, which they did. He himself, having come under pressure due to allegations of
having a child with the wife of King Pleistoanax, proposed an alliance with a local satrap in Ionia
called Tissaphernes to have a base away from Sparta and escape. This proved to be a fruitful
partnership, for when Miletus was against Athens, Tissaphernes stepped in as negotiator.
Athens responded by sending ships and establishing a base of operations in
the territory that revolted. Meanwhile, Alcibiades grew increasingly afraid of
losing his privileged position in Sparta, as King Agis became impatient with his presence.
These tensions came to a head when the Spartan general Astylochos was ordered to kill Alcibiades,
prompting the turncoat to flee to Tissaphernes, who was growing anxious due to the Spartan
rejection of the treaty. Alcibiades then extended an olive branch to the top brass of his erstwhile
homeland, initiating talks with the Athenian upper classes, who had grown distrustful of
their city’s democratic institutions. To win the Athenian oligarchs over to his side, Alcibiades
promised to bring them money from Persia, funds which the economically starved Athenians required.
Alcibiades’s envoys spread the news and made the arrival of Persian gold a done deal.
The Athenian troops at Samos seemed intrigued by the idea, as were some of the generals.
Alcibiade intended to engender enough support to initiate a double coup at Athens and Samos.
Some generals like Thrasyboulos were avowed democrats, but despite this, they saw Alcibiades
as a possible solution to Athenian chronic political instability. Others, like Phrynichos,
were not keen on him returning and maintained that Persia did not have Athenian interests at heart.
Despite his concerns, he could not stop Alcibiades from setting his plans into motion:
"[O]n the fourteenth day of the Attic month of Thargelion, June 9,
411, ... the [conspirators] seized the reality of power."
In Samos, the local insurrection was put down, but in Athens, the coup was successful,
and the Tyranny of the Four Hundred was established, a faction which almost immediately
fractured internally, splitting into moderate and extremist factions. The radical oligarchs
began negotiations with Sparta, which angered the moderates, who had agreed to Alcibiades'
plot solely to gain Persian money to fight against Sparta. Eventually, the radicals
were removed in another coup, and the moderate Council of the Five Thousand was established.
It was during 411 BCE that Sparta deployed some of its ships to Eretria. Athens believed they
were heading for Athens due to links with the Athenian oligarchs. The Athenians soon realized
where the Spartans were going and set forth to go to Euboea, an important granary for the Athenians.
The Spartans looked to Oropus as a safe harbour to take over the island, as they worked closely with
their Boeotian allies. Athens manned its remaining ships, followed the Peloponnesians, and then met
up with their powerful Eretrian allies in the region, resulting in a combined force of 36 ships.
After landing at Eretria, the Athenian sailors moved out to procure supplies. Unbeknownst
to them, they were about to be betrayed, for Eretrea was now in cahoots with the Spartans.
In a ploy to sabotage their Athenian “allies”, the Eretrians had arranged for the empty market
that the Athenians would shop from, so they had to go outside the city to acquire provisions.
Then, the Spartans intervened after a signal was set,
possibly a Walking Egyptian dance move by the Eretrian contingent.
Agesandridas, the Spartan commander, immediately sailed to the city to engage the Athenians at sea.
The Athenians dashed to their ships and weighed anchor. They fought at sea, but eventually,
the Athenians were forced to disengage and were confined to the shore. However, ominous news
awaited them as the Eretrians supported the Spartans and massacred many of the soldiers.
A total of twenty-two Athenian ships were captured, and their crews were captured or killed.
This spelt the end of Athenian influence on Euboea, with the entire island rising in revolt,
except for Oreus. Soon, Sparta had taken over the isle and deprived Athens of one of its most
crucial breadbaskets. The Athenian navy at Samos, which was a pro-democracy stronghold
and an ally of Athens, was now in turmoil and sought to restore democracy in Athens.
Though they considered him a traitor, they asked for Alcibiades to lead the army due to his
previous reconnecting with them and his promises to help them previously. Around here, we must say
goodbye to Thucydides, the historian whose records have been crucial in helping us chronicle the war.
His text ends here rather abruptly, as he presumably died around 400 BCE before he
could complete his magnum opus. His text showed a profound realism and a keen understanding of the
suffering inherent in war, and scholars to this date debate his real character and philosophy.
From now on, we will focus on sources from later authors such as Xenophon or Plutarch.
HELLESPONT AND RESTORATION
The moderate oligarchy in Athens now sought to secure grain imports from their other breadbasket:
the Hellespont. However, even after winning victories in Cynossema and Abydos in 411 BCE,
they continued to have issues securing total control of the region.
Persia’s navy was providing Sparta with assistance in blockading the Hellespont. The Persian Satrap
Pharnabazos controlled a significant cavalry force which would become important in the land
section of the battle, while the Spartan admiral Mindaros assembled a fleet of ships drawn from
the entire Peloponnesian League. Diodoros Sikelos claims this united force comprised 80 ships, while
Xenophon more conservatively claims it was around 60. The Athenian fleet, united under Alcibiades,
was of similar strength, composed of 86 triremes. To avoid being locked inside the Hellespont,
the Athenians moved into the Aegean and positioned themselves north of Gallipoli.
Cyzicus was a city near the shores of Marmara, and the Spartan navarchos or naval leader Mindarus was
keen to besiege and take it over. The Persian Satrap Pharnabazos joined him with his cavalry,
and they quickly forced the city into surrender. When the Athenians reached
Hellespont, they hid in the city of Abydos to hide their true arsenal from the enemy.
The initial plans of Athens are described quite differently by Xenophon and Diodoros Sikelos.
Xenophon describes that the fleet waited for heavy rain to approach the city of Cyzicus
under cover of the downpour. Alcibiades took his squadron past the Peloponnesians,
causing Mindarus to follow him. Alcibiades is said to have landed, and Mindarus followed him.
Alcibiades is then claimed to have turned around the ships to chase Mindarus in a surprise attack,
causing him to flee to a beach to the south of the town. The armies moved to the shore
and began to fight. In this fight, Alcibiades emerged victorious, while Mindarus was killed.
Syracuse fled by burning its ships, and everyone else was taken, prisoner. Diodoros claims Athens
tried to ambush the enemy by splitting into three. Alcibiades sailed into Cyzicus with
twenty ships and then was to sail back to bait the Peloponnesians. Theramenes and Thrasybullus then
took their own ships and hid before attacking and blocking the Peloponnesians from the shore.
However, this did not work as the Athenians intended. When Mindarus chased Alcibiades,
and the ambush was triggered, the Peloponnesians fled inland to Cleri.
There, they met up with Pharnabazus’s cavalry forces. As the Athenians chased them, they ruined
many Peloponnesian ships and then used grappling harpoons to take over the ships on the shore.
The battle then moved on to the land. Alcibiades and Mindarus surrounded the ships and began to
fight on land to take over the remnants of the Peloponnesian fleet. Diodoros says that in this
clash, Mindarus was killed, but the Athenians seized the entirety of the Peloponnesian fleet.
Xenophon quotes a Spartan dispatch home, which laconically mentions how 'the ships are gone.
Mindarus has disappeared. The men are hungry. We don't know what to do.’ Cyzicus fell within
the next few days, and with its conquest, Athenian control over the Hellespont was fully reasserted.
RED STAR OVER THE PARTHENON: DEMOCRACY RESTORED The string of lightning bolt victories in the
Hellespont greatly boosted Athenian morale. The mood amongst the people of Athens was high,
as they now had secured their breadbasket in the Hellespont. The moderate oligarchy was
keen to capitalize on this victory, but not with further warfare. Instead, they considered a peace
deal with Sparta in which they would give over Pylos and secure their other gains elsewhere.
The people and the Samian democrats, however, were not having it. We are not sure how this unfolded,
but we can assume that some local support flared amongst the people of Athens to restore democracy.
We must also consider the class analysis, one that many philosophers of Athens disliked due to
their elitism; that the Five Thousand represented only the classes of the rich and the zeugitai,
whereas democracy represented the power of even the unpropertied lower classes of men.
There is little detail of the democratic movement in Athens, but we can imagine the mass of the
people slowly coming over to the idea of regaining power as the fear of the Sicilian loss and the
oligarchic chaos dawned on them. Alcibiades
and the other generals at Samos returned, and democracy was fully restored once more.
They took harsh measures against Tyranny, stopping the revision of old democratic
laws and bringing a grant to all citizens called diobelia, or gift of two obols. The
Agora restored the Boule of the Five Hundred, but with limitations on legal punishment and crimes.
The important use of the wording of the first laws after the restoration made it rhetorically
clear that the democracy of Athens was back and ready to fight for its interests and values.
They also instituted that attacks on democracy were illegal. Athens had bounced back from a
disastrous campaign and economic and political chaos. The war, however, was not over yet. The
Peloponnesian League was still out there, and the Athenian Empire was now trying to hold on to its
newfound gains. Persia was now fully engaged in the war through Sparta as an ally and a proxy.
The Peloponnesian War’s second phase was now fully underway, and Athenian generals like
Alcibiades were ready to continue the war. Time would tell if they would succeed or not. If you
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