By the spring Mindarus had assembled eighty triremes. With only forty ships the Athenian commanders had to leave Sestus and they sailed to Cardia on the northern shore of the Chersonese. Thrasybulus and Theramenes in Thrace and Alcibiades at Lesbos hurried to join them to increase the fleet at Cardia to eighty-six ships. Meanwhile, Mindarus and Pharnabazus had besieged and captured Cyzicus on the southern shore of the Propontis; the Spartans now had a base east of the Hellespont.
The Athenian generals set out to recover the city. Moving by night to avoid detection they passed up the Hellespont and assembled at the island of Proconnesus, northwest of the Artaki Peninsula on the neck of which Cyzicus was located. Alcibiades sailed out with forty triremes towards Cyzicus, while the other two squadrons under Thrasybulus and Thrasyllus remained hidden northwest of the city. Seeing only forty vessels approaching, Mindarus set out to attack them with sixty ships. Alcibiades fled and Mindarus gave chase. When both forces were clear of the harbour Alcibiades turned to face Mindarus, while favoured by hazy weather Thrasybulus and Thrasyllus with their forty-six ships moved southwards to cut off his retreat. Mindarus realised he was trapped and ran his ships ashore southwest of the city, where Pharnabazus was located with his troops. The sea battle turned into a land battle as the Athenians followed them ashore. Mindarus was killed, the Spartans and their Persian allies routed, and the whole Peloponnesian fleet captured, with the exception of the Syracusan ships, which Hermocrates ordered to be burnt. The next day Cyzicus surrendered without a fight.
Pharnabazus armed the men who served in the Peloponnesian fleet, gave them pay for two months and put them on guard duty along his own coastline. He then called together the officers and gave them permission to build triremes at Antandrus. He supplied the money and told them to take timber from the wood of Mount Ida.
The effects of this Athenian victory were huge: the Spartan presence in the Hellespont had been eliminated; Perinthus, Selymbria and even Thasos once more became Athenian; at the Bosporus on the eastern shore opposite Byzantium (which remained hostile) the Athenians fortified Chrysopolis and left a squadron to enforce a tithe on the cargos of all the ships coming from the Euxine; and three years were to pass before the Peloponnesians were able to muster another large fleet.
In the summer the Five Thousand surrendered their powers to the democracy. The restored democrats decided not to purge the oligarchs, and this restraint would have been critical to the city’s defence. In breach of its treaty with Persia, Sparta sent envoys including Endius to Athens to offer peace, on the basis of the status quo except that Pylos and Decelea were to be returned. But in Athens the leading radical democrat Cleophon (d.404 BC) had it rejected. At this time Athens and the Hellespontine fleet were under separate administrations. Alcibiades, Thrasybulus and Theramenes were in control of nearly ninety ships with crews and troops loyal to them; and in the wake of Cyzicus any general sent from Athens would not have had the credibility to supersede any of them. At home the most experienced general was Thrasyllus, who had returned from the fleet at Sestus the previous winter. In July Aegis tried to take advantage of the recent change of regime at Athens and attacked the city. Thrasyllus arrayed his forces outside the walls at the Lyceum and forced the Peloponnesians to withdraw to Decelea. After this success the Athenians were willing to give Thrasyllus what he had come for, and they passed a vote authorising him to call up a thousand hoplites, a hundred cavalry and fifty triremes as reinforcements for the eastern campaign.
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