By now Alcibiades had fallen out with Spartans: the revolts in Ionia had not been as easily accomplished as he had predicted; his ally Chalcideus had been killed; his friend Endius’ year as ephor had ended in the autumn; and Agis, whose wife Alcibiades had seduced at Sparta, sent a letter to Astyochus in Miletus ordering that Alcibiades be put to death.
On learning of this, Alcibiades moved from Miletus to Sardis where he advised Tissaphernes to limit his support for Sparta and let the Greeks wear one another down. At the same time, wanting to return to Athens, he made contact with the Athenian leaders at Samos, suggesting that if Athens overthrew its democracy and recalled him he would bring Tissaphernes’ friendship and Persian support with him.
The army at Samos voted to support the change to oligarchy, especially as it presented the prospect of regular pay. It was decided, despite the opinion of Phrynichus, to send a deputation to Athens, led by Pisander, to arrange for the introduction of an oligarchy. At Athens, Pisander argued that the survival of the state was more important than its political constitution and if Athens wanted financial and military aid from Persia then they had to install an oligarchy. The Assembly gave way, and authorised him, with ten others, to negotiate with Alcibiades and Tissaphernes at Sardis for an alliance.
It is unlikely that Tissaphernes, under orders from the King, was seriously considering changing sides. Alcibiades, speaking for Tissaphernes, raised the price of transferring Persia’s aid from Sparta to Athens so high that the Athenian envoys broke off negotiations. Tissaphernes then made his third and final pact with the Spartan Alliance in which it was agreed that the King’s claims to the territory of mainland were limited to mainland Asia Minor, i.e. the offshore islands were excluded; and any that payments made for the Peloponnesian fleet after the arrival of the Phoenician fleet were to be regarded as loans to be repaid at the end of the war.
In the summer the war moved northwards with the Spartan Dercylidas (fl.411-389 BC) going by land from Miletus to the Hellespont, where with the cooperation of Pharnabazus he occupied Abydos, and Lampsacus went over to him. Strombichides went by sea from Chios, recovered Lampsacus and established a fort opposite Abydos across the Hellespont at Sestus. Clearchus (c.450-401 BC) took forty Peloponnesian ships and won over Byzantium; and the Athenians sent ships to Sestus. Mindarus (d.410 BC) succeeded Astyochus. Tissaphernes set off to Aspendus on the Eurymedon River in southern Asia Minor, ostensibly to bring the Phoenician fleet of 147 ships back with him to Ionia but he never did.
Probably because of their decision not to fight the Peloponnesian fleet at Miletus the previous year, Phrynichus and Scironides were replaced by Leon (1) and Diomedon. The two new generals immediately attacked Rhodes while the Peloponnesian ships remained beached on the island, defeated a Rhodian army and then moved to Chalce (=Chalki), a smaller island to the west of Rhodes, from which they continued to keep watch and launch raids on the Peloponnesians.
On Chios with the Athenian fort at Delphinium nearing completion, Pedaritus sent messages appealing for aid to the Peloponnesians on Rhodes. When the fleet left Rhodes it was followed by the Athenian squadron from Chalce. Not wanting to do battle and Realising that they would not be allowed to pass Samos and get to Chios without being drawn into a fight, the Peloponnesians abandoned their attempt to relieve Chios and returned to Miletus; the Athenians went to Samos. Pedaritus was killed in an attack against the Athenian fortress
Before leaving Athens for Sardis, Pisander had made contact with the synomosiai (‘sworn associations’), the political clubs, and organised them to subvert the democracy. On his return he found that the oligarchic movement was already in progress: the democratic leader Androcles and some of his associates had been murdered; the democracy was being attacked with speeches criticising its costliness; an oligarchic programme was circulating that proposed to abolish the civil stipends and to limit political rights to not more than five thousand men (Thucydides says that the latter proposal was merely a pretext to attract support; the authors were fully intent on retaining the government in their own hands); and although the democratic processes were still functioning they were dominated by the oligarchs.
The disaster at Syracuse had made the people critical of the democratic government. The upper and middle classes, who had borne the entire burden of taxation and most of the casualties, naturally resented a system under which they had little influence on the conduct of the war. Most of them wished to establish a moderate form of government in which they would be able to administer the state responsibly; the rest wanted only to obtain power as oligarchic leaders, and some of these were prepared to impose a narrow oligarchy by violence. The probouloi and many leading citizens joined the oligarchs.
Pisander persuaded the Assembly to appoint a syngrapheis, a drafting committee, comprising the probouloi and twenty others, to prepare proposals for such political reform they thought advisable, and be ready by a given day. On the day specified, a fresh Assembly met which Pisander arranged to be held not in the usual place (called the Pnyx) within the city walls, but at a place called the Colonus about a mile (≈1.6 km) outside the city. Here the Assembly was unlikely to be as numerous and perhaps more easily intimidated.
The graphe paranomon, or action against those who proposed any measure contrary to the laws, having been suspended, almost all the civilian stipends were abolished, as in the programme. Then, on the proposal of Pisander, all existing magistrates were deposed and the members of the provisional government appointed. Five persons were elected and these were to name ninety-five more; each of these was to choose three persons and thus form the Council of Four Hundred. The Four Hundred was authorised to administer the state and to convene at its pleasure the Five Thousand.
While a body of hoplites Pisander had brought from the islands stood guard, the Four Hundred entered the Council Chamber, each armed with a dagger and accompanied by one hundred and twenty youths – the assassins assembled by the instigators of the coup. The democratic councillors were ordered to depart; they made no resistance and the democracy was brought to an end after existing for almost a century.
The Four Hundred were themselves controlled by the leaders of the conspiracy: the orator Antiphon of Rhamnus (c.480-411 BC), who had organised and directed the coup in the background; Pisander, who played the leading role in public; the statesman Theramenes (d.404 BC), son of the proboulus Hagnon; and Phrynichus, who had joined the oligarchs when they broke with Alcibiades. The Four Hundred put to death a few of their enemies and imprisoned or deported some of the others. Their next step was to open negotiations for peace with Agis at Decelea and to send envoys to Sparta itself.
Although the coup had originated at Samos, opinion there was now turning against oligarchy. Thrasybulus (c.440s-389 BC), a pro-democracy general, and Thrasyllus (d.406 BC), a hoplite presumably representing the army, were recognized as the leaders of the democrats. Before Pisander left for Athens he had won over some three hundred of the democrats to oligarchy and now to show their support for the Athenian oligarchs they murdered the Athenian exile Hyperbolus, resident at Samos. After performing other acts of violence they were ready to install their own Samian oligarchy, with the attendant massacre of the Samian democrats. The latter learned of these plans and approached Leon (1) and Diomedon, who did not support the oligarchy, and also Thrasybulus and Thrasyllus. On enquiry it was discovered that many of the soldiers and sailors were ready to support the democracy. Therefore, when the Samian oligarchs made their attempt, the Athenians assisted in crushing it. Thirty of the three hundred Samian conspirators were killed and three of the most guilty were exiled.
Not knowing of the coup in Athens, the Samians sent the state ship Paralus, with Chaereas, an Athenian who had taken an active part in the revolution, to the capital to report what had occurred on Samos. When they arrived the Four Hundred had them arrested. Chaereas managed to escape and returned to Samos, where he informed the army of the situation in Athens. A meeting was held and the soldiers pledged themselves to maintain their democracy, to continue the war against the Peloponnesians, and to put down the usurpers at Athens; the oligarchy at Athens was now opposed by the democracy in the fleet at Samos. Some generals were deposed and others elected in their place, especially Thrasybulus and Thrasyllus. Alcibiades was recalled as he was thought to still have influence with Tissaphernes and would be able to win Persian support away from Sparta; he was elected as general alongside Thrasybulus and the others.
When the news of the events on Samos reached Athens, discord broke out among the Four Hundred. The moderates, led by Theramenes and Aristocrates, began to insist on the setting up of the Five Thousand; the extremists, led by Antiphon and Phrynichus, were for admitting a Spartan garrison. With this in mind the extremists built a fort at Eetionea, on the northwest of Piraeus, from which a small garrison could control all vessels passing in or out of the harbour. Antiphon, Phrynichus and others went to Sparta to offer the Laconians occupation of the Piraeus, but the Spartans would only agree to provide forty-two triremes to hover near Piraeus and wait for a favourable opportunity to seize it. On his return Phrynichus was assassinated in the Agora, and the moderates demolished the fort at Eetionea and occupied Piraeus.
In September the news came that a Peloponnesian fleet was hovering off Salamis. Party interests were put aside and the Athenians rushed to Piraeus and as best they could, prepared their ships for immediate action. The Peloponnesians, however, continued round Sunium to Oropus (opposite Eretria across the channel), which the Boeotians helped by Eretrians had captured from the Athenians earlier in the year. It was now clear that the Spartans’ intention was to incite a revolt in Euboea. Thymocharis, the Athenian commander, arrived at Eretria with thirty-six ships; Hegesandridas, the Spartan navarch, lay at Oropus with forty ships. At Eretria the Athenians were surprised and defeated by the Peloponnesians, losing twenty-two ships. Euboea then revolted from Athens.
With Agis encamped at Decelea, Euboea had become the chief resource of the Athenian state. Its loss meant that the Spartans could blockade the ports of Athens and starve her into surrender, but the Spartans confined themselves to securing the conquest of Euboea. The Athenians convened an Assembly in the Pnyx. Votes were passed for deposing the Four Hundred and replacing them with the Five Thousand (but this number was soon increased to universal citizenship). In subsequent assemblies the archons and other institutions were revived. The democrats at Samos were urged to devote themselves to the war. Alcibiades was recalled but he probably did not return to the city until 407 BC. The leaders of the extremists fled to Agis at Decelea where one of them gained control of the border town Oenoe and handed it over to Boeotia.
Control of the Hellespont was vital to Athens as most of the food for its besieged population came through this waterway from the Black Sea. To prevent Spartan entry the Athenians had already gained many of the Hellespontine cities and had established various lookouts and patrols. Earlier in the year, however, the Spartans had occupied Abydos on the southern shore of the Hellespont where sixteen Peloponnesian ships were being closely watched by a squadron of Athenian ships lying across the strait at Sestus.
In the summer Mindarus moved from Miletus towards the Hellespont with seventy-three ships. Thrasyllus at Samos responded by moving north with fifty-five ships to be joined by more ships and Thrasybulus. When Mindarus reached Chios the Athenians were preoccupied with an attempt to put down a revolt at Eretus on the western coast of Lesbos. Mindarus seized his chance and sailed east of Lesbos to Rhoeteum, just inside the strait. The Athenian ships at Sestus tried to escape but ran into Mindarus’ fleet coming up the straits at dawn: they lost four ships, but fourteen escaped to Imbros. Learning of Mindarus’ arrival at the Hellespont, the Athenians from Lesbos gave up their siege of Eresus and in a day’s voyage (60 nautical miles, or 110 km) reached Elaeus, where they beached their ships and after bringing in the squadron from Imbros made preparations for an engagement with Mindarus.
Seventy-six Athenian ships moved northeast in column from Elaeus towards Cynossema and eighty-six Peloponnesians ships, also in column and including a Syracusan column, came out in the opposite direction to meet them. As the two columns turned into line to face each other, Mindarus was on his own left wing facing Thrasybulus; the Syracusans were on Mindarus’ right wing facing Thrasyllus.
At the start of the battle Mindarus’ ships overlapped those of the Athenian right. His intention was to sail northwestwards to prevent the Athenians escaping southwest out of the straits to open sea. Anticipating this plan, Thrasybulus extended his right wing by drawing on the centre. The Athenian ships were faster so he was able to get round the Spartan left and hit the enemy ships from the side and behind. He broke the Spartan left and then attacked the Spartan centre, which had pushed the weakened Athenian centre back to the northern beach. In their pursuit of the Athenians, the Spartan ships in the centre had become disorganised and they were now easy prey for the Athenian right. When the Syracusans on the Spartan right saw their line disintegrating, they too broke and fled. The Peloponnesian ships took refuge on the friendly southern shore, and only twenty-one were lost. The Athenians lost fifteen, but they had gained a boost to their morale. At the moment of victory Alcibiades returned to Samos from the south and reported that he had prevented Tissaphernes sending the Phoenician fleet north to help the Peloponnesians. Thucydides’ history breaks off here, and the story of the naval war is taken up by Xenophon (c.430-354 BC) and Diodorus (fl.60-30 BC).
When the Peloponnesian fleet left the shores of Caria and Lydia for the Hellespont, the Greek cities of Cnidus and Miletus had launched successful rebellions against Tissaphernes; and Antandrus, with help from Spartans from Abydos, had done the same. Realising that his influence on events was dwindling, Tissaphernes now decided to make his way from Aspendus to the Hellespont.
After his success at Eretria, Hegesandridas received orders to reinforce the Hellespontine fleet under Mindarus. Before his departure the Euboeans began to build a bridge across the Euripus to prevent the Athenian fleet from besieging them from that side. A mole was built out from Chalcis, and another from the opposite Boeotian town of Aulis, leaving room between them for only one ship at a time. Theramenes was sent to obstruct the work but he found too strong a force protecting the workmen. He therefore set course for the islands to levy contributions from friend and foe alike.
After the Battle of Cynossema both sides sent for reinforcements from home and their allies. In the beginning of winter the Athenian Thymocharis arrived at the Hellespont ‘with a few ships’. Then the Rhodian commander Dorieus with fourteen ships tried to slip through to Abydos. He was spotted by an Athenian lookout and twenty ships were put out against him. He promptly beached his ships and fought from the shore. Mindarus hastened to launch his fleet from Abydos and bring in Dorieus’ ships. The Athenians responded and there was a day-long battle near Abydos in which Alcibiades, arriving from Samos with eighteen ships, played a decisive role. The Athenians took thirty ships and recaptured some of their own. The fleets then withdrew to their respective bases at Abydos and Sestus for the rest of the winter. Thrasyllus went back to Athens to ask for more men and ships. Shortly after the battle, Tissaphernes arrived at the Hellespont and Alcibiades, misjudging his standing with the satrap, went to meet him. He was arrested and sent to Sardis for safekeeping, but escaped within a month.
About this time, violent dissension occurred on Corcyra. In answer to an appeal from the democrats, an Athenian fleet under the command of Conon (c.450-c.389 BC) from Naupactus helped them get the upper hand. Theramenes, on his way to join Thrasybulus, supported Archelaus-I of Macedonia (r.413-399 BC) in an attack on Pydna and for this the king allowed the Athenians to export timber from his kingdom.
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