Hellenica

From there, as soon as they had provisioned, they sailed to Aegospotami, which is opposite Lampsacus, the Hellespont at this point being about fifteen stadia[*](The stadium = c. 600 feet.) wide. There they took dinner.

And during the ensuing night, when early dawn came, Lysander gave the signal for his men to take breakfast and embark upon their ships, and after making everything ready for battle and stretching the side screens,[*](See I. vi. 19 and note.) he gave orders that no one should stir from his position or put out.

At sunrise the Athenians formed their ships in line for battle at the mouth of the harbour. Since, however, Lysander did not put out against them, they sailed back again, when it grew late in the day, to Aegospotami.

Thereupon Lysander ordered the swiftest of his ships to follow the Athenians and, when they had disembarked, to observe what they did, and then to sail back and report to him; and he did not disembark his men from their vessels until these scout-ships had returned. This he did for four days; and the Athenians continued to sail out and offer battle.

Meantime Alcibiades, who could discern from his castle that the Athenians were[*](405 B.C.) moored on an open shore, with no city near by, and were fetching their provisions from Sestus, a distance of fifteen stadia from their ships, while the enemy, being in a harbour and near a city, had everything needful, told the Athenians that they were not moored in a good place, and advised them to shift their anchorage to Sestus and thus gain a harbour and a city; for if you are there, he said, you will be able to fight when you please.

The generals, however, and especially Tydeus and Menander, bade him be gone; for they said that they were in command now, not he. So he went away.

And now Lysander, on the fifth day the Athenians sailed out against him, told his men, who followed them back, that as soon as they saw that the enemy had disembarked and had scattered up and down the Chersonese, —and the Athenians did this far more freely every day, not only because they bought their provisions at a distance, but also because they presumed to think lightly of Lysander for not putting out to meet them,—they were to sail back to him and to hoist a shield when midway in their course. And they did just as he had ordered.

Straightway Lysander gave a signal to his fleet to sail with all speed, and Thorax with his troops went with the fleet. Now when Conon saw the oncoming attack, he signalled the Athenians to hasten with all their might to their ships. But since his men were scattered here and there, some of the ships had but two banks of oars manned, some but one, and some were entirely empty; Conon’s own ship, indeed, and seven others accompanying him, which were fully manned, put to sea in close order, and the Paralus[*](One of the state triremes, which were employed for various public missions and as dispatch-boats.) with them,[*](405 B.C.) but all the rest Lysander captured on the beach. He also gathered up on the shore most of the men of their crews; some, however, gained the shelter of the neighbouring strongholds.

But when Conon, fleeing with his nine ships, realized that the Athenian cause was lost, he put in at Abarnis, the promontory of Lampsacus, and there seized the cruising sails that belonged to Lysander’s ships; then he sailed away with eight ships to seek refuge with Euagoras in Cyprus, while the Paralus went to Athens with the tidings of what had happened.

As for Lysander, he took his prizes and prisoners and everything else back to Lampsacus, the prisoners including Philocles, Adeimantus, and some of the other generals. Furthermore, on the day when he achieved this victory he sent Theopompus, the Milesian buccaneer, to Lacedaemon to report what had happened, and Theopompus arrived and delivered his message on the third day.

After this Lysander gathered together the allies and bade them deliberate regarding the disposition to be made of the prisoners. Thereupon many charges began to be urged against the Athenians, not only touching the outrages they had already committed and what they had voted to do if they were victorious in the battle, —namely, to cut off the right hand of every man taken alive,—but also the fact that after capturing two triremes, one a Corinthian and the other an Andrian, they had thrown the crews overboard to a man. And it was Philocles, one of the Athenian generals, who had thus made away with these men.

Many other stories were told, and it was finally resolved to put[*](405 B.C.) to death all of the prisoners who were Athenians, with the exception of Adeimantus, because he was the one man who in the Athenian Assembly had opposed the decree in regard to cutting off the hands of captives; he was charged, however, by some people with having betrayed the fleet. As to Philocles, who threw overboard the Andrians and Corinthians, Lysander first asked him what he deserved to suffer for having begun outrageous practices towards Greeks, and then had his throat cut.

After setting in order the affairs of Lampsacus, Lysander sailed against Byzantium and Calchedon. And the people of those cities admitted him, allowing the Athenian garrisons, by the terms of the surrender, to withdraw. And those who had betrayed Byzantium to Alcibiades fled at this time to the Pontus, but afterwards they went to Athens and became Athenian citizens.

Now the Athenian garrisons, and in fact every other Athenian whom he saw anywhere, Lysander sent home to Athens, giving them safe conduct if they sailed to that one place and not if they went to any other; for he knew that the more people were collected in the city and Piraeus, the more quickly there would be a scarcity of provisions. Then, after leaving Sthenelaus, a Laconian, as governor of Byzantium and Calchedon, he sailed back to Lampsacus and occupied himself with refitting his ships.

It was at night that the Paralus arrived at Athens with tidings of the disaster, and a sound of wailing ran from Piraeus through the long walls to the city, one man passing on the news to another; and during that night no one slept, all mourning, not for the[*](405 B.C.) lost alone, but far more for their own selves, thinking that they would suffer such treatment as they had visited upon the Melians,[*](When Melos surrendered to the Athenians, in 416 B.C., the men who were taken were put to death and the women and children sold into slavery (Thuc. v. 116). The Aeginetans were expelled from their island in 431 B.C. Seven years later a large number of them were captured in their place of refuge, in Peloponnesus, and put to death (Thuc. ii. 27 and iv. 57). The other peoples mentioned had been similarly exiled, enslaved, or massacred.) colonists of the Lacedaemonians, after reducing them by siege, and upon the Histiaeans and Scionaeans and Toronaeans and Aeginetans and many other Greek peoples.

On the following day they convened an Assembly, at which it was resolved to block up all the harbours except one, to repair the walls, to station guards, and in all other respects to get the city ready for a siege. They busied themselves, accordingly, with these matters.

Meanwhile Lysander, sailing out of the Hellespont with two hundred ships, arrived at Lesbos and arranged the affairs of Mytilene and the other cities of the island; and he sent Eteonicus with ten triremes to the places on the Thracian coast, and Eteonicus brought over everything in that region to the side of the Lacedaemonians.

Indeed, the rest of the Greek world also had fallen away from the Athenians immediately after the battle, with the exception of Samos; there the people slaughtered the aristocrats and held possession of their city.

After this Lysander sent word to Agis, at Decelea, and to Lacedaemon that he was coming with two hundred ships. Thereupon the Lacedaemonians took the field with their whole force, and likewise the rest of the Peloponnesians excepting the Argives, at the command of Pausanias, the other king of the Lacedaemonians.

And when all had been gathered together, Pausanias led them to Athens and encamped[*](405 B.C.) in the Academy.