Hellenica

Not long before this the Lacedaemonians had sent out Lysander as admiral, since Cratesippidas’ term of office had expired. And after Lysander had arrived at Rhodes and secured some ships there, he sailed to Cos and Miletus, and from there to Ephesus, where he remained with seventy ships until Cyrus arrived at Sardis. On his arrival Lysander went up to visit him, accompanied by the ambassadors from Lacedaemon.

Then and there they told Cyrus of the deeds of which Tissaphernes had been guilty, and begged him to show the utmost zeal in the war.

Cyrus replied that this was what his father had instructed him to do, and that he had no other intention himself, but would do everything possible; he had brought with him, he said, five hundred talents; if this amount should prove insufficient, he would use his own money, which his father had given him; and if this too should prove inadequate, he would go so far as to break up the throne whereon he sat, which was of silver and gold.

The ambassadors thanked him, and urged him to make the wage of each sailor an Attic drachma[*](The Attic drachma = about 9 d. or 18 cents; it was the average wage of an ordinary day-labourer.) a day, explaining that if this were made the rate, the sailors of the Athenian fleet would desert their ships, and hence he would spend less money.[*](Since the war would be brought to a speedy conclusion, the Athenian sailors going over to the Lacedaemonian fleet for the sake of the higher wage.)

He replied that their plan was a good one, but that it was not possible for him to act contrary to the King’s instructions; besides, the original compact ran in this way, that the King should give thirty minae[*](A mina=100 drachmae=600 obols. A ship’s crew normally numbered 200 men; hence 30 minae per month per ship=3 obols per day per man.) per month to each ship, whatever number of ships the Lacedaemonians[*](407 B.C.) might wish to maintain.

Lysander accordingly dropped the matter for the moment; but after dinner, when Cyrus drank his health and asked him by what act he could gratify him most, Lysander replied: By adding an obol to the pay of each sailor.

And from this time forth the wage was four obols, whereas it had previously been three. Cyrus also settled the arrears of pay and gave them a month’s wage in advance besides, so that the men of the fleet were much more zealous.

Now when the Athenians heard of this, they were despondent, and sent ambassadors to Cyrus through Tissaphernes.

Cyrus, however, would not receive them, although Tissaphernes urged him to do so and advised him to see to it that no single Greek state should become strong, but that all be kept weak through constant quarrelling among themselves,—the policy he himself had followed on the advice of Alcibiades.[*](cp. Thuc. 8. 46.)

As for Lysander, when he had finished organising his fleet, he hauled ashore the ships which were at Ephesus, now ninety in number, and kept quiet, while the ships were being dried out and repaired.

Meantime Alcibiades, hearing that Thrasybulus had come out from the Hellespont and was investing Phocaea, sailed across to see him, leaving in command of the fleet Antiochus, the pilot of his own ship, with orders not to attack Lysander’s ships.

Antiochus, however, with his own ship and one other sailed from Notium into the harbour of Ephesus and coasted along past the very prows of Lysander’s ships.[*](On this incident see Plutarch, Alc. 35.)

Lysander at first launched a few ships and pursued him, but when the Athenians came to the aid of Antiochus with more ships, he then formed[*](407 B.C.) into line of battle every ship he had and sailed against them. Thereupon the Athenians also launched the rest of their triremes at Notium and set out, as each one got a clear course.

From that moment they fell to fighting, the one side in good order, but the Athenians with their ships scattered, and fought until the Athenians took to flight, after losing fifteen triremes. As for the men upon them, the greater part escaped, but some were taken prisoners. Then Lysander, after taking possession of his prizes and setting up a trophy at Notium, sailed across to Ephesus, while the Athenians went to Samos.

After this Alcibiades came to Samos, set sail with all his ships to the harbour of Ephesus, and formed the fleet in line at the mouth of the harbour as a challenge to battle, in case anyone cared to fight. But when Lysander did not sail out against him, because his fleet was considerably inferior in numbers, Alcibiades sailed back to Samos. And a little later the Lacedaemonians captured Delphinium and Eion.

When the Athenians at home got the news of the battle at Notium, they were angry with Alcibiades, thinking that he had lost the ships through neglect of duty and dissolute conduct, and they chose ten new generals, Conon, Diomedon, Leon, Pericles, Erasinides, Aristocrates, Archestratus, Protomachus, Thrasyllus, and Aristogenes.

So Alcibiades, who was in disfavour with the army as well, took a trireme and sailed away to his castle[*](Which he had constructed, says Plutarch (Alc.36), to serve him as a place of refuge in case of possible trouble.) in the Chersonese.

After this Conon set sail from Andros, with the twenty ships which he had, to Samos, there to[*](407 B.C.) assume command of the fleet in accordance with the vote which the Athenians had passed. They also sent Phanosthenes to Andros, with four ships, to replace Conon.

On the way Phanosthenes fell in with two Thurian triremes and captured them, crews and all; and the men who were thus taken were all imprisoned by the Athenians, but their commander, Dorieus, a Rhodian by birth, but some time before exiled from both Athens and Rhodes by the Athenians, who had condemned him and his kinsmen to death, and now a citizen of Thurii, they set free without even exacting a ransom, taking pity upon him.

When, meanwhile, Conon had arrived at Samos, where he found the Athenian fleet in a state of despondency, he manned with full complements seventy triremes instead of the former number, which was more than a hundred, and setting out with this fleet, in company with the other generals, landed here and there in the enemy’s territory and plundered it.