Hellenica

You would do a monstrous thing if, after granting in the past to Aristarchus,[*](In 411 B.C. Aristarchus helped to establish the short-lived oligarchical government of the Four Hundred.) the destroyer of the democracy and afterwards the betrayer of Oenoe to your enemies the Thebans, a day in which to defend himself as he pleased, and allowing him all his other rights under the law,—if, I say, you shall now deprive the generals, who have done everything to your satisfaction, and have defeated the enemy, of these same rights.

Let no such act be yours, men of Athens, but guard the laws, which are your own and above all else have made you supremely great, and do not try to do anything without their sanction.And now come back to the actual circumstances under which the mistakes are thought to have been committed by the generals. When, after winning the battle, they sailed in to the shore, Diomedon urged that they should one and all put out to sea in line and pick up the wreckage and the shipwrecked men, while Erasinides proposed that all should sail with the utmost speed against the enemy at Mytilene. But Thrasyllus said that both things[*](406 B.C.) would be accomplished if they should leave some of the ships there and should sail with the rest against the enemy;

and if this plan were decided upon, he advised that each of the generals, who were eight in number, should leave behind three ships from his own division, and that they should also leave the ten ships of the taxiarchs, the ten of the Samians, and the three of the nauarchs. These amount all told to forty-seven ships, four for each one of the lost vessels, which were twelve in number.

Among the captains who were left behind were both Thrasybulus and Theramenes, the man who accused the generals at the former meeting of the Assembly. And with the rest of the ships they planned to sail against the enemy’s fleet. Now what one of these acts did they not do adequately and well? It is but just, therefore, that those, on the one hand, who were detailed to go against the enemy should be held to account for their lack of success in dealing with the enemy, and that those, on the other hand, who were detailed to recover the shipwrecked, in case they did not do what the generals ordered, should be tried for not recovering them.

This much, however, I can say in defence of both parties, that the storm absolutely prevented them from doing any of the things which the generals had planned. And as witnesses to this fact you have those who were saved by mere chance, among whom is one of our generals, who came through safely on a disabled ship, and whom they now bid you judge by the same vote (although at that time he needed to be picked up himself) by which you judge those who did not do what they[*](406 B.C.) were ordered to do.

Do not, then, men of Athens, in the face of your victory and your good fortune, act like men who are beaten and unfortunate, nor, in the face of heaven’s visitation, show yourselves unreasonable by giving a verdict of treachery instead of helplessness, since they found themselves unable on account of the storm to do what they had been ordered to do; nay, it would be far more just for you to honour the victors with garlands than, yielding to the persuasions of wicked men, to punish them with death.

When Euryptolemus had thus spoken, he offered a resolution that the men be tried under the decree of Cannonus, each one separately; whereas the proposal of the Senate was to judge them all by a single vote. The vote being now taken as between these two proposals, they decided at first in favour of the resolution of Euryptolemus; but when Menecles interposed an objection under oath[*](Apparently questioning the legality of Euryptolemus’ proposal. Under the law such an objection should have suspended the consideration of the matter before the Assembly, but in this case it seems to have had no such result.) and a second vote was taken, they decided in favour of that of the Senate. After this they condemned the generals who took part in the battle, eight in all; and the six who were in Athens were put to death.

And not long afterwards the Athenians repented, and they voted that complaints[*](A προβολή was a complaint presented to the Assembly, alleging an offence against the state. The Assembly, acting as a grand jury, might then hold the accused for trial before a court.) be brought against any who had deceived the people, that they furnish bondsmen men until such time as they should be brought to[*](406 B.C.) trial, and that Callixeinus be included among them. Complaints were brought against four others also, and they were put into confinement by their bondsmen. But when there broke out afterwards a factional disturbance, in the course of which Cleophon[*](A popular leader of the democratic party.) was put to death, these men escaped, before being brought to trial; Callixeinus indeed returned, at the time when the Piraeus party returned to the city,[*](i.e., in the restoration which followed the overthrow of the Thirty Tyrants (Xen. Hell. 2.4.39-43).) but he was hated by everybody and died of starvation.

The troops that were at Chios under Eteonicus[*](See I. vi. 36 f.)[*](406 B.C.) subsisted, so long as the summer lasted, upon the produce of the season and by working for hire up and down the island; when winter came on, however, and they were without food and poorly clad and unshod, they got together and agreed to make an attack upon Chios; and it was decided that those who approved this plan should carry a reed, so that they could tell how numerous they were.

Now when Eteonicus learned of the plot, he was uncertain how to deal with the matter on account of the great number of the reed-bearers. To attack them openly seemed to him to be dangerous, for he feared that they might rush to their arms, gain possession of the city, turn enemies, and so ruin everything, in case they should prevail; while, in the other case, to be putting allied soldiers to death in such numbers was also clearly a serious matter, for in this way the Lacedaemonians might incur harsh criticism among the other Greeks as well, and the troops might be disaffected toward the cause.

Accordingly he took with him fifteen men armed with daggers and proceeded through the city, and meeting a man suffering from ophthalmia as he was leaving a physician’s house, a reed in his hand, he put him to death.

And when an uproar resulted and people asked why the man had been put to death, Eteonicus ordered his followers to give out word that[*](406 B.C.) it was because he had the reed. As a result of this announcement all those who were carrying reeds threw them away, each man as he heard the report being afraid that he might be seen with one.

After this Eteonicus called together the Chians and bade them contribute money, in order that the sailors might get their pay and not attempt anything seditious; and the Chians did so. At the same time he ordered his men to embark upon their ships; and going along past each ship in its turn he encouraged and advised them at length, as though he knew nothing of what had happened, and distributed a month’s pay to all hands.

After this the Chians and the rest of the allies gathered at Ephesus and resolved, in view of the existing situation, to send ambassadors to Lacedaemon to report the facts and to ask for Lysander as commander of the fleet, a man who was in high favour among the allies as a result of his former command, when he won the battle of Notium.[*](See I. v. 11-14.)

Ambassadors were accordingly sent, and with them went also envoys from Cyrus with the same request. And the Lacedaemonians granted them Lysander as vice-admiral, but made Aracus admiral; for it was contrary to their law for a man to hold the office of admiral twice; nevertheless, they put the ships under the command of Lysander—the war having now lasted twenty-five years.

It was in this year that Cyrus put to death Autoboesaces and Mitraeus, who were sons of Darius’ sister—the daughter of Darius’ father Xerxes—because upon meeting him they did not thrust their hands through the corê, an honour they show the[*](406 B.C.) King alone. (The corê is a longer sleeve than the cheiris, and a man who had his hand in one would be powerless to do anything.)

In consequence, Hieramenes and his wife said to Darius that it would be shameful if he were to overlook such wanton violence on the part of Cyrus; and Darius, on the plea that he was ill, sent messengers and summoned Cyrus to come to him.

In the following year—Archytas being now ephor,[*](405 B.C.) and Alexias archon at Athens—Lysander arrived at Ephesus and sent for Eteonicus to come thither from Chios with the ships, while he also gathered together all the other ships that were anywhere to be found; then he occupied himself with refitting these vessels and building more at Antandrus.

Meantime he went to Cyrus and asked for money; and Cyrus told him that the funds provided by the King had been spent, in fact much more besides, showing him how much each of the admirals had received; nevertheless he did give him money.

And upon receiving it Lysander appointed to each trireme its captain and paid his sailors the wages that were due them. Meanwhile the Athenian generals also were getting their fleet in readiness, at Samos.