34 The Defeat of Athens, 406-404 B.C

The Spartans, often dismissed by Thucydides as the most convenient of foes, have seldom been credited with their victory over the Athenians. Athenian mistakes and the financial support of the Great King of Persia are cited as the main causes for Athenian defeat in 404 B.C. But these two explanations are, at best, only partly true. The Persian satraps Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus and, later, Prince Cyrus the Younger agreed to pay the wages for Peloponnesian triremes operating only in Aegean or Hellespontine waters. Further, under the Treaty of Miletus, this Persian subsidy was treated as a loan. Twice, timber and facilities were offered by Persia to enable the Peloponnesians to replace fleets lost at Cyzicus (410 B.C.) and Arginusae (406 B.C.). Otherwise, Sparta had to launch the fleets and win the war at sea. Lysander, the navarch of 407 B.C., won the confidence of Prince Cyrus the Younger, and the two men cooperated in the naval war to defeat Athens. In a daring surprise attack at Aegospotami in 405 B.C., Lysander captured the Athenian fleet, cut the grain shipments to Athens from the Euxine lands, and thus compelled the surrender of Athens in the spring of 404 B.C. Yet victory came with a price, because Lysander and Cyrus both threatened to assert themselves at the expense of their respective legitimate governments.