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Decelean War Decelean War or Ionian War:
name of the last part of the Peloponnesian War (431-404). The first phase, the
Archidamian War, had ended in 421 with something that came close to an Athenian
victory. However, Athenian diplomatic mistakes, Spartan intransigence, and a
disastrous Athenian attempt to conquer the island of Sicily changed the balance
of power. After this entr'acte, the Spartans declared war again in 413 and
occupied the town of Decelea near Athens; with Persian money, they built a navy
and provoked revolutions in Athens' possessions in Ionia. In 404, Athens
surrendered. Many people, including the Athenians, believed that after the
Sicilian disaster, the end of the Delian League was near. Athens had lost much
money, many ships, and its best soldiers. Worse, they had no experienced
leaders anymore: Alcibiades was in exile and lived in Sparta, Demosthenes,
Lamachus, and Nicias were dead, and the popular Hyperbolus had been ostracized.
To cope with this lack of experienced leadership, the Athenians appointed ten
wise men (including the playwright Sophocles) to act as probouloi, which meant
that they had to give advice and propose measures to overcome the present
crisis. The crisis, however, was grave. The Spartan king Agis II had occupied
the village of Decelea and had built a strong fort - following an advice of
Alcibiades, it was rumored, as if the Spartans could not think for themselves.
The countryside was now under constant threat and the Athenians no longer had
access to the silver mines of Laureion.
Meanwhile, the Peloponnesian League dared to send a fleet to the Aegean Sea,
consisting of Syracusan vessels (commanded by Hermocrates) and Corinthian
ships. The Persian satraps
Tissaphernes of Lydia and
Pharnabazus of
Hellespontine Phrygia offered money to Sparta, both hoping to achieve military
support for the great king's aims in return. However, the Spartans were able to
mess up this splendid opportunity. When Chios, one of the islands in the
Athenian alliance, revolted, the Spartans were unable to support the rebels.
They still had insufficient experience at sea, so they turned to an Athenian
for help. Alcibiades, who had been caught sleeping with king Agis' wife and
wanted to leave Sparta, accepted the command of a Spartan naval force, and was
able to reach Chios, where he reinforced the insurrectionists. The revolt
immediately spread to other towns, including Miletus, the largest Greek city in
Asia. At this moment, in 412, the Spartans concluded their first treaty with
king Darius II Nothus, who offered pay for the Spartan navy. (The treaty was
later revised.) Tissaphernes was to be the king's agent, but he believed that
an unconditional alliance with Sparta was not in the interests of Persia, so he
delayed payments and more than once threatened to negotiate with Athens. In the
meantime, Sparta had to help the great king by arresting Amorges, the rebel who
had been supported by Athens.
The Persian-Spartan coalition ultimately was to bring down Athens, but the city
was not defeated yet. Athens had faced a similar coalition in 461-448 and back
then, it had achieved remarkable results. However, after the Sicilian disaster,
this was no longer possible. Still, the Athenians responded to the challenge
and founded a base on the isle of Samos. They started to besiege Chios and
landed at Miletus, where they defeated their enemies in an open battle.
Unfortunately, their inexperienced commander Phrynichus hesitated to exploit
his victory, and the Spartans responded by taking the isle of Rhodes. At this
point, Alcibiades told the Athenians that he would bring over the great king to
their side if Athens accepted him again and gave up its democracy.
Indeed, a man named Peisander conducted an extreme oligarchic coup in Athens in
411. Among the other leaders of the Four Hundred were Antiphon, who sincerely
believed that oligarchy was preferable to democracy, and a general named
Theramenes, son of
Hagnon, who believed that if the suspension of democracy would bring Persian
support, it was worth a try. Others joined because an oligarchy was cheaper,
and Athens lacked money now that half its empire was rebellious. From the very
first start, the oligarchs were divided. A new crisis faced the Athenians when
the cities near the Hellespont revolted, including Byzantium and Calchedon on
both sides of the Bosphorus. This seriously imperiled the Athenian grain
supply, and the men on board of the Athenian fleet -led by
Thrasybulus, a friend
of Alcibiades- declared that they now were the demos (the people's assembly)
and recalled Alcibiades. More or less at the same time, a Spartan fleet reached
and occupied Euboea, where the Athenians had left their cattle. Under these
critical circumstances, the Four Hundred were replaced by the moderate
oligarchy that had been proposed by Theramenes. Power now was in the hands of
the Five Thousand, which meant those men who could "serve the state with a
horse or a shield". Meanwhile, the Spartans decided to move the war from
Ionia and Euboea to the Hellespont, where they could cut off the grain supply
of Athens and would receive support from Pharnabazus, who said he wanted to
support Sparta unconditionally. Admiral
Mindarus brought the
Spartan fleet to the north, but was defeated at Cynossema by the Athenians, who were commanded
by Thrasybulus and Thrasyllus. This was a lift
to Athenian morale, and Theramenes immediately exploited it by opening a new
front in the Cyclades, where he subdued several rebellious islands and filled
the Athenian treasury. He continued to Macedonia, where he taught king
Archelaus how to besiege Pydna, and received a handsome amount of money in
return.
(At this point, Thucydides' History breaks off, and we are left to the
Xenophon's Hellenica and Diodorus' Library.)
When the year 410 started, all Athenian commanders -Alcibiades, Theramenes,
Thrasybulus, and Thrasyllus- gathered in the Hellespont, where they defeated
the Spartan navy near Cyzicus. Its admiral
Mindarus was killed in action, and the Spartans sued for peace. Historians have
criticized the Athenians that they did not accept this offer, but as the
popular leader Cleophon pointed out, the Spartan proposal was not a very good
one: both parties would keep the cities it controlled, give up garrisons in
enemy territory, and would exchange prisoners. This implied that Athens had to
give up control of many important towns and the Bosphorus. In 421, Sparta had
been unwilling to fulfill the terms of the Peace of Nicias; if Sparta again
broke its promise, the Athenians would be in great danger. Without control of
Euboea, the Bosphorus, and the Hellespont, Cleophon said, any peace treaty was
unacceptable. The rejection of the peace offer may have been the moment when
democracy was restored.
Now, the war came to a standstill. Sparta was unable to strike and the Athenian
democrats were not happy with the successful admirals: after all, Alcibiades,
Theramenes, Thrasybulus, and Thrasyllus had collaborated with the oligarchs.
They were left in office, but were not reinforced. Still, in 409, they
recovered some ground in Ionia, and in 408 they regained control of the
Bosphorus. In 407, Alcibiades returned to Athens, where he presided over the
celebration of the Mysteries in Eleusis. It seemed as if the Athenians were
winning the war after all. But almost immediately, things went wrong.
Alcibiades' deputy Antiochus, a brave but inexperienced man who should never
have been appointed, was defeated in a naval engagement at
Notion. Immediately, the Athenians sent
Alcibiades away from their city again, and this time for good (in both senses -
js). The battle itself was not very important, but gave new self-confidence to
the Spartans, who had finally found a capable admiral:
Lysander. His greatest
strength was that he had access to people who would help him. As lover of
Agesilaus, the brother of king Agis, he was sufficiently supported at home, and
he was lucky to find a new satrap in Lydia, prince Cyrus the Younger, the son
of king Darius. He had orders to support Sparta unconditionally; Tissaphernes,
who had sometimes threatened to support Athens, was temporarily removed from
office. In fact, Athens was now doomed. In 406, it was able to defeat the
Spartans for the last time in a large naval battle at the Arginusae, but a gathering storm prevented
the victorious admirals from picking the survivors and the dead from the water.
Back home, they were condemned to death.
Aigospotamoi Again, Athens had no experienced commanders. In 405, Lysander's
Spartan navy was active in the Hellespont again, the Athenians were defeated at
the Aigospotamoi, and their entire fleet was destroyed. The war was now
decided: what was left, was the siege of Athens. The Spartan king Agis left
Decelea, his colleague Pausanias arrived with an army from the Peloponnese, and
Lysander blocked Piraeus. During the winter, Theramenes conducted negotiations,
and accepted what was inevitable. In April 404, the Athenians disbanded the
Delian League, what was left of the fleet was surrendered, Athens joined the
Peloponnesian League, and a regime of thirty oligarchs - foremost among whom
were the radical Critias and the moderate Theramenes - was to rule the city.
According to Xenophon, the Spartans "tore down the Long walls among scenes
of great joy and to the music of flute girls".note This page was created
in 2005; last modified on 29 July 2020.
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