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Lysander 395, was a Spartan admiral who commanded the Spartan fleet in
the Hellespont which defeated the Athenians at Aegospotami in 405. The
following year, he was able to force the Athenians to capitulate, bringing the
Peloponnesian War to an end. He then played a key role in Sparta's domination
of Greece for the next decade until his death at the Battle of
Haliartus.
Early life Little is known of Lysander's early life. Some ancient authors
record that he came from helot or even slave origins. Lysander's father was
Aristocleitus, who was a member of the Spartan Heracleidae; that is, he claimed
descent from Heracles but was not a member of a royal family. He grew up in
poverty and he showed himself obedient and conformable. According to Plutarch
he had a "manly spirit". Battle of Notium Main article: Battle of
Notium Lysander is located in Greece Battle of Notium Battle of Notium Ephesus
Ephesus Location of Ephesus and the Battle of Notium Lysander was appointed
Spartan navarch (admiral) for the Aegean Sea in 407. It was during this period
that he gained the friendship and support of Cyrus the Younger, a son of Darius
II of Persia and Parysatis. Lysander then undertook the major project of
creating a strong Spartan fleet based at Ephesus which could take on the
Athenians and their allies. Alcibiades was appointed commander-in-chief with
autocratic powers of the Athenian forces and left for Samos to rejoin his fleet
and try and engage Lysander in battle. The Spartan navarch Lysander refused to
be lured out of Ephesus to do battle with Alcibiades. However, while Alcibiades
was away seeking supplies, the Athenian squadron was placed under the command
of Antiochus, his helmsman. During this time Lysander managed to engage the
Athenian fleet and they were routed by the Spartan fleet (with the help of the
Persians under Cyrus) at the Battle of Notium in 406. This defeat by Lysander
gave the enemies of Alcibiades the excuse they needed to strip him of his
command. He never returned again to Athens. He sailed north to the land he
owned in the Thracian Chersonese.
Out of office:
However, Lysander ceased to be the Spartan navarch after this victory and, in
accordance with the Spartan law, was replaced by Callicratidas. Callicratidas'
ability to continue the war at sea was neatly sabotaged when Lysander returned
all the donated funds to Cyrus when he left office. In 406, Callicratidas
assembled a fleet and sailed to Methymna, Lesbos, which he then besieged. This
move threatened the Athenian grain supply. Athens sent their admiral, Conon, to
relieve the siege. When Callicratidas attacked him, Conon retreated to
Mytilene, where he was blockaded by Callicratidas' Spartan fleet. To relieve
Conon, the Athenians assembled a new fleet composed largely of newly
constructed ships manned by inexperienced crews. While this fleet was inferior
to the Spartans, the Athenians employed new and unorthodox tactics, which
allowed them to secure a dramatic and unexpected victory in the Battle of
Arginusae, near Lesbos. The blockade of Conon by the Spartans was broken, the
Spartan force was soundly defeated and Callicratidas was killed during the
battle.
Return to command:
After this defeat, Sparta's allies sought to have Lysander reappointed as
navarch. However, Spartan law did not allow the reappointment of a previous
navarch, so Aracus was appointed as navarch with Lysander as his deputy.
Nonetheless, Lysander was effectively the commander of the Spartan fleet.
Cyrus, being especially pleased, once again started to supply the Spartan fleet
with funds, even allowing Lysander to run his satrapy in his absence. Once back
in command, Lysander directed the Spartan fleet towards the Hellespont. The
Athenian fleet followed him there. In 404, the Athenians gathered their
remaining ships at Aegospotami (near the Thracian Chersonese). The Athenian
fleet under Admiral Conon was then destroyed by the Spartans under Lysander in
the Battle of Aegospotami. Conon withdrew to Cyprus. Then, Lysander's forces
went to the Bosporus and captured both Byzantium and Chalcedon, expelling the
Athenians living in those cities. Lysander also captured Lesbos Island.
Defeat of Athens:
Following the victory at Aegospotami, the Spartans were in a position to
finally force Athens to capitulate. The Spartan king, Pausanias, laid siege to
Athens main city while Lysander's fleet blockaded the port of Piraeus. This
action effectively closed the grain route to Athens through the Hellespont,
thereby starving Athens. Realising the seriousness of the situation, Theramenes
started negotiations with Lysander. These negotiations took three months, but
in the end Lysander agreed to terms at Piraeus. An agreement was reached for
the capitulation of Athens and the cessation of the Peloponnesian War in 404.
Lysander has the walls of Athens demolished The Spartans required the Athenians
to raze the walls of Piraeus as well as the Long Walls which connected Athens
main town and the port (Piraeus); that the Athenians should abandon their
colonies, and that Athens should surrender all but twelve of their ships to the
Spartans. However, Theramenes did secure terms that saved the city of Athens
from destruction. Greek towns across the Aegean Sea in Ionia were again to be
subject to the Achaemenid Empire.
Command in Athens:
Lysander then put in place a puppet government in Athens with the establishment
of the oligarchy of the Thirty Tyrants under Critias which included Theramenes
as a leading member. The puppet government executed a number of citizens and
deprived all but a few of their former rights as citizens of Athens. Many of
Athens' former allies were now ruled by boards of ten (decarchy), often
reinforced with garrisons under a Spartan commander (called a harmost, meaning
"regulator".. The practice started the period of Spartan hegemony.
The assassination of the exiled Athenian general Alcibiades was organized by
Pharnabazes, at the request of Lysander. After storming and seizing Samos,
Lysander returned to Sparta. Alcibiades, the former Athenian leader, emerged
after the Spartan victory at Aegospotami and took refuge in Phrygia,
northwestern Asia Minor with Pharnabazus, its Persian satrap. He sought Persian
assistance for the Athenians. However, the Spartans decided that Alcibiades
must be removed and Lysander, with the help of Pharnabazus, arranged the
assassination of Alcibiades. Lysander amassed a huge fortune from his victories
against the Athenians and brought the riches home to Sparta. For centuries the
possession of money was illegal in Lacedaemonia, but the newly minted navy
required funds and Persia could not be trusted to maintain financial support.
Roman historian Plutarch strongly condemns Lysander's introduction of money;
despite being publicly held, he argues its mere presence corrupted
rank-and-file Spartans who witnessed their government's newfound value for it.
Corruption quickly followed; while general Gylippus ferried treasure home, he
embezzled a great amount and was condemned to death in absentia.
Resistance by Athens:
The Athenian general Thrasybulus, who had been exiled from Athens by the
Spartans' puppet government, led the democratic resistance to the new
oligarchic government. In 403, he commanded a small force of exiles that
invaded Attica and, in successive battles, defeated first a Spartan garrison
and then the forces of the oligarchic government (which included Lysander) in
the Battle of Munychia. The leader of the Thirty Tyrants, Critias, was killed
in the battle. The Battle of Piraeus was then fought between Athenian exiles
who had defeated the government of the Thirty Tyrants and occupied Piraeus and
a Spartan force sent to combat them. In the battle, the Spartans defeated the
exiles, despite their stiff resistance. Despite opposition from Lysander, after
the battle Pausanias the Agiad King of Sparta, arranged a settlement between
the two parties which allowed the re-establishment of democratic government in
Athens.
Final years:
Lysander still had influence in Sparta despite his setbacks in Athens. He was
able to persuade the Spartans to select Agesilaus II as the new Eurypontid
Spartan king following the death of Agis II, and to persuade the Spartans to
support Cyrus the Younger in his unsuccessful rebellion against his older
brother, Artaxerxes II of Persia. Hoping to restore the juntas of oligarchic
partisans that he had put in place after the defeat of the Athenians in 404,
Lysander arranged for Agesilaus II, the Eurypontid Spartan king, to take
command of the Greeks against Persia in 396. The Spartans had been called on by
the Ionians to assist them against the Persian King Artaxerxes II. Lysander was
arguably hoping to receive command of the Spartan forces not joining the
campaign. However, Agesilaus II had become resentful of Lysander's power and
influence. So Agesilaus II frustrated the plans of his former mentor and left
Lysander in command of the troops in the Hellespont, far from Sparta and
mainland Greece. Back in Sparta by 395, Lysander was instrumental in starting a
war with Thebes and other Greek cities, which came to be known as the
Corinthian War. The Spartans prepared to send out an army against this new
alliance of Athens, Thebes, Corinth and Argos (with the backing of the
Achaemenid Empire) and ordered Agesilaus II to return to Greece. Agesilaus set
out for Sparta with his troops, crossing the Hellespont and marching west
through Thrace.
Death:
Main article: Battle of Haliartus
The Spartans arranged for two armies, one under Lysander and the other under
Pausanias of Sparta, to rendezvous at and attack the city of Haliartus,
Boeotia. Lysander arrived before Pausanias and persuaded the city of Orchomenus
to revolt from the Boeotian confederacy. He then advanced to Haliartus with his
troops. In the Battle of Haliartus, Lysander was killed after bringing his
forces too near the walls of the city. Following his death, an abortive scheme
by Lysander to increase his power by making the Spartan kingships collective
and that the Spartan king should not automatically be given the leadership of
the army, was "discovered" by Agesilaus II. There is argument amongst
historians as to whether this was an invention to discredit Lysander after his
death. However, in the view of Nigel Kennell, the plot fits with what we know
of Lysander.
Legacy:
Lysander is one of the main protagonists of the history of Greece by Xenophon,
a contemporary. For other (later) sources he remains an ambiguous figure. For
instance, while the Roman biographer Cornelius Nepos charges him with
"cruelty and perfidy", Lysander – according to Xenophon –
nonetheless spared the population of captured Greek poleis such as Lampsacus,
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Lysander (d.395 ) was a Spartan general who was largely responsible for
the Athenian defeat in the Great Peloponnesian War, but whose harsh rule helped
to trigger a series of revolts against Spartan authority that eventually
triggered the Corinthian War and played a part in the decline of Sparta.
According to some of our sources Lysander came from humble origins, growing up
as a mothax, a poor Spartan who was put through the Spartan childhood training
regime as the foster brother of a child from a richer family. However he also
had royal connections and was linked to the Heraclid family. The final stage of
the Great Peloponnesian War began after the Athenian defeat at Syracuse. This
weakened Athens, and allowed King Agis II to move to Decelea in Attica in 413,
from where he imposed an effective land blockade of the city. This policy
caused serious long term damage to Athens, but it did nothing to defeat their
impressive naval power.
That task fell to Lysander, who was appointed admiral of the Spartan fleet in
408 and reached Asia Minor towards the end of the summer of that year. During
his year in command Lysander won a naval victory at Notium (407 ). Alcibiades,
the Athenian commander, was away from the fleet and had appointed the steersman
of his flagship, Antiochus, as commander in his absence. Antiochus ignored
orders not to risk a battle and instead tried to lure Lysander into an ambush.
Lysander was aware that Alcibiades was absent, and prepared his own ambush. The
Athenians lost 22 ships. As a result of this battle the Athenians removed
Alcibiades from command. Lysander also gained the support of Cyrus the Younger,
the Persian viceroy in Asia Minor, who had been sent west to organise the
Persian support for Sparta. Persian money allowed the Spartans to recover from
a series of naval defeats, and slowly wear down Athenian naval power. Under
Spartan law it was illegal to hold the post of admiral twice. This was solved
in 405 by making Lysander officially second-in-command of the fleet, but giving
him the actual power (although only after his first successor had been defeated
and killed at the battle of the Arginusae
Islands). Lysander's greatest moment came at Aegospotami (405 ). For four days the
Athenians under Conon came out to sea to offer battle to the Spartans, but
Lysander refused to budge. On the fifth day the Athenians came out as normal
and returned to their base as normal. At that point Lysander launched a
surprise attack and wiped out the Athenian fleet. Conon, with 20 ships, managed
to escape, but the rest of his fleet was lost. This was the last Athenian
fleet, and Lysander was able to move to besiege Athens. The city surrendered in
404, ending the Great Peloponnesian War.
Lysander attempted to set up a new government system at Athens, with control
held by a Board of Thirty, who quickly became known as the Thirty Tyrants. He
also replaced the Athenian governors who had ruled the empire with harmosts,
commanders who ruled through boards of ten (decarchy). These harmosts would
soon make themselves very unpopular and lead to a series of revolts against
Spartan power. By now Lysander's power was probably causing some concern at
Sparta, where he was seen as more powerful than the two monarchs. In 403
Thrasybulus led a
revolt against the Thirty at Athens. Lysander was sent to try and put down the
revolt, and was close to success when Spartan policy changed. The Athenians
were allowed to restore their democracy, although they were still forbidden to
rebuild their city walls, destroyed after the defeat of 404.
Battles of the Corinthian War:
His failure at Athens was a major setback for Lysander, and probably saw the
end of most of his government reforms around the Greek world. It didn't break
his political power, and in 399 he helped
Agesilaus II come to
the throne. Earlier in life Agesilaus had probably been Lysander's lover, and
more certainly his protégé, but once he was in power the
relationship almost inevitably came under stress. In 396 both men went to Asia
Minor to take part in a war against the Persians (Persian-Spartan War). Once
they were there the war hero Lysander got more attention than the relatively
new king Agesilaus, who soon began to oppose anything Lysander suggested.
Agesilaus managed to manoeuvre Lysander into leaving the main army and
operating separately, a sign of his declining power. As a result Lysander
wasn't available to take command of the Spartan fleet in Asia Minor and instead
Agesilaus appointed his brother-in-law
Peisander, who led the
fleet to defeat and destruction at Cnidus and
Cnidus) in 394 , although he did have some
successes in the Hellespont after leaving the main army. By then Lysander was
dead. In 395 the Corinthian War broke out in Greece, partly because of the
harsh Spartan rule after 404. The immediate cause of the war was a border clash
between Locris and Phocis, almost certainly triggered by Theban intrigues.
Thebes and Boeotia supported Phocis and Sparta Locris. Lysander, who had now
returned to Greece, was given command of a force of Spartan allies, including a
Phocian contingent. A Spartan army was raised in the Peloponnese, under the
command of King
Pausanias, and the two armies were probably meant to meet up at Haliartus in the west of Boeotia. Lysander
advanced into Boeotia from the west. He gained control of Orchomenus, and then
marched around Lake Copais before reaching Haliartus. It isn't exactly clear
what happened outside the city, but according to Xenophon Lysander decided to
attack the city after a failed attempt to win it over and was killed in a
battle close to the walls. Pausanias and the Spartan army arrived soon
afterwards, but then entered into negotiations for the return of the bodies,
before returning to Sparta without fighting a battle. He was duly exiled, and
so the minor battle at Haliartus deprived Sparta of two of her most senior
commanders right at the start of a war. As a result Agesilaus had to be
recalled from Asia. In the aftermath of his death Lysander was found to have
been in relative poverty, despite all of the money he had generated for Sparta,
making him rather unusual in this period.
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