Xenophon on the battle of Aigospotamoi
Aigospotamoi: the final battle of the Peloponnesian War (431-404). In September 405, the Athenians were decisively defeated by the Spartans and lost their navy. As a result, the siege and fall of Athens became inevitable.
In 405, the Spartan admiral Lysander defeated and destroyed the Athenian navy at Aigospotamoi. This meant the end of the Peloponnesian War, because from now on, Athens no longer controlled the sea and could no longer import food supplies. The Spartan kings Pausanias and Agis II laid siege to the city and Lysander blocked its port. There were tens of thousands of hungry people, and in the end, it was decided to surrender.
The Aigospotamoi campaign started when Lysander was able to reach the Hellespont earlier than the Athenian navy. He occupied Lampsacus, and the Athenian commander Conon organized his base at Sestus, which was too far away to keep an eye on Lysander. The Spartan admiral could, therefore, decide to move to the Bosphorus at any moment he liked; in that case, he would capture Calchedon and Byzantium, and could cut off the Athenian food supply. To prevent this, the Athenians were forced to base themselves near the Aigospotamoi ("goat's rivers"), and bring their food from Sestus. Their position was far from easy, and Lysander knew how to exploit it.
For four days, he allowed the Athenians to offer battle, but refused every time. On the fifth day, when the Athenians returned to their base at Aigospotamoi and scattered to find food, Lysander unexpectedly attacked. Hundred and seventy Athenian ships were burned.
The story is told by the Athenian historian Xenophon (430-c.354) describes the battle in his Hellenica. The translation of 2.1.15-29 and 2.2.3-4 was made by Carleton L. Brownson.
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[2.2.3] It was at night that the Paralus arrived at Athens with tidings of the disaster, and a sound of wailing ran from Piraeus through the long walls to the city, one man passing on the news to another; and during that night no one slept, all mourning, not for the lost alone, but far more for their own selves, thinking that they would suffer such treatment as they had visited upon the Melians, colonists of the Spartans, after reducing them by siege, and upon the Histiaeans and Scionaeans and Toronaeans and Aeginetans and many other Greek peoples. |
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[2.2.4] On the following day they convened an Assembly, at which it was resolved to block up all the harbors except one, to repair the walls, to station guards, and in all other respects to get the city ready for a siege. They busied themselves, accordingly, with these matters. |