This blog post will look at the years 419-400BC in Roman history, touching briefly on other parts of Italian history where possible. The primary source for the period is Livy, in his monumental work Ab Urbe Condita, which means "From the Foundation of the City". He wrote this in the time of Augustus, so it is much later than the events described. Other sources for this time include the histories of Diodorus Siculus, who wrote about this time period and Rome, but about a generation or two earlier than Livy. Dionysius of Halicarnassus and some other historians contain some information about the period also. There are also some lists of the consuls and triumphs of the various years preserved in ancient inscriptions, such as the Fasti Capitolini and the Fasti Triumphales.
The reader should take the dates and the events with a pinch of salt. Dating was an inexact science and there are disagreements on interregnums and other events. Every date in this blog may be incorrect. Most dates for the Roman Republic follow Livy's dates, which makes the dates somewhat earlier than what they may have actually been. One should also remember that the Roman years fluctuated compared to our own, so an event that I have mentioned as happening in one year may have happened at least partly in the following year. I have taken Livy's account as my primary source.
Terracotta statue group from Veii showing Heracles
facing against Apollo, dating perhaps a century earlier
Also, many of Livy's sources were the personal histories of the wealthy families of Rome. These were immensely proud and their recollections of their ancestors may be highly fanciful. Some of these records, as we have seen with some of the stories of Tarquin, may in fact have been transposed from Greek history. I will call out these when I can.
In the year 419BC Agrippa Menenius Lanatus, Publius Lucretius Tricipitinus, Spurius Nautius Rutilus and Caius Servilius Axilla were elected as consular tribunes in Rome. This year saw a potential slave uprising to set fires across the city and to seize the Capitol building in confusion. However, some slaves informed the Romans and the ringleaders of the plot were executed, while the informers were rewarded with freedom and a huge sum of money.
There were reports of war preparations among the Aequi during this year. Word also reached the Romans that one of the towns of the Latin League, known as Labici, was planning on joining the Aequi. Open war was not declared, but both Rome and her enemies laid their plans.
Terracotta statue of Apollo from Veii,
dating to perhaps a century earlier
In the year 418 Lucius Sergius Fidenas, Gaius Servilius Axilla and Marcus Papirius Mugillanus were elected as consular tribunes in Rome. The Aequi, in conjunction with their new allies from Labici, attacked Roman territory and once more took up positions on Mount Algidus to await the Roman attack.
There was a debate between the consular tribunes as to who should lead the armies and who should stay in the city. Eventually the father of one of the tribunes, a man named Quintus Servilius, is said to have determined the matter as a father and ordered his son to stay in the city. Even if a consular tribune held the supreme power of the state, a Roman son always had to obey his father.
The other two consular tribunes continued to quarrel and the Aequi took advantage of this to inflict a defeat on the Roman army. Fortunately for Rome, Quintus Servilius had advised his son, the remaining consular tribune to levy additional troops. His son appointed Quintus Servilius as a dictator and the additional troops under the command of the Dictator Quintus Servilius marched to Mount Algidus.
The Aequi were promptly defeated and their camp ransacked. The victorious Romans then marched to the town of Labici and took it easily, sacking the city. The dictator took his victorious army back to Rome and resigned his dictatorship. Settlers were sent out to resettle Labici from Rome.
In the year 417 Agrippa Menenius Lanatus, Lucius Servilius Structus, Publius Lucretius Tricipitinus and Spurius Veturius Cassius were elected as consular tribunes in Rome. Not much happened in this year that I am aware of.
Bronze reconstruction of the Mars of Todi
Etruscan statue
In the year 416 Quintus Fabius Vibulanus, Aulus Sempronius Atratinus, Marcus Papirius Mugilanus and Spurius Nautius Rutulus were elected as consular tribunes in Rome. There were calls for land reform from the tribunes of the plebs in this year, but these were halted by the patricians suborning some of the tribunes to veto the proposal of the other tribunes, either through bribery or flattery. Thus the land reform bill came to nothing once more.
In the year 415 Publius Cornelius Cossus, Gaius Valerius Potitus, Quintus Quinctius Cincinnatus and Marcus Fabius Vibulanus were elected as consular tribunes in Rome. In this year a small campaign was fought against the Aequian town of Bolae, which had attacked the Roman settlers of Labici.
In the year 414 Cnaeus Cornelius Cossus, Lucius Valerius Potitus, Quintus Fabius Vibulanus and Marcus Postumius Regillensis were elected as consular tribunes in Rome. The Aequi had retaken Bolae and the consular tribune Postumius was sent to command the attack against them. Postumius' army did retake the town, but the high-handed behaviour of the commander began to outrage his troops. Postumius responded to every questioning of his authority with harsher and harsher punishments until finally he was murdered by his own men. In a city where warfare was so constant and where military discipline was so high, this was a truly shocking act.
In the year 413 Aulus Cornelius Cossus and Furius Medullinus were elected as consuls in Rome. Trials were held for the murder of Postumius the previous year and some few were found guilty and executed, rather than the entire army being held to blame. However tensions between the plebeians and patricians were still quite high. A small campaign was fought against the Volscians.
Terracotta statue from Veii dating to perhaps a century earlier
In the year 412 Quintus Fabius Ambustus and Gaius Furius Pacilus were elected as consuls in Rome. There was a pestilence that year, but the mortality rate was quite low, perhaps in part because most people fled the city and went into isolation in the countryside, where they neglected the harvest for fear of meeting people with the contagion.
In the year 411 Marcus Papirius Atratinus and Gaius Nautius Rutilus were elected as consuls in Rome. To alleviate the grain shortages after the sickness of the previous year they oversaw the buying of grain from Etruria and Sicily.
In the year 410 Marcus Aemilius and Gaius Valerius Potitus were elected as consuls in Rome. There was ill-feeling among the plebeians against the patricians on the subject of land reform and when the Aequi attacked the lands of the allied Hernici, one of the tribunes of the plebs attempted to block the raising of armies. However an army was eventually raised and the consul Valerius led the levied army to victory. The army was not pleased however, and Menenius, the tribune who had raised the proposal of land reform, was the subject of much admiration from the soldiers. The patricians were concerned at this.
Tomb of the Blue Demons
Around this time, the Etruscan Tomb of the Blue Demons was made in the Necropolis of Monterozzi near the Etruscan town of Tarquinia. It was a tomb built by a noble family and has the rather sinister name due to the paintings of demons, some with blue skin, on the walls of the tomb. Many Etruscan grave paintings are rather charming, but these are rather unpleasant looking, and some of the earliest indications of what would later become stereotypes of hell and hellish beings in Western culture.
In the year 409 Cnaeus Cornelius Cossus and Lucius Furius Medullinus were elected as consuls in Rome. The plebeians were very angry with the patricians for continually blocking land reform and so a number of plebeian candidates were elected as quaestors. These were combined with some plebeian tribunes from the Icilii family, who were noted for their opposition to the patricians. However, there was no real way for the plebeian magistrates to force the patricians to accede to any demands. There was trouble with the Aequi that year and Rome was too divided to properly meet the threat.
In the year 408 Gaius Julius Julus, Publius Cornelius Cossus and Gaius Servilius Ahala were elected as consular tribunes in Rome. Word came of an impending invasion from the Volscians. Gaius Servilius Ahala, after patiently waiting for his colleagues to finish their own squabbles, appointed Publius Cornelius as the Dictator of Rome. Publius Cornelius won an easy and decisive victory over the Volscians and returned to Rome to resign the office of Dictator.
Tomb of the Blue Demons
In the year 407 Lucius Furius Medullinus, Gaius Valerius Potitus, Cnaeus Fabius Vibulanus and Gaius Servilius Ahala were appointed as consular tribunes. The tribunes noted that the truce with Veii, the powerful nearby Etruscan city had expired and thus sent an embassy to Veii to ask for reparations for previous damages. The Veientes were in the midst of their own party struggles and had no satisfactory answer to Rome. However, no campaign was undertaken, as the Roman garrison at Verrugo was defeated and massacred by the Volscians and Aequi. The Roman relief force arrived too late, but was able to kill some of the Volscians who were engaged in looting the nearby countryside.
In the year 406 Publius Cornelius Rutilus Cossus, Cnaeus Cornelius Cossus, Cnaeus Fabius Ambustus and Lucius Valerius Potitus were elected as consuls in Rome. It was a dangerous time for the Romans, as it appeared that war with Veii was imminent, while there was still trouble with the Volscians, as well as the ever-present threat of civil strife due to the hatred between patricians and plebeians.
Terracotta figure from Veii dating perhaps a century earlier
A campaign was led against the Volscians and one of their towns was captured, with much plunder from it. The plebeian soldiers were allowed to loot the town, which eased relations between patricians and plebeians. The consuls, with the full approval of the Senate then proposed to allow soldiers to be paid. This was a huge step forward for the plebeians, even though a new tax had to be enacted to pay for it. Previously the soldiers had served at their own expense, easy enough for patricians who had slaves to work their farms, but ruinous for plebeians who had to forego working the land while still paying their own upkeep during the war. This was why the plebeians were so interested in sacking towns; it had previously been their only way of defraying the cost of their losses.
The Senate and the consuls had won the plebeians over and war on Veii was declared. Livy declares that the city of Veii was besieged and that the siege lasted for ten years, but this sounds a little too coincidentally like the siege of Troy to be accepted uncritically. Nevertheless Livy records that the Romans began to besiege Veii in this year.
In the year 405 Titus Quinctius Capitolinus, Quintus Quinctius Cincinnatus, Gaius Julius Julus, Aulus Manlius, Lucius Furius Medullinus and Manlius Aemilius Mamercus were elected as consular tribunes in Rome. The siege of Veii is said to have continued. Meanwhile the Etruscan towns gathered at their council in Voltumna. They could not decide whether or not to support the Etruscan city of Veii against the Romans.
Terracotta statue from Veii dating to perhaps a century earlier
In the year 404 Gaius Valerius Potitus, Manlius Sergius Fidenas Publius Cornelius Maluginensis, Cnaeus Cornelius Cossus, Gaius Fabius Ambustus and Spurius Nautius Rutilus were elected as consular tribunes in Rome. The siege of Veii is said to have continued, with the Romans unable to break the city or to properly starve it out. The introduction of pay must have been brought in for this eventuality. Some of the patricians must have known that the showdown with Veii would be a long war.
Livy records that war broke out with the Volscians once more. The Romans won a victory and afterwards besieged and took the town of Artena, although this might instead have been part of the war with Veii (as Livy records a similar town name allied with the city of Veii).
In 403 Marcus Aemilius Mamercinus, Marcus Quinctilius Varus, Lucius Valerius Potitus, Lucius Julius Iulus, Appius Claudius Crassus Inregillensis and Marcus Furius Fusus were elected as consular tribunes in Rome. Livy records that Veii had elected a king during this time and that this decision was resented by the other Etruscan cities, who for this reason failed to come to the aid of Veii, although it does not explain why they did not aid Veii in earlier years.
Detail of the Chimera of Arezzo
The siege of Veii was clearly not heavily pressed, as it was only in this year that winter quarters were constructed and the siege continued the year around. This was unusual for Rome, as normally campaigns were only conducted for short periods during the year. The tribunes of the plebs opposed the measure, but after the people of Veii sallied out against the besieging Romans, many volunteers joined the army to strengthen it and to repair the damaged siege-works.
In the year 402 Gaius Servilius Ahala, Lucius Verginius Tricostus Esquilinus, Quintus Sulpicius Camerinus Cornutus, Aulus Manlius Vulso Capitolinus and Marcus Sergius Fidenas were elected as consular tribunes in Rome. During this year, the continued military operations led to a relaxation in discipline and the Romans suffered minor defeats at the hands of the Volscians and from Etruscan contingents from Falerii and Capenae who had come belatedly to the aid of Veii. With the Senate concerned at the manner in which the war was being waged, pressure was brought on the consular tribunes to resign several months early and to have the new consular tribunes elected. After some debate, this was agreed to and the two consular tribunes who were held to have been responsible for the setbacks, Verginius and Sergius, were set to be tried in the coming year.
Mars of Todi
In the year 401 Lucius Valerius Potitus, Marcus Furius Camillus, Marcus Aemilius Mamercinus, Cnaeus Cornelius Cossus, Caeso Fabius Ambustus and Lucius Julius Iulus were elected as consular tribunes in Rome. The two offending consular tribunes of the previous year were held as scapegoats for the military failures and the increased taxation and were both heavily fined for their failures on the battlefield. In war, the Etruscan cities of Falerii and Capenae were also besieged, meaning that Rome now had four active campaigns simultaneously, as they were fighting in Volscian territory and also besieging Veii. The resources of the city must have been strained to their utmost.
In the year 400 Publius Licinius Calvus Esquilinus, Publius Manlius Vulso, Lucius Titinius Pansa Saccus, Publius Maelius Capitolinus, Spurius Furius Medullinus and Lucius Publilius Philo Vulscus were elected as consular tribunes in Rome. In a rare first in Roman politics, it appears that Publius Licinius was the first plebeian to be elected as a consular tribune in Rome. This sign of an electoral victory, however small, eased the tensions between the two orders. A victory was achieved over the Volscians when the Romans captured the town of Anxur. That year the winter was a hard one, with rivers freezing over entirely.
Even while Veii, the largest of the Etruscan cities, was fighting for its survival against the expansion of Rome, the Etruscan culture was nearing its peak in terms of art. Two of the finest artworks, the Mars of Todi and the Chimera of Arezzo date from this time period.
The Chimera of Arezzo was probably part of a larger sculpture group, showing the battle of Bellerophon and the Chimera. It shows a hybrid creature with the heads of a lion, a snake and a goat (although the current position of the snake is a modern reconstruction). The bronze work is exquisite and shows that the work of the Etruscan artists was comparable to the work of the Greeks at the time.
Chimera of Arezzo
The Mars of Todi is a bronze statue of a warrior, currently held in the Vatican Museum. This is another phenomenal bronze statue, modelled after fashions of Greek statuary and giving an accurate depiction of body armour of the time period. It was likely a votive statue to a god. There is an inscription in Umbrian, using the Etruscan script. The name of the devotee however, is Celtic.
And thus the period draws to a close, with the Romans facing against the nearby city of Veii for control of the Tiber Valley. The 5th century BC is an odd time in Roman history. We have sources such as Livy and stories from the time. Much of what Livy says is doubtless true, but the history of Rome for this century is still semi-legendary. Many of the patterns of later Roman history are evident in this time period. War was nearly constant. The offices of consul, dictator, tribune of the plebs, censor and quaestor all play important roles during this time period. The martial traditions of the Romans were continually honed, even if the campaigns were so close by that winter campaigning was only necessary at the end of the century.
Finally, this century had seen the continued Struggle of the Orders, the class rivalry between patricians and plebeians. It is important to remember however that for all the resentment between the two orders, Rome had survived the century without an outright civil war. This was better than many cities of the Mediterranean during this century.
This blog will try and look at the Near East for the years 419-400BC, which during this period was mainly included in the Persian Empire. From the Persian period onwards, the historical sources become quite scant and we are quite heavily reliant on the writings of the Greeks, such as Thucydides, Plutarch and Diodorus Siculus.
Occasional snippets of information may come from the Hebrew biblical writings, or sacred traditions, but these will generally only concern affairs in Judea or those pertaining specifically to Jewish history. It is not that there is nothing to say for this period, but the history is now mainly written by the Greeks. So if most of what I have to say concerns the Greeks, we should remember it is because they are writing the history, not because nothing else was happening in the Persian Empire. For any events that deal with the Greeks, I will only write of them briefly as they are dealt with in greater detail in previous blogs, which will be listed at the end.
I had previously included the affairs of Carthage in these blogs, insofar as these are known. However, these are now dealt with in greater detail in the Greek blogs covering this time period.
At the start of this period Darius II was ruling as Great King of Persia. Relative peace existed between the Persians and the Greeks, as the Greek cities were embroiled in the Peloponnesian War. Persia was still the largest empire in the world, stretching from the Indus River in the east, to the lands of Cyrene in the west and containing the ancient lands of Babylonia and Egypt. It was incredibly wealthy and could put larger armies in the field than any other kingdom. However, the increasing professionalism of armies in Greece, China and India meant that these vast armies may not have been the most effective in the world at that time. Still, Persia was the single most important empire in the world at this time.
One of the Elephantine Papyri
In the year 419BC the Passover Papyrus was written. This was an instruction concerning the observance of Passover for the Jewish community in the southern Egyptian fortress of Elephantine. The Jews who lived here were part of a Persian garrison that helped to keep the lands of Egypt loyal to the Persians. They may have been descended from those Jews who fled to Egypt during and after the Fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple. This particular papyrus is quite fascinating, as it suggests that perhaps the Jewish garrison had no knowledge of Passover. Considering that Passover was celebrated intermittently, if at all, during the monarchy, this is not overly surprising. However, the actual content of the letter suggests that the Persian King is ordering the Passover to be celebrated. This would fit in with some of the decrees preserved in the Biblical book of Ezra where the Persian kings would give pronouncements on religious matters, such as temple rebuilding.
To my brethren Yedoniah and his colleagues the Jewish garrison, your brother Hananiah. The welfare of my brothers may God seek at all times. Now, this year, the fifth year of King Darius, word was sent from the king to Arsames saying, "Authorise a festival of unleavened bread for the Jewish garrison". So do you count fourteen days of the month of Nisan and observe the passover, and from the 15th to the 21st day of Nisan observe the festival of unleavened bread. Be ritually clean and take heed. Do no work on the 15th or the 21st day, nor drink beer, nor eat anything in which there is leaven from the 14th at sundown until the 21st of Nisan. For seven days it shall not be seen among you. Do not bring it into your dwellings but seal it up between these dates. By order of King Darius. To my brethren Yedoniah and the Jewish garrison, your brother Hananiah. Passover Papyrus from the Elephantine Papyri, written 419BC
Not much can be said, to my knowledge, for the years 418 and 417. Presumably things happened, but sadly I am not aware of them.
Around the year 416 Pissuthnes, the satrap of Lydia, was in revolt against King Darius II of Persia. The revolt may have been ongoing for some years, but I suspect that it was only a recent thing. I suspect that a major revolt left unchecked for years would have been noted by the Greek historians, as Lydia was very close to the Greek world. .
In the year 415 Pissuthnes died, but his rebellion was continued by his son Amorges. Amorges seems to have received some support, secretive or otherwise, from the Athenians. This would have led the Persians to consider open war against the Athenians.
Coin of the Persian satrap Tissaphernes
In the year 414 the King of Persian dispatched the able general Tissaphernes to Ionia to help quell the revolt of Amorges. He took over the satrapy of Lydia.
In the year 413 the strategic situation in the Aegean had changed greatly. The Athenians, who had dominated the Aegean Sea with their navy, had suffered a terrible defeat far to the west in Sicily. Sparta now rekindled the war against Athens and pressed their advantage hard. Athenian subject states attempted to rise up against Athens. Tissaphernes noted that now was the time to break Athenian power and he made a treaty with the Spartans.
In the year 412 Tissaphernes and the other satraps along the coast, including the wealthy and capable Pharnabazus who ruled Hellespontine Phrygia to the north of Lydia, began to collect tribute from Greek cities on the coast. For decades these cities had been under the Athenian empire and the Persians had been kept away from the coast. The Athenian defeat in Sicily had changed all this. In return for the Spartans allowing the Persians a free hand against former Athenian subject cities, the Persians would pay for the upkeep of the Spartan navy.
Multiple states now rose up against the Athenians, including Chios and Clazonmenae. The Athenians responded and continued to fight in a way that none expected them to. The city of Clazomenae was retaken by the Athenians.
It was around this time that the wayward Athenian general Alcibiades defected from the Spartans to the Persians. He was an enemy of one of the Spartan kings, most likely because Alcibiades was said to be the lover of the Spartan king's wife. Fearing for his safety Alcibiades went over to Tissaphernes, who found him useful, but does not seem to have been fooled by the silver-fork-tongued Alcibiades. The rebel Amorges was captured by the Spartan navy and was handed over to Tissaphernes, who executed him.
In the year 411 it seems that a small rebellion broke out in the Nile Delta region against Persian rule. It was said to be led by Amyrtaeus of Sais, a descendant of a previous rebel king in that region. However, this date may be a confusion of the sources and the rebellion may have happened later. Alternatively, there may have been riots and the potential for rebellion, but no actual rebellion. The sources are unclear.
Remains of the temple of Khnum at Elephantine
In the year 410 it seems that there were disturbances and riots in Egypt. The Temple of YHWH that was used by the Jewish soldiers at the Temple of Elephantine was burned down. It seemed to have been burned by parts of the Egyptian community who were resentful of the presence of the Jewish garrison. The Jewish temple at Elephantine was beside a temple to the Egyptian god Khnum. Previously the Egyptians and Jews had coexisted relatively peacefully, but perhaps with the possibility of a rebellion against Persian rule, the Jewish community was seen as infiltrators from the Persian overlords.
Around this time, although it is impossible to give an exact date, the region of the Indus Valley seems to have slipped out of direct Achaemenid control. It was not that other empires in the region had taken it from the Persians, at least not to our knowledge. But the local dynasts of the region seem to have ruled from Taksashila, or Taxila, as it was known to the Greeks. Soldiers from the region still appear in Persian reliefs, but these may well be mercenaries, or simply copying earlier reliefs from when the empire had greater control of the hinterlands.
One of the Elephantine
Papyri
The Rabbinic tradition in Judaism speaks of a group that are sometimes referred to as the Great Assembly. These are said to be 80 or 120 wise men who lived between the time of the last exile and the beginning of the Rabbinic tradition proper. They are sometimes referred to as if they sat together as a single council, at other times it seems more as if they are a generation of sages. They are said to have approved the addition of Esther and other later books to the canon. Ezra, Zechariah and Haggai were said to be among their number. I am unsure as to whether to take the tradition seriously.
The chronology of the Mishnah appears to be quite erroneous for this period, suggesting that the entire Persian empire lasted for little more than a generation, rather than the over two centuries that it in fact lasted. Chronologically speaking, the people mentioned as being part of the Great Assembly were not likely to be contemporaries. But some continuity of respected elders who passed down traditions and gave their opinions on the tradition is quite plausible, so there may well have been a Great Assembly in that sense.
In the year 409 the Greek historian Xenophon records that the Medes revolted against King Darius II of Persia. However, the revolt seems to have not lasted long or to have seriously threatened the king, as Xenophon records that they submitted to the royal authority again shortly afterwards.
In the year 408, perhaps because of frustration with the slow progress of the war, King Darius II sent his son, the ambitious prince Cyrus, also known as Cyrus the Younger, to the western provinces to take over the conduct of the war. The loyal satrap Tissaphernes was marginalised, while Cyrus was given a large treasury and presumably instructions to bring the war in the west to a close. Tissaphernes had sought to weaken the Greek cities by giving money to both sides. Cyrus now unilaterally favoured the Spartans and gave them large amounts of money, particularly to an equally ambitious Spartan commander named Lysander.
Elephantine Temple reconstruction request
In the year 407 the Jewish community at Elephantine sent a petition to Bagoas, a Persian governor of the province of Yehud, asking for funds to rebuild the temple of YHWH at Elephantine. The Jews in Elephantine had also written to Sanballat. It is unclear if this is the same Sanballat who had been an opponent of Nehemiah. It is chronologically possible, but it is also possible that one of his descendants or relatives bore the same name and held the same position as governor of Samaria.
The High Priest at Jerusalem had not answered the requests of the Elephantine Jews. This may be because the Jews at Elephantine followed the customs of the pre-exilic Kingdom of Judah, and included the worship of idols along with the worship of YHWH. At least some of the priests in Jerusalem were determined to worship YHWH alone. The Samaritan community led by Sanballat may have acted as a middle ground between the communities of Jerusalem and Elephantine. At least some members of the priesthood in Jerusalem had family ties to the Samaritan community.
Not much can be said, to my knowledge, for the year 406. Presumably things happened, but sadly I am not aware of them.
Tomb of King Darius II at Naqsh-i-Rustam
Around the year 405 King Amanineteyerike of Kush died and was buried in a pyramid at the royal cemetery of Nuri. He was succeeded by Baskakeren, who was probably his younger brother. Little is known of either of these kings.
In the year 404 King Darius II of Persia died and was succeeded by his son Artaxerxes II. Artaxerxes was known as Artaxerxes Mnemon (Mnemon meaning "Good memory") to the Greeks. Darius II was buried in a rock-hewn tomb carved from the cliff face of Naqsh-i-Rustam like many of the Persian kings before him. The tomb is not named, but his tomb can be identified with some certainty. Like the tombs of the other kings, it shows a rock-cut relief of the king standing before Ahura Mazda, on a platform upheld by soldiers from all the corners of the empire.
Upon the accession of King Artaxerxes II to the Persian throne, the satrap Tissaphernes accused Prince Cyrus of wishing to usurp the throne. It is likely that Tissaphernes was telling the truth. Artaxerxes believed him and nearly executed his brother. However, their mother Parysatis intervened on behalf of Cyrus the Younger and his brother was merciful and spared him.
While there was the uncertainty of the royal succession and a new king on the throne, Amyrtaeus of Sais took advantage of this confusion to launch a rebellion in Egypt. Artaxerxes II ordered a large army to be assembled in Phoenicia to crush the rebellion. This army was to be led by Abrocomas, the bastard brother of Artaxerxes, but the assembly of the army took time. Many of the best Persian troops were probably dispatched to this army. It did however take quite a long time to assemble.
Stela of King Harsiotef of Kush
Around this time King Baskakeren of Kush died and was buried in a small pyramid at the royal cemetery of Nuri. The pyramid was probably small due to the short reign of the king. He was succeeded by Harsiotef who was probably his younger brother. Little is known of either of these kings, but we do know that Harsiotef led campaigns against a town called Habasa, which may be the first attestation of the word that is the root word for the region known in English as Abyssinia. Harsiotef also took full Egyptian titles as a Pharaoh of old.
In this year Sparta defeated Athens at the end of the Great Peloponnesian War. The Spartans mostly took over the Athenian empire and established themselves as the hegemonic power of the Greek world; on both land and sea.
Not much can be said, to my knowledge, for the year 403. Presumably things happened, but sadly I am not aware of them.
Around the year 402 the Elephantine Papyri, those documents that give a tantalising peephole into the lives of the Jewish community in Upper Egypt, seem to come to an end. It is possible that the rebellion of Amyrtaeus destroyed the community, or at least disrupted its record keeping. It is astonishing that we have such an archive at all. To be clear, there are more recent papyrus documents found at Elephantine, but none to my knowledge that pertain directly to the Jewish community there. The rebuilt temple of YHWH there was eventually destroyed and the land used to expand the nearby temple of Khnum.
Royal Kushite cemetery at Nuri near Napata
Cyrus had helped the Spartans, particularly Lysander, win their war against Athens and decided to use his influence with them to ask for the services of their fleet. Cyrus still held a large satrapy in western Asia and he made war on Tissaphernes, gathering Greek mercenaries while doing so. The Spartans hated Tissaphernes and were happy with this. The king was not displeased with his satraps fighting, as it meant that neither one would become too powerful. The end of the Peloponnesian War had led to many idle professional soldiers around the Aegean and they now gathered around Cyrus the Younger, drawn by the pay and the possibility of loot.
Cyrus the Younger had gathered a force of over 10,000 Greek mercenaries and had perhaps 40,000 other troops at his command. He set out to invade Pisidia, which he deemed to be in rebellion against himself. But Tissaphernes was too cunning to be fooled by the ruse. He correctly guessed that Cyrus was going to make a play for the empire itself.
The army passed through Cilicia, where the local dynasts made a clever strategy. Not knowing if Cyrus the Younger would win or lose, the local queen helped him, while her husband made an effort to block his path, without causing any real damage to Cyrus the Younger. This way, whether Cyrus the Younger won or lost, they could still stay in favour with Persia.
It was after the army had reached Tarsus that the Greeks realised that they had been tricked and that their expedition was in fact a civil war. Their commander, the Spartan general Clearchus, urged them onwards, telling them of the fantastic rewards that would be theirs should they follow. However, it now became clear that Cyrus the Younger did not have full control of his army. The Greeks would follow Clearchus and the other generals, but would not take orders directly from Cyrus the Younger. The Greeks wasted twenty days in Tarsus, deciding whether or not to continue, during which time Artaxerxes was gathering an army to meet the forces of Cyrus the Younger.
Soldiers of the Persian Empire shown on the tomb of
Darius II at Naqsh-i-Rustam
Cyrus the Younger passed the Cilician Gates and it was only here in Syria that he revealed that he was in fact marching against his brother the king. The Greeks were unhappy, but continued with the march. The tale is told in the writings of Xenophon's Anabasis. He was a soldier in the army and he wrote an account of it some years later, although he pretended that it was written by a person called Themistogenes the Syracusan, presumably as some form of pen-name.
Abrocomas, the bastard brother of the king and commander of the forces that had been gathered in Syria for the planned invasion of Egypt, had marched ahead of Cyrus the Younger and was presumably hoping to block the Royal Road into Assyria. It can only be surmised that Abrocomas, in command of large numbers of some of the best troops in Persia, engaged in scorched earth tactics. But it was all in vain.
After the delays in Tarsus, Cyrus did the last thing that he could do to gain surprise and turned south, racing along the Euphrates River, far from the paved roads of the heartlands. This must have surprised both Artaxerxes II and Abrocomas and even though Abrocomas had initially had a head start on Cyrus the Younger, Cyrus was now in between the armies of the king and Abracomas. Artaxerxes was now forced to give battle without his most experienced troops to defend the city of Babylon.
At a place near Cunaxa on the bank of the Euphrates, Artaxerxes gave battle. He had mustered a much larger army than that of his brother, but it had no Greek phalanx. The Greeks were deployed at the right of Cyrus' forces, but when Cyrus asked the Greeks to be moved to the centre, Clearchus refused, fearing to be outflanked by the army of the king. Cyrus the Younger held the centre with his bodyguard, while Arieus and the non-Greek troops of Cyrus held the left flank.
The two armies joined in battle on the dusty plain. The Greeks pushed through the troops deployed in front of them. However, the battle on the left flank of Cyrus' forces was a much messier affair, as here the army of Cyrus the Younger was much outnumbered. The left flank must have slowly been turned. Meanwhile the Greeks kept pushing in front of them. With the scale of the battle it seems that the dust rose and obscured the battlefield. The Greeks advanced into empty space while the battle raged behind them.
Sensing that the Greek victory on the right flank had disrupted the army of the king, but that he must act fast before the left flank crumbled, Cyrus the Younger led his bodyguard in a headlong charge against the bodyguard of his brother the king. The bodyguards of Artaxerxes II and Cyrus the Younger clashed in fierce hand to hand combat and it is recorded that the king himself was wounded. The Greek doctor Ctesias is recorded to have afterwards treated the wound. But Cyrus the Younger was struck down and his head hewn off and with that blow the Battle of Cunaxa was over.
Painting of the Battle of Cunaxa by Adrien Guignet
Then the king cast his lance at his brother, but missed him, though he both hit and slew Satiphernes, a noble man and a faithful friend to Cyrus. Then Cyrus directed his lance against the king, and pierced his breast with it quite through his armour, two inches deep, so that he fell from his horse with the stroke. At which those that attended him being put to flight and disorder, he, rising with a few, among whom was Ctesias, and making his way to a little hill not far off, rested himself. But Cyrus, who was in the thick of the enemy, was carried off a great way by the wildness of his horse, the darkness which was now coming on making it hard for them to know him, and for his followers to find him. However, being made elate with victory, and full of confidence and force, he passed through them, crying out, and that more than once, in the Persian language, "Clear the way, villains, clear the way;" which they indeed did, throwing themselves down at his feet. But his tiara dropped off his head, and a young Persian, by name Mithridates, running by, struck a dart into one of his temples near his eye, not knowing who he was, out of which wound much blood gushed, so that Cyrus, swooning and senseless, fell off his horse. Plutarch, Life of Artaxerxes, written circa AD100
The Greeks had had so little to do with the battle that they were three miles away when the fate of the battle was decided. After some confused skirmishing they slept on the battlefield and only found out the next day that Cyrus the Younger was dead and that they had lost the battle.
It was unclear what to do next. The Greeks tried to make Arieus king, but Arieus refused the offer. He was not of royal blood and had no claim whatsoever to the throne. Even if he could gain a victory of sorts at Cunaxa he could never hold the empire. Arieus surrendered and went over to the side of Artaxerxes II. Tissaphernes then negotiated with the Greeks.
The Greek mercenaries were a formidable force. The Persians had no heavy infantry that could meet them head on and the arrows of the Persians had little effect on their heavy armour. Having lost many men at Cunaxa, it was not thought clever to attack these desperate men. It was hard to know what should be done with them. Tissaphernes eventually got them to march northwards with him, hoping to escort them out of the domains of the king. The Greeks marched but kept their weapons with them.
Tissaphernes was in close contact with the Greek generals, who also were worried about Tissaphernes and the Persian army that he was in command of. Tissaphernes had a reputation for treachery. On the other hand, Meno, one of the Greek generals, was telling Tissaphernes that Clearchus was planning to have Tissaphernes murdered, which may well have been the case. Regardless of who betrayed whom first, Tissaphernes summoned Clearchus and the other generals to the Persian camp, before they were arrested and sent to the King, where they were subsequently executed.
Map showing the march of the Ten Thousand. Note that the
Persian Empire in the year 401 was smaller than the empire
shown on this map (this shows the 490BC borders)
This led to panic in the Greek camp and a fear that they would soon be attacked by the Persian army. However, they elected new generals, including the young Athenian nobleman named Xenophon, and fought off the Persian skirmishing attacks that followed. Despite what one might think from reading Xenophon, Xenophon was not in overall command of the mercenaries at this point, as there was a more senior Spartan officer there who was in overall command.
The Greeks marched northwards, being harassed by the armies of Tissaphernes until they reached the mountainous regions near Kurdistan. These lands were wild lands with mountain tribes. The Persians tended not to bother with these tribes and did not exact tribute from them, so Tissaphernes gave up his pursuit shortly after the Greeks reached the mountains, hoping that they would die in the mountains from exposure, starvation or guerrilla attacks. Either way, it was guessed that the mercenaries, often referred to as the Ten Thousand, would never make it home.
Tissaphernes was an astute politician, but he guessed wrong in this matter. The Greeks made a terrible march across the mountains of Kurdistan and Armenia, fighting tribes, fording rivers, storming fortresses to gain food and dealing with their own internal bickering and feuding without killing each other. The mercenaries are not likeable characters, but the March of the Ten Thousand is one of the more remarkable campaigns in the ancient world, and the fact that we have a first person account of it in Xenophon's Anabasis makes it all the more remarkable.
In the year 400 Tissaphernes returned to the coast of Asia Minor where he took over the command of the satrapies left vacant by the death of Cyrus the Younger. He pressured the Ionian cities into paying tribute to Persia.
Coin of the Persian satrap Pharnabazus
The Ten Thousand mercenaries showed up unexpectedly in the region of Hellespontine Phrygia where they raided the lands. The satrap of the region, Pharnabazus, fought back and eventually bribed the Spartans to transport the mercenaries across the Bosphorus. The Spartans were not happy with the mercenaries either and threatened war upon them. Eventually the mercenaries took service briefly with Seuthes II, a Thracian ruler on the northern coast of the Aegean.
The Ionian states feared Tissaphernes and appealed to the Spartans to protect them. The Spartans made the decision in autumn to go to war with Persia and the new governors who were sent into the region hired the Ten Thousand mercenaries to fight against Persia once more.
In Egypt, the rebel Amyrtaeus, who had declared himself Pharaoh and declared the beginning of the 28th Dynasty, was consolidating his reign. Upper Egypt had held out against the Egyptians of Amyrtaeus, but Amyrtaeus probably established control of Upper Egypt in this year. He was not a popular king however and some of his generals appear to have wanted to control the land themselves.
The Egyptians benefited from turmoil elsewhere in the Persian Empire. The armies of Abrocomas had had to retreat to the interior to face the army of Cyrus the Younger, rather than attacking Egypt as planned. Within a year Persia was embroiled in another conflict in the west, facing the fearsome Spartan soldiers and their generals, honed by years of war with the Athenians. It is probable that the Persians did not attempt to retake Egypt properly until the Spartan threat was dealt with. Amyrtaeus may also have captured several Greek deserters from the army of Cyrus the Younger and handed them over to Artaxerxes II, perhaps as a way of establishing a temporary truce.
Persian lion
The Greek prisoners who had been taken by Tissaphernes were probably executed around this time. The Queen Mother, Parysatis, had appealed on their behalf, as they had fought for her beloved son Cyrus, but at the instigation of Queen Stateira the Greeks were put to death as rebels against the king. Shortly after this, but for probably unrelated reasons, Parysatis contrived to have Stateira poisoned. Artaxerxes II suspected that his mother was at fault and ordered her confidant tortured and executed, but he did not dare harm the person of his mother. Artaxerxes seems to have been a mild character by the standards of the times. The women in his life appear very strong-willed in the Greek tales told about them. These tales are from Greek authors and may of course be confused.
Around this time the Murashu Archive was being slowly compiled. This is the named given by current scholars to the preserved cuneiform records of the Murashu family, who were businessmen from Nippur in southern Babylonia during this period. Their records span four generations and cover their business dealings. The Murashu family would lease land and then sublet it while also lending money. The family filled an important economic niche, as the Persians would generally not accept payment in kind, but instead demanded payment in coins, which were of precious metals. By facilitating this the Murashu businessmen stood as a link between the landowners of Babylonia and the treasury of the Persian kings.
And thus the period draws to a close. It seems strange to have so little to write about the largest empire in the world for a span of two decades. Aside from the deaths and wars of kings and states on their borders, or tombs of their subject kings, or the affairs of the tiny province of Yehud, there is almost nothing to report, save occasional rebellions and the name of the kings. It is sad that there are such gaps in our knowledge, but this is the state of affairs.
This post will look at Greece and the wider Greek world from the years 409BC to 400BC. Firstly, a word about our sources. Archaeology can shed some light on this period, but we are primarily reliant on written sources, such as the writings of Xenophon, Diodorus Siculus, Plutarch, and Pausanias. A more complete list of sources is given at the end of the blog.
In the year 409BC Alcibiades and the Athenian soldiers with him reconquered Byzantium on the Bosphorus. A number of prisoners were taken, including the Theban general Coeratadas. This safeguarded the passage to the Black Sea and allowed grain ships to pass unhindered to Athens once more. An Athenian fortress was established at Chrsyopolis near the Bosphorus and a tax imposed on vessels sailing past it. This was to try and get a regular source of income for the impoverished Athenians, who were struggling to pay their soldiers even a small wage.
The Persian satrap Pharnabazus seems to have come to some understanding with Alcibiades and gave the Athenians some money. This was partly as a bribe to not attack the nearby cities, but perhaps Pharnabazus was persuaded to the same school of thought as Tissaphernes, that it would be useful to support both Athens and Sparta and let them kill each other.
The Athenian general Thrasyllus sailed to Ionia and attacked Colophon and Ephesus. Colophon was taken by the Athenians, but the Persian satrap Tissaphernes sent a force to reinforce the Ephesians and the Athenians were defeated, with up to 300 killed in the battle. Thrasyllus won a small victory over some Syracusan ships that were caught by his fleet as he sailed northwards towards the main army.
Coin of Syracuse
The remainder of the Syracusan navy seems to have sailed westwards to Sicily after this setback. The Syracusans who were captured were sent to Athens to be imprisoned in stone quarries. This was in retribution for the terrible conditions that Athenian prisoners had been held in while captive at Syracuse. These Syracusans later used the tools they were forced to labour with to dig a path to freedom and to escape.
The Spartans had suffered a great defeat at sea, at the Battle of Cyzicus the previous year. This had been so severe that they had even offered peace terms, before these were turned down by the Athenians. The Spartans now took the opportunity of assaulting the Athenian fortress of Pylos on the western edge of the Peloponnese. This was held by freed helots who would raid the lands of Messenia and encourage more helots to revolt.
The Spartans besieged it and the Athenians dispatched their general Anytus with a small fleet to bring relief. Anytus turned back because of storms at Cape Malea; to the fury of the populace in Athens when he returned. The helots fought bravely, expecting the ships of the Athenians to bring supplies and reinforcements. But the ships never came.
Eventually the helots and the Spartans had fought themselves to a standstill and the helots surrendered the fortress under a truce. The unbeaten helots allowed the freedom to leave the Peloponnese. Anytus, who had failed to bring aid to Pylos, was put on trial for his life, but was said to have bribed the jury and so escaped.
King Agis II of Sparta still seems to have held the fortress of Decelea in Attica, but perhaps his attention was elsewhere, as it seems that a battle was fought between the Megarians and Athenians, with the Athenians slaying great numbers of Megarians. But this detail may be chronologically misplaced.
Pleistonax, the Agiad king of Sparta who had been exiled, but returned on the orders of the Oracle, died this year. He was succeeded by his son Pausanias. This event may however have happened in the year following.
The ruins of Temple G in Selinus
Meanwhile in Sicily, Hannibal Mago had crossed the sea from Africa with a great army. The Greek sources measure it as at least 100,000 strong, but it is more likely that it was perhaps around 30-40,000 strong and that perhaps it later received reinforcements from native Sicel or Sicanian peoples and the city of Segesta in Sicily. Hannibal Mago's target was the city of Selinus, a city in the southwest of the island. Selinus had appealed to Syracuse for aid, but the Syracusans were tardy in dispatching their troops.
The Selinuntines were soon besieged by this huge mercenary force. It is unusual to hear, but the Carthaginians and their mercenaries began to batter down the walls. It is odd to hear how the Greeks at this period so seldom engaged in direct assaults on fortified cities, but that the Carthaginians were so seemingly adept at it. In what unknown wars were these skills honed?
Six high siege towers drove the defenders from the walls of Selinus while six siege rams battered down the walls beneath the covering fire of the towers. The Selinuntines fought back with the best of their ability, but breaches were soon made in the walls. The Carthaginians sent their troops in rotas to maintain a constant assault for hours. The defenders were driven from the breaches to the alleyways, where a continued battle raged for hours. Finally the city was taken and the inhabitants of the city murdered, raped and enslaved. The Syracusan reinforcements had only reached as far as Acragas by the time Selinus fell.
The sack of the city meant that the huge Temple G, which would have been one of the largest temples in the Greek world, was never fully finished. The Selinuntines had been working on it for over a century. The nearly finished temple eventually fell into disrepair and now only the jumbled ruins of the columns remain.
Map showing the Carthaginian campaign of Hannibal Mago
against Selinus and Himera
Hannibal Mago then marched northwards towards Himera, the site of the famous defeat of the Carthaginians. It was here that the tyrants of Syracuse and Acragas had defeated and killed Hamilcar, the grandfather of Hannibal Mago. The Carthaginians and their mercenaries invested the city of Himera, which had been reinforced previously by 5000 Syracusan troops under the leadership of Diocles. Hearing of what had befallen Selinus and desperate to avoid such a fate, the Himerans sallied forth unexpectedly and met the mercenaries before their walls, driving them back in disorder and flight. Hannibal Mago had troops on the nearby hills however and was able to drive the Himerans back to their city.
It was at this time that the Syracusan triremes that had sailed away from the war in the Aegean had returned to Sicily. These triremes had been dispatched to aid the city of Himera and arrived now, stopping the Carthaginians from pressing their victory in the field. Even with Syracusan reinforcements the defence of Himera was a hopeless task and there were rumours that the fleet of Hannibal Mago was sailing for the now undefended city of Syracuse. The Himerans reluctantly evacuated as many as could be loaded onto the Syracusan vessels, allowing perhaps half the city to escape.
Coin of Himera
Those who remained behind were attacked the next day by the full weight of the Carthaginian army. They were able to hold out for a day, expecting the return of the Syracusan ships to take them to safety. But the ships returned the next day instead, as the city was falling. The walls were taken and a massacre followed. Finally, the Carthaginians and their mercenaries stopped killing and took prisoners, but it perhaps it was as well to die fighting as be taken prisoner. Diodorus Siculus recounts that Hannibal Mago offered a sacrifice of 3,000 Greek prisoners in memory of the death of his grandfather Hamilcar. This was an atrocious act, although perhaps not that different from the death the Syracusans had meted out to the Athenian prisoners less than a decade earlier. After this, Hannibal Mago returned with great spoils to Carthage, where he was welcomed back in triumph.
Vase painting by the Jena Painter
It was around this time that Sophocles won the first prize for tragedy at the Great Dionysia festival with his play Philoctetes. This was a play about a Greek warrior from the time of the Trojan War who had been granted the bow of Heracles. Due to suffering a snake bite and suffering an enduring and suppurating wound (that smelled badly) the Greeks had exiled him for ten years on a deserted island. A prophecy foretold that the Greeks must recall Philoctetes if they are ever to take Troy. The play focuses on the fact that the attempt of the Greeks to persuade Philoctetes to help those who had done him such harm.
In 408 the Syracusan exile Hermocrates took the money given him by the Persian satrap Pharnabazus and returned secretly to Sicily, hiring ships and soldiers at Sicilian Messene (later Messana) and seizing the now barely inhabited city of Selinus. He used this as a base to attack the Carthaginians who had remained in Sicily and to rally the disaffected Greeks to his cause, hoping to be recalled to Syracuse after his exile by Diocles.
Diocles himself appears to have been exiled around this time. At any rate he disappears from the historical record. There is a legend that he absent-mindedly wandered into the agora wearing a blade, and that his enemies raised a hue and cry against him, saying that he had violated his own laws against bringing weapons into the public space. Diocles, in his anger and shame at his unintentional hypocrisy, proclaimed that he himself would enforce his own law, and slew himself with his own blade. This is almost certainly fictional and there are similar legends about other lawgivers. The less poetic but more plausible tale is that he was exiled after his failure to defend Himera against the Carthaginians in the previous year.
A modern drawing of the return of Alcibiades
While Diocles was in disfavour in Syracuse, Alcibiades was greatly in favour back in Athens. He sailed to the port of Piraeus in triumph, having won many victories and restoring much of the previous naval dominance of Athens. He was received by a cheering, ecstatic crowd. Afterwards he even led a great procession to Eleusis, as a way of showing that he was innocent of the Profanation of the Mysteries.
So when the fleet came to land the multitude turned to the ship of Alcibiades, and as he stepped from it all gave their welcome to the man, congratulating him on both his successes and his return from exile. He in turn, after greeting the crowds kindly, called a meeting of the Assembly, and offering a long defence of his conduct he brought the masses into such a state of goodwill to him that all agreed that the city had been to blame for the decrees issued against him. Consequently they not only returned to him his property, which they had confiscated, but went farther and cast into the sea the stelae on which were written his sentence and all the other acts passed against him; and they also voted that the Eumolpidae should revoke the curse they had pronounced against him at the time when men believed he had profaned the Mysteries. And to cap all they appointed him general with supreme power both on land and on sea and put in his hands all their armaments. They also chose as generals others whom he wished, namely, Adeimantus and Thrasybulus. Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Book 13, written circa 40BC
This appeared very promising to the Athenians. Alcibiades was, for all his other faults, a genuinely talented commander and someone who seemed to have a strange relationship with destiny. He was elected as general and the affairs of the state were laid at his feet. The Athenian democracy had been fully restored at this point.
Papyrus fragment of part of Euripides' play Orestes
But there were troubling developments for the Athenians. The Spartans had chosen a new navarch, or commander of their naval forces. His name was Lysander and he sailed across the Aegean to meet up with the remnants of the Peloponnesian forces, which had taken refuge at Ephesus.
The Spartans had not just a new general, but a new sponsor. Cyrus the Younger, a son of the Persian King Darius II, had been sent to the western provinces to take control of the situation there. Pharnabazus and Tissaphernes were side-lined and Cyrus fully supported the Spartan cause. The Spartan fleet at Ephesus was supported with large sums of money. Lysander and Cyrus became fast friends and the two men became interested, not just in winning the war against Athens, but in helping each other with their own ambitions after the victory.
On hearing of the voyage of Lysander and the build-up of the Spartan fleet at Ephesus, Alcibiades sailed back across the Aegean to the Athenian naval base at Samos. Alcibiades tried to lure Lysander out to battle, perhaps intending to use the same stratagem as at the Battle of Cyzicus, but Lysander was too wily to engage before his forces were ready. He had time and money on his side and intended to use them.
Around this time, the various cities on the island of Rhodes united into a single city. This was a sensible way of making their lands more defensible, reducing the possibility of wars and of making their state one that would be of consequence in later times.
Orestes pursued by the Furies,
by William Adolphe Bouguereau, AD1862
Around this time Euripides is said to have written the plays Orestes and Phoenician Women around this time. The Phoenician Women is set in a similar dramatic setting to the much earlier play of Aeschylus called Seven Against Thebes. Here the chorus of Phoenician Women beholds the trauma of the city of Thebes under siege. In the play Orestes, which has much the same setting as Aeschylus' play The Libation Bearers. This play sees the revenge of Orestes against his mother Clytemnestra, but also the moral dilemmas that are invoked by avenging the slaying of a parent, who must be avenged, by slaying a parent, who must be avenged. The plays were not well received and did not win prizes. Despite the high reputation of Euripides in the rest of the Greek world, he was not particularly successful in Athens. It is said that he left Athens to go to the court of Archelaus I of Macedon around this time.
The play Orestes is highly unusual in that it is the only play for which music survives. We know that the Greek tragedies were set to tunes and the lines were in many cases sung. For this play, a small fragment of music has in fact survived. This is known as the Katolophyromai, called so from the opening words in the fragment. The fragment itself is of a much later date and may be of a later interpretation of the music, but if it is original, then it is the oldest piece of Greek music yet known and by extension, the oldest European music known to us. It is not however the oldest piece of music known to us, as some music from the Near East is considerably older. I have included a video of someone interpreting the fragment.
Musical interpretation of Katolophyromai melody from Euripides' Orestes
In Athens, the Theban general Coeratadas was being taken ashore from the Piraeus. He had been taken prisoner at Byzantium and as a general of the hated city of Thebes, must have expected harsh treatment or possibly death at the hands of the Athenians. Instead he pulled off a daring escape, managing to orchestrate a disturbance and then mingle into the crowd. Taken to Athens to meet his fate, he simply walked out of the city with his head held high and slipped away to his native Thebes unharmed. It is not the first escape known to us, nor particularly elaborate, but it takes a certain courage and sang-froid to pull off such a feat.
The Olympic Games were held that year. Eubotas of Cyrene won the stadion race. Polydamas of Skotoussa won the pancration competition. Evagoras of Elis won the synoris chariot race, or more accurately, owned the team of horses that won the race. The normal chariot racing in the Olympics was the tethrippon, the four horse race. The Synoris was added in this Olympiad and was a two-horse chariot race. The winning horses of the tethrippon chariot race were owned by the ambitious and cultured King Archelaus of Macedon.
These games saw Polydamas of Skotoussa win the pancration. He was internationally famous for his feats of strength, like Milo of Croton in the previous century. He was said to have been summoned to the court of Darius II of Persia to show his prowess. He was said to have slain a lion on Mount Olympus in unarmed combat and to have been strong enough to bring a speeding chariot to a dead halt. According to tales he later died while attempting to hold up a cave that was collapsing on himself and his friends. His friends escaped, but he could not hold the weight indefinitely and so he died. Many of these tales are doubtless legends, but interesting stories nonetheless.
Lais of Corinth painted by Hans Holbein
the Younger
Another tale of these times is that there was a beautiful hetaira, or courtesan, named Lais of Corinth who was the lover of Eubotas of Cyrene, the victor of the stadion race. Their relationship may have been some years later, nevertheless Lais was referred to as the most beautiful woman in Greece at the time.
In the year 407 the Athenian general Thrasybulus was active in Thrace and the northern Aegean, recapturing Abdera and Thasos. After this he went to besiege the promontory of Phocaea.
Alcibiades, who had the Athenian fleet moored at Notium, went to assist Thrasybulus, leaving his helmsman Antiochus in charge of the Athenian fleet. Antiochus was charged not to attack under any circumstances, but in fact tried to lure the Spartans out of their harbour with a small decoy force. This failed badly, and Antiochus' ship was sunk. The Athenians straggled out to help the decoy force, which was now in trouble, and the Spartans inflicted a defeat on the Athenians. This was known as the Battle of Notium or alternatively, the Battle of Ephesus. It was not a very serious defeat, but it was a boost to Lysander's reputation.
Statue of an athlete in Athens
Antiochus was dead, so the blame for the defeat fell on the absent Alcibiades, who had left his steersman in charge of the bulk of the Athenian navy. Alcibiades attempted to make up for it by sailing to the city of Cyme, hoping to provoke it into rebellion and sack it to then gain extra money for his underpaid troops. The people of Cyme did not take the bait and instead reported his behaviour to the Athenians. The Athenians, who had welcomed Alcibiades back with open arms and made him commander-in-chief only the year before, now believed him to be contemplating switching sides once more.
The Athenians deprived Alcibiades of command, and word reached Alcibiades of a series of lawsuits that were being lodged against him. One of the more serious lawsuits to Alcibiades, although rather amusing to an outside observer, was of a man who claimed that Alcibiades had borrowed his best horses and won an Olympic victory in the tethrippon chariot race without crediting the owner and pretending that he himself was the victor. This is all very amusing, but Alcibiades had neither funds to pay damages, nor the intention of answering his accusers. He took his leave of the navy and sailed to the region of the Hellespont, where he had some land, and lived in a small fortress there for the next years.
Around this time, either in this year or the preceding one, Hermocrates had conspired to return to Syracuse. A number of his aristocratic supporters attempted to sneak him back into the city at night, but the plot, which bore all the hallmarks of a coup even if it wasn't one, was discovered and fighting broke out. In the confusion Hermocrates was slain. He had done much to protect Syracuse against the Athenians, but its citizens had exiled him nonetheless and now they had killed him.
Statue of Euripides
It was around this time that the playwright Euripides wrote the plays Bacchae and Iphigenia at Aulis. Euripides was Athenian, but he had left the city and wrote them at the court Archelaus I of Macedon. Both plays survive and were later directed by Euripides' son or nephew in Athens some years later. The Bacchae is a play about one of the darker sides of Greek mythology, describing an episode where the women of Thebes tear apart and destroy the sacrilegious king of Thebes under the maddening influence of the god Dionysus.
Iphigenia at Aulis is an even darker play in some ways. The dramatic setting is Aulis, in Boeotia, where the Greek navy is about to embark on the Trojan War. Agamemnon commands the navy, but the winds are against him. Finally the seers tell him that to sail, he must sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia. The plot revolves on the horror of a father willingly deciding that his goal is so dear that he will murder his child to achieve it. The ending of the play that we have is probably a later interpolation and it is not clear how Euripides ended this story.
Finally, around this time, although we can in no way be sure of the exact date or year, a young man of Athens, possibly called Aristocles, but more usually referred to as Platon or Plato, became a follower of the controversial Socrates. Socrates was an unusual man, famed equally for his cleverness and his ugliness, who delighted in asking questions of the great men of Athens until they became frustrated. Many young people in Athens and further afield became almost disciples of Socrates, but he wrote no books that we know of, nor preached any specific doctrines. He questioned, and others put their own interpretation onto his words. Numerous philosophical doctrines would be inspired by the life and questions of Socrates, but perhaps none has been more influential for the world than the philosophy of Plato.
Bust of Socrates
Perhaps it was around this time that Xenophon of Athens began to spend time with Socrates as well. Xenophon was not a philosopher of anything like the calibre of Plato, but he wrote many historical works later in his life and is useful to our understanding of this period.
In the year 406 the Carthaginians, angered by the raids of Hermocrates on their settlements in Sicily, decided to counterattack and perhaps conquer the entire island. Hannibal Mago was chosen as the commander of the forces and a large army of Carthaginians, allies and mercenaries was assembled. Hannibal Mago's cousin, Himilco, was also sent as one of the commanders of the fleet and army. The Greeks of Sicily, now believing their entire way of life to be under threat, made preparations to meet the threat.
The Carthaginians landed in Sicily and moved against Acragas, a wealthy and powerful Greek city, famed in both culture and war, and a powerful ally of Syracuse. The Syracusans and other Greek states marched to the aid of Acragas. A Spartan general named Dexippus was also directing the defence of the city from the inside.
The Carthaginians fell victim to a plague while they were besieging Acragas. Many Carthaginians died and their commander, Hannibal Mago, also succumbed to the disease. Himilco assumed command and continued the siege, building great siege ramps to attack the city while ordering great sacrifices to the gods in an attempt to stop the plague.
The Syracusans marched against the weakened Carthaginians, bringing allies from the Greeks in Italy and reinforcements from the Greek cities of Gela and Camarina. The Carthaginians sallied out of their camps against them, but were defeated by the Greeks. The Greeks however were unable to take the Carthaginian camps and the two sides settled into a near stalemate. The Carthaginians could not take Acragas, while the Syracusans could not storm the Carthaginian camps.
Temple at Acragas
Himilco, realising that without prompt action from himself, the Carthaginians would eventually be destroyed, used his ships to ambush and destroy the grain convoys that were supplying the city of Acragas with food. This action terrified the people of Acragas, who had assumed that they could be easily supplied by sea and had not stockpiled their food. Facing starvation after a siege of around eight months, the people of Acragas abandoned the city in winter, leaving behind practically all their copious wealth. The aged and the sick and any who feared the breakout attempt were left in the city to fend for themselves.
Himilco's army took the city the next day, thoroughly sacking it and slaying most of those left behind. One of the dead was said to be Tellias, a wealthy philanthropist famed for his generosity. The loot captured was immense, as Acragas had been the second most powerful city on the island of Sicily. Himilco then wintered in the city.
Meanwhile, in this same year, the Spartans had sent out Callicratidas, a traditionalist Spartan commander, to take control of their fleet. Because of the dangers of commanding abroad for too long, the Spartans were keen that their generals and admirals (the exact title in this case was "navarch") only command for a single year. Lysander was vain and ambitious and was feared by many Spartans at home. Callicratidas was not popular with Sparta's allies and quarrelled with the Persian prince Cyrus, who was financing the Spartan fleet. Lysander had made Callicratidas' position more difficult by returning funds to Cyrus before the new navarch arrived, thus forcing Callicratidas to either ask Cyrus for more money, or risk not paying his crews. An old-school Spartan who disapproved of the Persian alliance, Callicratidas was thus set on a collision course with the Persians.
Temple at Acragas
The Athenian fleet was commanded by Conon, who had been sent out to command the fleet after the flight of Alcibiades. He had fewer ships than the Spartans and could barely afford to pay his soldiers and sailors. He also had strategic disadvantages. The Spartans could choose to attack at various points, but Conon needed to defend the Hellespont at all costs, in order that the grain ships could continue to reach Athens from the Black Sea.
The Spartans attacked and took Methymna, on the island of Lesbos. Lesbos was a large island and close to the Hellespont, so Conon was forced to defend it. He sailed against the Spartans, but was outnumbered (perhaps 70 ships versus 170 Spartan ships. The Athenian fleet was no longer experienced and battle-hardened, being filled with many newer recruits. In an engagement near Mytilene Conon was defeated and lost 30 ships. His remaining 40 ships were blockaded in the harbour of Mytilene and the Spartan land forces besieged the city from the landward side. However, Conon managed to dispatch a ship bearing news of the desperate situation to Athens.
Athenian grave marker
The Athenians realised the danger. The 40 ships under Conon were some of the last remnants of their once invincible navy. If these were defeated, as they surely would be, the Spartans would close the Hellespont and then sail to Athens to besiege the city from land and sea. Another fleet must be raised without delay. Athens was at the end of its resources and so enrolled even slaves and foreigners to for the fleet. These were to be given Athenian citizenship and, in the case of the slaves, their freedom. The last remaining wealth of the city was expended and every ship pressed into service. The fleet then sailed to Samos, summoning every allied ship available to join them there.
The Spartan navarch Callicratidas, upon hearing of the Athenian relief force approaching, left a force of around 50 triremes to guard Mytilene while taking the remainder of his fleet, around 120 triremes to meet the Athenians at a place called Arginusae. He came upon the Athenians at nightfall and was tempted to attack, but was prevented from doing so by bad weather.
The next day the Athenians, whose new and inexperienced crews were not used to naval warfare, took to the seas. They outnumbered the Spartans and their allies, but dared not do any complex manoeuvres. Instead they formed up in a double-line, so that if any Peloponnesian ships attempted to row through the line and then turn suddenly to ram amidships, that that ship would then immediately be rammed by a ship in the second line. It was a very defensive formation and one that the Athenian admirals at the beginning of the war would have laughed at.
Frieze from the Temple of Apollo at Bassae
However, Callicratidas did not know how to break the Athenian formation and ordered a simple all-out attack. His outnumbered ships were unable to use their superior seamanship and suffered a heavy defeat. The Athenians lost 25 ships at the Battle of Arginusae, while the Peloponnesians lost 69 ships. Callicratidas died in the attack and the leaderless Spartan fleet fled, mostly towards Chios.
The Athenians attempted to sail straightaway to the relief of Conon, fearing that the Spartans might launch a pre-emptive attack on Mytilene. Theramenes and Thrasybulus were ordered to pick up the survivors from the 25 sunken ships, while the others sailed on to Lesbos. However a great storm arose and the Athenians were unable to either reach Mytilene or to pick up their survivors. 25 ships might have had perhaps 200 men each aboard. Thus, the Battle of Arginusae, while a great Athenian victory, came at a price that Athens could ill afford.
Word reached Eteonicus, who was the commander of the Spartan fleet bottling up the Athenians at Mytilene. He pretended that Sparta had won a great victory, to lull the suspicions of the Athenians in the harbour, before retreating to Chios under the cover of darkness.
When news of the victory reached Athens there was much rejoicing. This soon turned to sorrow when it was heard that so many had perished, and there was a public debate as to why the sailors from the sunken ships had not been rescued. The eight generals (not counting Conon) who had been victorious at Arginusae heard that there was anger in the city and, assuming that it had been stirred against them by those who had been asked to rescue the drowning sailors, seem to have accused others of failing to pick up survivors. Theramenes in particular was probably blamed. Theramenes may in fact have been stirring up resentment against the generals and when six of the generals returned to Athens (two had already fled), they were formally charged with the deaths of the dead sailors.
Theramenes took charge of the prosecution against the generals, despite the fact that they had asked him to pick up the sailors. Thrasybulus, who had also been in charge of the rescue attempt, seems to have stayed out of the debate. The generals made the defence that no one was to blame really and that the storm was the only real culprit; a tragic, but understandable circumstance. This would have the added benefit of allowing Theramenes, who was the unofficial leader of those who supported moderate oligarchy, to cease persecuting them, as he would not be liable for prosecution either. The strategy seems to have been working.
Unfortunately the timing of the trial now gave the trial a life of its own. The Apaturia festival took place the next day. This was a time for Athenian families to meet with each other and the empty places left by the dead sailors of Arginusae whipped the resentment of the people into a roaring fury.
Bust of Socrates
A politician named Callixeinus proposed that there should be an immediate trial of the generals, not through the normal legal means, but held in the Assembly. The generals would also be tried as a group, rather than as individuals. This was against Athenian law. Euryptolemus, who was a cousin of the disgraced Alcibiades, stood against the motion, but stood down once it became clear that the enemies of the generals would execute those who sought to defend them. However, the president of the Assembly, a randomly selected councilman who would hold office for a day, happened to be Socrates. Socrates ignored the open threats of Callixeinus and his allies and refused to allow the motion to be voted on. Euryptolemus recovered his courage once more, but on the next meeting of the Assembly Socrates was no longer president and the motion to try and execute the generals as a group passed.
This obstinate dissentient was Socrates, the son of Sophroniscus, who insisted that he would do nothing except in accordance with the law. After this Euryptolemus rose and spoke in behalf of the generals. Xenophon, Hellenica, written circa 355BC
Among the men executed were Thrasyllus, who had been an Athenian general in previous years, and Pericles the Younger, the son of Pericles and Aspasia, who had been granted citizenship as a last favour to Pericles. Shortly after the execution of the generals, the Athenians realised what a terrible mistake it had been and passed a sentence against Callixeinus. Callixeinus fled Athens and his property was confiscated by the state.
While Athens was tearing itself apart in the madness of the trial of the generals, the Spartans were facing their own dilemmas. They had once again been defeated at sea, by an Athens that seemed to refuse to accept defeat. Many must have felt that the war could not be won, others must have feared that if the war continued that the ambitious navarch Lysander must become more powerful. Thus the Spartans proposed a peace treaty. The Spartans would hand over Decelea to the Athenians while the status quo in the Aegean would be maintained (i.e. Athens could not attempt to reconquer Methymna, Chios and other states that had revolted against Athens).
This was a rather reasonable proposition by the Spartans, but the Athenians, urged on by a popular speaker named Cleophon, turned it down. They felt that they could perhaps win another great victory and maybe restore their empire, perhaps to not the extent that it had been, but at least with undisputed control of the Aegean. Athenian daring had always carried the day for them before: Perhaps it could win them one last throw of the die.
Coin of Archelaus I of Macedon
In this year it is said that both Sophocles and Euripides died. Sophocles died respected in Athens while Euripides is said to have died in the northern kingdom of Macedonia at the court of King Archelaus. Both of these playwrights would be remembered as some of the finest playwrights to have ever lived and their works are performed to this day.
In this year, the temple of the Erechtheion was completed on the Acropolis in Athens. This was a temple encompassing a number of different shrines to various heroes and deities, including a sacred snake that was said to live nearby. It had been under construction for many years previously, but was finished around this time.
In 405 the Carthaginian commander Himilco demolished the city of Acragas, leaving only the remains of the temples and moved on to attack the city of Gela. Gela was also on the southern coast of Sicily and was another stepping stone towards Syracuse itself.
Temple of the Erechtheion
In Syracuse, a citizen Dionysus, a Syracusan general who may have been the son of Hermocrates, accused the generals of cowardice and possible treachery. He was granted sole overall command of the war effort and was given a bodyguard to protect against his enemies. He hired large numbers of mercenaries, while gathering allies from the Greek cities of Italy and Sicily.
The Carthaginians pressed the siege of Gela while the citizens of the city defended fiercely. The Carthaginians heavily fortified their camp, fully expecting the great army of Dionysus to attack them at any moment. This attack eventually came and a hard-fought battle on land and sea ensued, with the Carthaginians eventually carrying the day. Dionysus urged that the city of Gela be abandoned and that the people of Gela retreat to Syracuse.
No sooner had Gela been abandoned than the retreating Syracusans urged the abandonment of Camarina, which was also on the southern coast of Sicily. The Carthaginian army looted Gela and must have marched on Camarina on hearing of its abandonment.
Temple of the Erechtheion
Now however the Syracusans began to feel that Dionysus was not really wanting to fight the Carthaginians, but had instead a plan to make himself the tyrant of Syracuse. Thus a large number of Syracusan cavalrymen galloped onwards to Syracuse and looted his house and abused his wife while barring the gates against Dionysus. Dionysus realised what they intended and swiftly marched after them taking the city by surprise and winning a pitched battle in the streets with his mercenaries. His opponents fled to Leontini and Etna and Dionysus now became the tyrant Dionysus I of Syracuse.
Shortly after this Dionysus and Himilco contracted a treaty between them. The Carthaginians would subject Selinus, Acragas, Himera, Gela and Camarina to tribute, as well as the peoples of the interior. Syracuse would be independent and ruled by Dionysus, but Dionysus should not molest the cities of Leontini and Messene. The prisoners were to be exchanged. It must be wondered why Himilco did not press his advantage and attack further? The answer seems to be simply that his army was being destroyed once more by the plague. Diodorus Siculus implies that half Himilco's army was slain by plague and that when the Carthaginians returned to Africa that they brought the plague with them. Himilco had won many victories, but the death toll of the plague prevented Carthage from profiting from these victories.
Coin of the city of Gela in Sicily
Consequently Himilco, acting under the stress of circumstances, dispatched a herald to Syracuse urging the vanquished to make up their differences. Dionysius was glad to comply and they concluded peace on the following terms: To the Carthaginians shall belong, together with their original colonists, the Elymi and Sicani; the inhabitants of Selinus, Acragas, and Himera as well as those of Gela and Camarina may dwell in their cities, which shall be unfortified, but shall pay tribute to the Carthaginians; the inhabitants of Leontini and Messene and the Siceli shall all live under laws of their own making, and the Syracusans shall be subject to Dionysius; and whatever captives and ships are held shall be returned to those who lost them. As soon as this treaty had been concluded, the Carthaginians sailed off to Libya, having lost more than half their soldiers from the plague; but the pestilence continued to rage no less in Libya also and great numbers both of the Carthaginians themselves and of their allies were struck down. Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Book 13, written circa 40BC
Around this time Seuthes II, a high-ranking Thracian general, probably from the royal family, revolted against King Amadocus I of the Odrysian kingdom. Little is known of the revolt save that Seuthes II effectively created a rival Thracian kingdom along the Aegean coastline.
Coin of Syracuse
In Sparta, Lysander was once again appointed as the navarch of the Spartan fleet and was dispatched to Ephesus. Here he made contact with the Persian prince Cyrus and was given a large sum of money. Cyrus counselled to wait for the opportune moment before facing the Athenians again. Money was plentiful and easily replaced, but men were not. Lysander rebuilt his fleet and strengthened the morale of his troops.
The Athenian fleet was based at Samos and was now raiding Persian territory in Asia Minor. Lysander waited until summer when his forces were sufficiently ready to challenge the Athenians once more. He then bypassed the Athenian fleet at Samos and moved to the Hellespont, where the grain ships bearing the harvest were soon to be passing. The Athenian navy now had to follow.
Lysander and the Peloponnesians attacked Lampsacus, a city on the Asian side of the Hellespont and now used this as a base from which they could attack shipping. The Persians could now supply the Spartans directly from the land as well. Fearing the damage that Lysander could do, the Athenians made a base across the straits at a place called Aegospotami.
Alcibiades, who had a fortified dwelling nearby, came to see the Athenian generals and advised them to move to Sestos, as their base at Aegospotami was too exposed. The generals advised Alcibiades to mind his own business. Aegospotami was too exposed. Everyone knew it. But to move to Sestos was to allow Lysander to capture the grain ships. Thus Alcibiades' advice was problematic. For Athens to survive, Lysander had to be brought to battle and defeated in the straits.
Vase painting by the Sisyphus Painter
What happened next is unclear. The Athenians tried for some successive days to lure Lysander out to battle, but to no avail. Lysander waited and waited, while the Athenians grew more incautious. There is also the possibility that Lysander was in contact with certain Athenian generals. Finally, when the Athenians had either made a feint attack, or had returned to their base, Lysander swiftly manned his vessels, crossed the straits and captured nearly the entire Athenian fleet on the beach. The Battle of Aegospotami, the final battle of the Great Peloponnesian War, was an anti-climax. Most of the Athenian sailors were captured without fighting.
Conon, the Athenian general, had managed to put to sea with 9 or 10 ships. These few ships managed to escape the Spartan surprise attack and sail away unscathed. Of these ships, two of them were the Athenian elite ships, the Paralus and the Salaminia. The Paralus took the news of the disaster to Athens, while Conon and the other 8 ships sailed southwards to Cyprus, where they took up service with King Evagoras of Salamis. Conon must have feared that the Athenians would execute him, but he never fled to the King of Persia or surrendered to the Spartans.
Lysander was not merciful with the Athenians. The Athenian allies were let free, but 3000 Athenian captives were slain, as well as all their generals except Adeimantus, who fell under suspicion of having betrayed the fleet.
Of the triremes only ten escaped. Conon the general, who had one of them, gave up any thought of returning to Athens, fearing the wrath of the people, but sought safety with Evagoras, who was in control of Cyprus and with whom he had relations of friendship; and of the soldiers the majority fled by land to Sestos and found safety there. The rest of the ships Lysander captured, and taking prisoner Philocles the general, he took him to Lampsacus and had him executed. Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Book 13, written circa 40BC
Stela in Athens recording the friendship between Samos and
Athens
Once news of the Spartan victory spread throughout the Greek world, nearly all of the Athenian allies defected from the Athenian empire. The only ones to stand strong were the Samians, who had recently installed a democratic government and were considered the last reliable friends of Athens. Lysander left a besieging force to take Samos and sailed against Athens. The Athenians voted that all Samians should be granted Athenian citizenship and left a memorial to the friendship and loyalty of the Samians during Athens' darkest hour.
Now Pausanias and Agis, the two kings of Sparta, besieged the walls of Athens from the land, while Lysander blockaded the Piraeus with 200 triremes. Inside Athens there was a panic, but fearing what the Spartans would do and urged on by the popular leader Cleophon, the Athenians fought on; without ships, without food, without hope.
Attempts were made to negotiate with the Spartan kings besieging them, but the kings advised the Athenians to go to Sparta, where the Spartans may have been summoning a conference of all their allies, old and new, to determine the fate of the Athenians. Theramenes was dispatched to Sparta where he was kept for three months while the Spartans deliberated.
While some Spartan allies, namely Corinth and Thebes, were in favour of destroying Athens entirely, Sparta was inclined to leave the city intact. The one thing that the Spartans insisted on was the destruction of the famed Long Walls that stretched from Athens to Piraeus and meant that Athens, as long as she had a fleet, could withstand a siege by land.
The terms were brought back to Athens, where they were seen as extremely harsh. Athens was prepared to fight on to keep her Long Walls. The demagogue Cleophon was the main influence behind the rejection of these terms, despite the urging of Theramenes to accept them. However, as the hunger bit ever deeper into the Athenians, the words of Cleophon rang ever hollower.
Earlier in this year Euripides' plays, the Bacchae, Iphigenia in Aulis and Alcmaeon in Corinth were performed posthumously. Euripides had always been more popular outside Athens and had seldom won prizes at the Great Dionysia, winning only four prizes during his life. Now that he was dead, the Athenians finally realised the genius of their playwright and Dionysus won his fifth prize posthumously. More plays of Euripides survive than of any other Greek tragedian.
This legacy of Euripides is parodied and explored by Aristophanes' play The Frogs, which has the god Dionysus and his slave Xanthias descend to the underworld to meet Aeschylus and Euripides. As with all Old Comedy, there are pointed political overtones. The play is not explicitly political, but it does excoriate Cleophon and some scholars suggest that it may have included a coded reference to Alcibiades, hinting that the return of Alcibiades might save Athens at the final hour, like a god from a machine in one of the tragedies of Euripides.
A later depiction of a manticore
Around this time the historian Ctesias flourished. He was a court physician to the King of Persia and wrote a number of books, including the Indica, which was a view of India as it was known to the Persians. He also wrote a history of Persia known as the Persica. Both of these books are very badly preserved and only really come down to us in excerpted form. From what does survive, we can assume that either everyone who read Ctesias misquoted him, or that he was a terrible historian. Almost none of his writings are verifiable. I suspect that he may not have spoken Persian or Aramaic well and may have misunderstood his hosts when they told him stories. For example his description of the Manticore in the Indica is likely to just be a Persian description of a tiger.
The painter Parrhasius, famed as one of the greatest Greek painters, flourished around this time. It is said that the older Zeuxis competed against Parrhasius in a painting contest. Zeuxis is said to have painted grapes so realistically that his painting was damaged by birds trying to eat the grapes. Parrhasius was impressed, but asked Zeuxis to unveil his own painting. Zeuxis tried to pull aside the curtain covering the painting only to realise that the painting was in fact of the curtain. Zeuxis is said to have graciously accepted defeat, saying that "Zeuxis has fooled the birds, but Parrhasius has fooled Zeuxis". This is almost certainly a later anecdote from later times.
Around this time the Apulian red-figure vase painter known as the Sisyphus Painter flourished. His works show that other high prestige vase-painting workshops were now becoming significant throughout the Greek world. The strain of the Peloponnesian War had probably damaged the Athenian pottery export trade, as it had damaged everything else in the city.
It was also around this time that the magnificent friezes in the little-known Arcadian temple at Bassae, dedicated to Apollo Epicurius, were completed. This temple was quite remote. Arcadia was famed as a rural region even in Classical times. The elaborate temple may have been created as a thank offering to Apollo for alleviating a plague some decades previously. The remoteness of the region preserved the temple and its artwork until the modern era. Many of the artworks were taken to the British Museum, although even now they are remote, only being open to the public at very limited times.
Frieze from the Temple of Apollo at Bassae
In the year 404 Athenian victory was not found. By this time the Athenians were literally starving in the streets. There was no food and no hope of food. The Spartans had surrounded the city by land and sea and there was no hope of relief. Their only remaining ally, Samos, was also under siege. The city had been persuaded to keep fighting by Cleophon, but he was now deeply unpopular among the aristocratic class of the city. Using some legal dodges, Cleophon was put on trial for his life on a charge of neglecting his duty and executed.
Once Cleophon was dead, the popular opposition to peace terms evaporated, perhaps partly out of fear of the aristocrats. The Athenians made terms with the Spartans. They agreed to tear down their Long Walls, tear down the walls of the Piraeus and hand over all but 12 triremes of any ships that they might yet have. The terms were not as harsh as they might have been and the Spartans did not massacre the Athenians or sell them into slavery, as many had believed that they might. It is possible that the Spartans feared the ambition of the Thebans and wished to have keep some power in Athens to resist the Thebans to the north.
When this was done, the Athenians came into dire want of everything, but especially of food, because this had always come to them by sea. Since the suffering increased day by day, the city was filled with dead, and the survivors sent ambassadors and concluded peace with the Lacedaemonians on the terms that they should tear down the two long walls and those of the Piraeus, keep no more than ten ships of war, withdraw from all the cities, and recognize the hegemony of the Lacedaemonians. And so the Peloponnesian War, the most protracted of any of which we have knowledge, having run for twenty-seven years, came to the end we have described. Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Book 13, written circa 40BC
The city of Samos held out for longer than the Athenians, but eventually on hearing of the Athenian surrender they came to terms, which allowed the defenders to leave the island, but without taking away any of their possessions with them. After finishing off the war, Lysander sailed to the Peloponnese in triumph bringing the vast wealth and trophies of the war. He was justly famed as perhaps the most influential man in the Greek world at this time; the navarch who had defeated the Athenian empire. The Great Peloponnesian War, which had lasted for 27 years had now finally drawn to a close.
The Athenian empire was no more, but the Spartan hegemony had begun. Spartan officials were put in place across the cities of the Greek world. These officials were known as harmosts and they were quickly hated. The Spartans began to ask for tribute for themselves and the harmosts became known as corrupt, greedy incompetents. The Spartans also disliked democracies and either set up oligarchic governments in the newly freed cities or allowed the aristocrats to overthrow the democracies themselves.
Frieze from the Temple of Apollo at Bassae
Athens herself was not immune. Under Spartan pressure, the democratic constitution of the Athenians was suspended and thirty aristocrats were established as an interim government that would draw up new laws. The thirty were led by Critias and Theramenes. Critias was a talented sophist who passionately hated democracy and who wanted the government to be controlled by a tiny minority of citizens. Theramenes was a moderate oligarch, who favoured a government controlled by several thousand of the richer citizens. We might refer to Theramenes as a democrat who believed in a highly restricted franchise. Critias made sure to include Theramenes and his supporters in the Thirty, as they would otherwise form a powerful and credible opposition. But Critias and his supporters took care to maintain a majority within the Thirty.
Critias asked for and received a Spartan garrison from Lysander. With this backup Critias and Theramenes began condemning the informers under the democratic regime to death. These people had informed on those who were felt to be enemies of the democracy and after the failed oligarchic coup seven years previously they had probably been responsible for the death of many aristocrats. The aristocrats now took their revenge.
Critias now began to go further, murdering any opponents of the regime without any semblance of a trial. The reasons became increasingly specious, until even Theramenes began to object to the terror. The Thirty became known in later writings as the Thirty Tyrants and it is said that around 1500 people were murdered in the terror they unleashed. Many Athenians now fled to nearby cities or overseas rather than risk murder because they had offended the inflexible Critias.
The ground being thus cleared, as it were, and feeling that they had it in their power to do what they pleased, they embarked on a course of wholesale butchery, to which many were sacrificed to the merest hatred, many to the accident of possessing riches. Presently the question rose, 'How they were to get money to pay their guards?' And to meet this difficulty a resolution was passed empowering each of the committee to seize on one of the resident aliens apiece, to put his victim to death, and to confiscate his property. Xenophon, Hellenica, written circa 355BC
Poison hemlock, which was probably the plant used by the
Athenians to execute political prisoners
Theramenes now began to openly oppose Critias. Critias accused Theramenes of treason in the Council chamber. Theramenes defended himself with a speech, but Critias had already prepared the armed guards of the Thirty to seize Theramenes. Theramenes leapt to an altar of Hestia, crying out that he did not believe it would save his life, but that it would show the impiety of Critias and his thugs. The guards dragged Theramenes from the altar, through the Agora and into the jail, where he was forced to drink hemlock. Xenophon hated Theramenes, but he records that Theramenes died well, contemptuously making a joke at Critias' expense with the dregs of the hemlock.
With Theramenes dead, the Thirty Tyrants began to kill even more of the populace. Many now fled to the nearby cities of Thebes and Megara. The Spartans issued orders to say that no city of Greece should shelter the Athenian refugees, but the Thebans in particular flouted the order and it damaged the reputation of Sparta that they were prepared to defend such a cruel regime as the Thirty Tyrants.
Vase painting by the Jena Painter
One of those killed was Leon of Salamis. He was probably a general who had served with Conon in the fleet after the final defection and had perhaps been one of the blockade runners who had brought word of Conon's encirclement at Mytilene. Either way, he lived on the island of Salamis and was hated by the Thirty. Five men were sent to bring him to Athens so he could be put to death. One of these men was Socrates, who was known for his eccentric views, but also his strict moral code. Socrates listened gravely to the order to bring Leon for death and then simply went home instead. This action was seen as an act of resistance to the Thirty, as indeed it was, but it did not save Leon, who was taken to his death by the other four. For all of Socrates' courageous non-violent resistance to the tyranny, it was not forgotten that Critias, the architect of the bloodshed, had once been a student of Socrates.
One who did not die was Lysias. Lysias was a foreign orator and a very wealthy man. He was probably originally from Syracuse, but had spent time in Thurii, before being exiled from there to Athens. The Thirty Tyrants conceived a hatred against foreigners, particularly rich foreigners. Lysias' brother Polemarchus was arrested and executed by being forced to drink hemlock. Lysias managed to pay a bribe and escaped, before fleeing to nearby Megara. It seems that Lysias used what remained of his wealth to aid those Athenians who had fled from the tyrants.
It was during this time that Alcibiades moved his residence to a fortified house in Hellespontine Phrygia, the domain of the Persian satrap Pharnabazus. It seems that either the Spartans could not allow Alcibiades to live, or that he had made local enemies. Either way, his house was attacked in the night while he was sleeping with his mistress Timandra. He made his way out through the flames before being shot down with arrows and javelins by his foes. Thus died Alcibiades, believed by the Athenians to be the prodigy of the age.
How great his abilities actually were is debateable, but he was certainly a remarkable person. He was a man who had served and betrayed Athens, Sparta and Persia. He had brought victory wherever he went, yet his ideas were often folly and the Sicilian Expedition has to be seen as one of the reasons for the defeat of Athens. Some see him as a psychopath, others see the fault to lie primarily in the Athenians who were willing to believe that Alcibiades was genuinely brilliant when in fact he was merely passably lucky. Ultimately he will be a mystery forever.
The Olympic Games were held this year. Krokinas of Larissa won the stadion race. Symmachos of Elis won the wrestling competition. Lasthenes of Thebes won the dolichos race. Promachos of Pellene won the pancration. Eukles of Rhodes won the boxing competition. He was the grandson of the famed Diagoras of Rhodes, who had won Olympic boxing victories earlier in the century and whose sons had also won fame in the boxing and pancration contests.
Frieze from the temple of Apollo at Bassae
However, the greatest drama of the games is said to have ensued from the victory of Peisirrhodos of Thourioi in the boy's boxing competition. Pausanias recounts that the trainer of Peisirrhodos leapt into the ring to congratulate the victor. The spectators became aware that the trainer of Peisirrhodos was no man. In fact, the trainer, Kallipateira, was Peisirrhodos' mother.
She was taken before the Olympic judges, charged with impiety, for which the penalty in this instance was death. However she proudly stood before the judges and declaimed that she was the daughter of Diagoras of Rhodes. She spoke of her father's Olympic victories, of the Olympic crowns won by her three brothers, and now the Olympic victory of her son, thanks to her training. Even Eukles of Rhodes, who had just won the crown for boxing in this Olympic Games was her nephew. If any woman could ever enter the sacred area of Olympia, it was she.
The judges are said to have been in awe of the courage of Kallipateira and of the heroic prowess of her family, who had dominated the Olympics for three generations. She was not executed, but Pausanias notes that after this event trainers as well athletes were required to be in the nude, to prevent a repeat of this performance.
Statue of an athlete in Athens
In early 403, with Theban encouragement, Thrasybulus, an Athenian exile, seized the fortress of Phyle near the border of Boeotia and Attica. Thrasybulus had been an Athenian politician and general, involved in the oligarchic coup of 411, but also known as a friend of democracy. His leadership had been vital in the Athenian victory at Cyzicus in 410 and had been one of the trierarchs who had failed to pick up survivors at the Battle of Arginusae, although unlike Theramenes, he does not seem to have been involved in the trial of the generals afterwards. After the Thirty Tyrants came to power Thrasybulus was one of the first to oppose the tyrants and fled to Thebes, where he had been welcomed by Ismenias, an anti-Spartan Theban politician. Thebes and Athens were traditional enemies, but the plight of the Athenian democrats must have brought sympathy into even the hearts of enemies.
The Thirty Tyrants marched against Phyle. Thrasybulus only had 70 men with him and their forces were far stronger. However an unseasonal snowfall forced the soldiers of the tyrants back to Athens and the few men of Thrasybulus were able to kill many of the camp followers in the confusion of the snowstorm.
After this victory, the people of Attica flocked to Thrasybulus. Before the battle he had had 70 men. A few days later he had 700. Mounting a surprise attack in the early morning light Thrasybulus ambushed another army of the tyrants and killed many of the Spartan garrison. Hundreds more rushed to join the resistance of Thrasybulus.
Frieze from the Temple of Apollo at Bassae
Thrasybulus marched to the Piraeus with a force of around 1000 men. They occupied a hill known as Munychia (or Munichia). The Thirty Tyrants and their followers, as well as the Spartan garrison, came out to meet them. Thrasybulus and his men were outnumbered by at least 3:1. Critias himself led the oligarchic army and the forces of the tyrants advanced up the hill in what would be known as the Battle of Munychia.
Thrasybulus did not wait for the onset of the oligarchs and Spartans, but instead ordered a charge down the hill. This enthusiasm, combined with the weight of the charge, broke the morale of the oligarchic army. In the confusion, some turned to flee. Others may have switched sides. Critias was killed in the confusion, as were others of the Thirty Tyrants. The oligarchs and their Spartan allies fled back in disorder to Athens. The Athenian dead were not despoiled and were given back to their families under a truce.
The next day, the remaining members of the Thirty Tyrants were unable to control their supporters within Athens. The Thirty were deposed and a semi-democratic assembly known as the Three Thousand was put in its place. This was still quite an aristocratic assembly, but certainly more democratic than the Thirty had been. The remaining Thirty Tyrants fled to nearby Eleusis.
Coin of Thebes
So now there was a three-sided civil war, with the Thirty in Eleusis, the Three Thousand in Athens and Thrasybulus in Piraeus. The Thirty and the Three Thousand appealed to Sparta for help. The Spartans answered, sending an army under the command of King Pausanias and the general Lysander. Corinth and Thebes refused to help Sparta, saying that the Athenians had not violated the treaty. Lysander was intending to reinstate the Thirty Tyrants, or at least to wipe out the democrats in Piraeus. Pausanias seems to have wanted peace, if only to spite Lysander.
The Spartan army was a large one, battle-hardened, and with veteran commanders. Thrasybulus' men engaged them before Piraeus in a hard-fought battle. Thrasybulus and his men fought with courage and honour before being pushed back by the weight of numbers and eventually breaking. King Pausanias erected a trophy to the victory. Thrasybulus and his men manned the walls of Piraeus and awaited the siege.
But Pausanias did not besiege them. He had needed a Spartan victory to restore Spartan honour (Thrasybulus had previously defeated the Spartan garrison at Athens: too easily). Now that Pausanias had been victorious he opened negotiations. All parties in the civil war appealed to Sparta and a very creditable compromise was worked out in the end.
The democracy in Athens would be restored. The Spartans would withdraw their army in peace from Attica. Those who wished to leave Athens might go to the nearby city of Eleusis. No one who remained in Athens was to be prosecuted for anything done during the reign of the Thirty Tyrants. The only people who would be prosecuted were the Thirty themselves, the Eleven (the leaders of their secret police and executioners) and the Ten (those who had enforced the will of the tyrants on Piraeus). As most of these people had already fled, the end result was that the Athenians were to live at peace once more.
Vase painting by the Sisyphus Painter
Later, some of the remaining Thirty in Eleusis attempted to hire mercenaries to restart the civil war. Thrasybulus and the Athenians marched out against the remnant and executed the leaders of the conspiracy. Thrasybulus then made a peace between the democrats and the oligarchs. Athens had suffered so much that when Thrasybulus brought together the two parties in a lasting unity, he was spoken of as a greater statesman than Pericles. Pausanias, who wrote much later, speaks of Thrasybulus as the greatest Athenian who ever lived. He lacked a good biographer however, and his name is not well-known even among students of classics.
The oath they bound themselves by consisted of a simple assertion: "We will remember past offences no more;" and to this day the two parties live amicably together as good citizens, and the democracy is steadfast to its oaths. Xenophon, Hellenica, composed circa 355BC
Thrasybulus did not work alone. The orator Lysias also helped in the reconciliation, although he prosecuted one of the surviving Thirty Tyrants, Eratosthenes, for his involvement in the murder of Lysias' brother. Under the new regime, even one of the tyrants was eligible for a trial and it is unclear if Eratosthenes of Athens was found guilty or not.
In recognition of Lysias' aid to the exiles, Thrasybulus proposed an extension of Athenian citizenship to many of the resident foreigners. This was a wise and fore-sighted move; one that would have brought in many new citizens to a city recently hit with war, famine and plague. But Thrasybulus' motion was defeated in the Assembly.
Coin of Syracuse
Archinus and Eucleides, archons of Athens, blocked Thrasybulus' motion to extend the franchise, but they helped in restoring the civic pay to that of Periclean times. They were also instrumental in helping Thrasybulus bring in the amnesty for deeds of the civil war and for recalling the exiles. This amnesty allowed the return of the rather contemptible orator Andocides, who had been implicated in the desecration of the herms prior to the Sicilian Expedition.
Eucleides also championed a spelling reform, which added the eta and omega symbols to the Ionic alphabet that was used in Athens, abandoning the older Attic alphabet. This new alphabet is known to scholars as the Euclidean Alphabet in honour of the archon. It allowed all the vowel sounds to be represented, whereas previously some of these had been silent (in the Phoenician alphabet no vowels had been represented). The Euclidean Alphabet would eventually be generally adopted throughout the Greek world and would be the ancestor of the current Greek alphabet.
In 402 Lycophron of Pherae made himself the ruler of a part of Thessaly. This must have aggravated the ruling Aleuadae family, who held the traditional title of "Tagus", signifying their control of Thessaly. It is unclear exactly how much power Lycophron of Pherae actually had, but he was certainly known to have been important in Thessaly at the time.
Remains of the walls of Syracuse that were built up
during this period
During this time the tyrant Dionysus I of Syracuse was extending the city of Syracuse onto the hill of the Epipolae and building up the walls. By the end of the year Syracuse was one of the best fortified cities in the Greek world and was growing stronger.
In this year the comic poet Cephisodorus won a comedy prize in Athens, possibly at the Lenaea festival of the Athenians. Little else is known of Cephisodorus unfortunately.
In the year 401 King Agis II, the Spartan king from the Eurypontid line, died. He was not immediately replaced, as there appears to have been a controversy on who should replace him. His son Leotychides was the obvious choice. But there was some doubt raised against his legitimacy. The general Lysander was powerful in Sparta and favoured his own ex-lover Agesilaus. Agesilaus was the lame brother of Agis II and, despite his physical infirmity, was a trained Spartan warrior. It seems that while this doubt lingered, the Spartans hesitated to appoint either man as king.
Three years previously, Darius II of Persia had died and been succeeded by his son Artaxerxes II. This was not liked by his brother, Cyrus, who had hoped to succeed to the throne himself. The Persian satrap Tissaphernes had previously suggested that Cyrus was disloyal, and Cyrus had narrowly escaped execution only through the influence of his mother Parysatis who loved him dearly and interceded on his behalf.
Artaxerxes II of Persia
Cyrus, hitherto referred to as Cyrus the Younger to avoid confusion, had helped the Spartans, particularly Lysander, win their war against Athens and decided to use his influence with them to ask for the services of their fleet. Cyrus still held a large satrapy in western Asia and he made war on Tissaphernes, gathering Greek mercenaries while doing so. The Spartans hated Tissaphernes and were happy with this. The king was not displeased with his satraps fighting, as it meant that neither one would become too powerful. The end of the Peloponnesian War had led to many idle professional soldiers around the Aegean and they now gathered around Cyrus the Younger, drawn by the pay and the possibility of loot.
Cyrus the Younger had gathered a force of over 10,000 Greek mercenaries and had perhaps 40,000 other troops at his command. He set out to invade Pisidia, which he deemed to be in rebellion against himself. But Tissaphernes was too cunning to be fooled by the ruse. He correctly guessed that Cyrus was going to make a play for the empire itself.
The army passed through Cilicia, where the local dynasts made a clever strategy. Not knowing if Cyrus the Younger would win or lose, the local queen helped him, while her husband made an effort to block his path, without causing any real damage to Cyrus the Younger. This way, whether Cyrus the Younger won or lost, they could still stay in favour with Persia.
It was after the army had reached Tarsus that the Greeks realised that they had been tricked and that their expedition was in fact a civil war. Their commander, the Spartan general Clearchus, urged them onwards, telling them of the fantastic rewards that would be theirs should they follow. However, it now became clear that Cyrus the Younger did not have full control of his army. The Greeks would follow Clearchus and the other generals, but would not take orders directly from Cyrus the Younger. The Greeks wasted twenty days in Tarsus, deciding whether or not to continue, during which time Artaxerxes was gathering an army to meet the forces of Cyrus the Younger.
Bust of Xenophon
Cyrus the Younger passed the Cilician Gates and it was only here in Syria that he revealed that he was in fact marching against his brother the king. The Greeks were unhappy, but continued with the march. The tale is told in the writings of Xenophon's Anabasis. He was a soldier in the army and he wrote an account of it some years later, although he pretended that it was written by a person called Themistogenes the Syracusan, presumably as some form of pen-name.
Abrocomas, the bastard brother of the king and commander of the forces that had been gathered in Syria for the planned invasion of Egypt, had marched ahead of Cyrus the Younger and was presumably hoping to block the Royal Road into Assyria. It can only be surmised that Abrocomas, in command of large numbers of some of the best troops in Persia, engaged in scorched earth tactics. But it was all in vain.
After the delays in Tarsus, Cyrus did the last thing that he could do to gain surprise. He turned south, racing along the Euphrates River, far from the paved roads of the heartlands. This must have surprised both Artaxerxes II and Abrocomas and even though Abrocomas had initially had a head start on Cyrus the Younger, Cyrus was now in between the armies of the king and Abracomas. Artaxerxes was now forced to give battle without his most experienced troops to defend the city of Babylon.
At a place near Cunaxa on the bank of the Euphrates, Artaxerxes gave battle. He had mustered a much larger army than that of his brother, but it had no Greek phalanx. The Greeks were deployed at the right of Cyrus' forces, but when Cyrus asked the Greeks to be moved to the centre, Clearchus refused, fearing to be outflanked by the army of the king. Cyrus the Younger held the centre with his bodyguard, while Arieus and the non-Greek troops of Cyrus held the left flank.
Painting of the Battle of Cunaxa by Adrian Guignet
The two armies joined in battle on the dusty plain. The Greeks pushed through the troops deployed in front of them. However, the battle on the left flank of Cyrus' forces was a much messier affair, as here the army of Cyrus the Younger was much outnumbered. The left flank must have slowly been turned. Meanwhile the Greeks kept pushing in front of them. With the scale of the battle it seems that the dust rose and obscured the battlefield. The Greeks advanced into empty space while the battle raged behind them.
Sensing that the Greek victory on the right flank had disrupted the army of the king, but that he must act fast before the left flank crumbled, Cyrus the Younger led his bodyguard in a headlong charge against the bodyguard of his brother the king. The bodyguards of Artaxerxes II and Cyrus the Younger clashed in fierce hand to hand combat and it is recorded that the king himself was wounded. The Greek doctor Ctesias is recorded to have afterwards treated the wound. But Cyrus the Younger was struck down and his head hewn off and with that blow the Battle of Cunaxa was over.
The Greeks had had so little to do with the battle that they were three miles away when the fate of the battle was decided. After some confused skirmishing they slept on the battlefield and only found out the next day that Cyrus the Younger was dead and that they had lost the battle.
Coin bearing the head of Tissaphernes
It was unclear what to do next. The Greeks tried to make Arieus king, but Arieus refused the offer. He was not of royal blood and had no claim whatsoever to the throne. Even if he could gain a victory of sorts at Cunaxa he could never hold the empire. Arieus surrendered and went over to the side of Artaxerxes II. Tissaphernes then negotiated with the Greeks.
The Greek mercenaries were a formidable force. The Persians had no heavy infantry that could meet them head on and the arrows of the Persians had little effect on their heavy armour. Having lost many men at Cunaxa, it was not thought clever to attack these desperate men. It was hard to know what should be done with them. Tissaphernes eventually got them to march northwards with him, hoping to escort them out of the domains of the king. The Greeks marched but kept their weapons with them.
Tissaphernes was in close contact with the Greek generals, who also were worried about Tissaphernes and the Persian army that he was in command of. Tissaphernes had a reputation for treachery. On the other hand, Meno, one of the Greek generals, was telling Tissaphernes that Clearchus was planning to have Tissaphernes murdered, which may well have been the case. Regardless of who betrayed whom first, Tissaphernes summoned Clearchus and the other generals to the Persian camp, before they were arrested and sent to the King, where they were subsequently executed.
A map of the Persian Empire showing the march of
the Ten Thousand (note that the Persian empire was smaller
in the year 401 than is depicted on this map)
This led to panic in the Greek camp and a fear that they would soon be attacked by the Persian army. However, they elected new generals, including the young Athenian nobleman named Xenophon, and fought off the Persian skirmishing attacks that followed. Despite what one might think from reading Xenophon, Xenophon was not in overall command of the mercenaries at this point, as there was a more senior Spartan officer there who was in overall command.
The Greeks marched northwards, being harassed by the armies of Tissaphernes until they reached the mountainous regions near Kurdistan. These lands were wild lands with mountain tribes. The Persians tended not to bother with these tribes and did not exact tribute from them, so Tissaphernes gave up his pursuit shortly after the Greeks reached the mountains, hoping that they would die in the mountains from exposure, starvation or guerrilla attacks. Either way, it was guessed that the mercenaries, often referred to as the Ten Thousand, would never make it home.
Tissaphernes was an astute politician, but he guessed wrong in this matter. The Greeks made a terrible march across the mountains of Kurdistan and Armenia, fighting tribes, fording rivers, storming fortresses to gain food and dealing with their own internal bickering and feuding without killing each other. The mercenaries are not likeable characters, but the March of the Ten Thousand is one of the more remarkable campaigns in the ancient world, and the fact that we have a first person account of it in Xenophon's Anabasis makes it all the more remarkable.
Modern drawing of the Ten Thousand coming in sight of
the sea
Finally the Ten Thousand, after crossing innumerable mountain ridges heard their advance scouts shouting in the distance, thinking that they must be being attacked yet again. But instead they heard the welcome sound, "Thalatta! Thalatta!" meaning "The Sea! The Sea!" A Greek was never too far from home if he could see the sea.
But as the shout became louder and nearer, and those who from time to time came up, began racing at the top of their speed towards the shouters, and the shouting continually recommenced with yet greater volume as the numbers increased, Xenophon settled in his mind that something extraordinary must have happened, so he mounted his horse, and taking with him Lycius and the cavalry, he galloped to the rescue. Presently they could hear the soldiers shouting and passing on the joyful word, "The sea! the sea!" Xenophon, Anabasis, written circa 370BC
In this year Sophocles won the tragedy prize at the Great Dionysia Festival in Athens for a trilogy including the play Oedipus at Colonus. Because Sophocles head died five years earlier it was a posthumous prize, but a great honour nonetheless for a great tragedian.
In the year 400BC Tissaphernes returned to Asia Minor, taking over the satrapies that had previously been held by Cyrus the Younger. Tissaphernes' enemy, Pharnabazus still held his ancestral satrapy in Hellespontine Phrygia, but for now Tissaphernes refrained from open war with his fellow satrap, but instead set about threatening the Spartans and the Ionian Greek cities for their support of Cyrus the Younger's rebellion. To keep the Persian alliance, the Spartan attitude became very conciliatory to the Persians.
Later painting of Oedipus at Colonus
The army of the Ten Thousand, probably much less than 10,000 at this point, had managed to make their way to the southern coast of the Black Sea. From here they marched and sailed to the mouth of the Bosphorus. Pharnabazus was highly displeased at this large army of mercenaries showing up in his territory. They were highly experienced and had nothing to lose. Most Greek cities could only field a few thousand heavy hoplites, so this mercenary force was similar to seeing a medium-sized aggressive city appear at the strategic passage from the Black Sea to the Aegean. At one point they had even considered founding a new city near the mouth of the Bosphorus.
After much diplomatic manoeuvring, the Ten Thousand were transferred across the Bosphorus to the European side by the local Spartan governor. Here they fell afoul of the Spartans and were threatened with being treated as outlaws by the Spartans. The mercenaries were faced with a dilemma. Some of them could probably go home, but many of these men were exiled from their cities. Without pay from a successful campaign, they were dangerous. Tissaphernes and the Persians had not known what to do with them. Now the Spartans didn't know what to do either.
Coeratadas of Thebes, who had pulled off a daring escape from Athens during the previous war, came to the camp of the Ten Thousand and said that he would be their general. The men were amenable, although no one really knew what Coeratadas intended to do. As it turned out, Coeratadas had no actual money or supplies or any clear idea what he was talking about and so his command of the Ten Thousand lasted for perhaps a day, during which nothing was achieved.
Coin of the satrap Pharnabazus
The Ten Thousand received a much more substantial offer from Seuthes II, a Thracian king who had taken control of the coastal regions of the Odrysian kingdom and was locked in a war with his previous overlord, Amadocus I. The Odrysians were rich and even though the Greeks viewed them as barbarians, there were many cultural similarities between the Thracians and the Greeks. The Ten Thousand accepted the offer and took service with Seuthes II under the command of Xenophon. This happened around autumn of the year and some battles were fought, but no decisive engagements. Not long after this Seuthes and the mercenaries began to disagree over pay and relations soured between them.
The fortunes of the Ten Thousand changed at the onset of winter, when new governors were sent out by the Spartans. The Spartans had decided to go to war against Tissaphernes and the Persian Empire as a whole. The mercenaries were told that they could enlist under Spartan command and would be attacking the lands of Pharnabazus and Tissaphernes. Thus a new phase of war began in the lands around the Aegean Sea.
During this year the Spartans had been at war with the city of Elis. A supporter of Sparta, an oligarch named Xenias of Elis attempted to stage a coup in Elis by murdering the leader of the party of the common people, named Thrasydaeus. Xenias and his supporters did manage to kill Thrasydaeus, or so they thought, until it turned out that they had killed someone who merely resembled Thrasydaeus.
Thrasydaeus was in fact sleeping off a heavy night of drinking, but when he awoke he rallied the people and foiled the coup. This is a minor story in Greek history, but I can't help but admire how well Thrasydaeus coped with what must have been a grim morning: A hangover and a coup to deal with.
Carthaginian glass object
Around this time Carthage occupied the strategic island of Malta in the Mediterranean to the south of Sicily. I suspect that they must have had a presence on the island previously however.
Around this time the Syracusan tyrant, Dionysus I, reissued the currency of his country, keeping the weight of the gold coins the same, but doubling the nominal value. The result led to a predictable inflation, but probably boosted the wealth of the tyrant, who was able to make purchases before the inflation became widespread.
In Athens, the disreputable orator Andocides had returned to Athens under the general amnesty promised three years earlier when the democracy was restored. He had immediately gone back to his old tricks of launching lawsuits and had ingratiated himself into the sympathies of the people. A case was brought against him by the wealthy wastrel Callias (known as Callias III to distinguish him from previous members of his family) and others. Andocides was accused of violating the Eleusinian Mysteries, both in the past and in a present instance. Andocides defended himself in a speech that survives to this day, known as On the Mysteries. He was acquitted of the charge and continued to live in Athens.
Around this time, the little-known poet Antimachus of Colophon flourished. He wrote commentaries on Homeric works, wrote elegiac poems and wrote an epic poem called Thebais about the tale in the play Seven Against Thebes. Only fragments of his works survive.
Around this time Aspasia, the brilliant courtesan, lover of Pericles and mother of Pericles' executed son, died. She leaves no writings of her own, but all later writings agree that her wit and intelligence were able to match those of philosophers and statesmen.
Plaster copy of bust of Thucydides
The great historian Thucydides also died around this time, leaving his work The Peloponnesian War unfinished. It is unclear if he did not finish the work because he died, or because he was unhappy with it. The final section of the book shows signs of being a first draft and the text is abandoned in mid-sentence. We will never really know what exactly stopped the finishing of the text. We can only be glad that other historians are able to fill in some of the gaps.
In sculpture, the Mature Classical Period is said to end around this time and the Late Classical Period to begin. This is a modern classification of course.
The Jena Painter flourished around this time. They were an Attic red-figure vase painter whose pottery has survived and exists in museums around the world. In this case many of the paintings are stored in Jena University.
Around this time musicians in Thebes invented a more sophisticated form of reed instrument, adding keys and rings made of silver and bronze to the Greek aulos. This allowed much more flexibility and durability to their playing and were the forerunners to modern instruments such as the clarinet.
The Olympic Games were also held in this year. Minos of Athens won the stadion race. Demarchos of Parrhasia won the boxing competition, while Xenodikos of Kos won the boy's boxing competition. Euthymenes of Mainalos won the boy's wrestling. Baukis of Troezen won the wrestling and Antiochus of Lepreon won the pancration competition. Timon of Elis owned the team of horses that won the tethrippon chariot race.
And thus the period draws to a close. The long Peloponnesian War has ended, with a decisive Athenian defeat. Sparta is now the hegemon of Greece. Alcibiades is dead, as are many of the major players of the Peloponnesian War. Carthage had nearly taken over Sicily, but was beaten back by a tyrant and a plague. We have seen the March of the Ten Thousand and the fall of the Thirty Tyrants. The civil war in Athens was ended gracefully thanks to the statesmanship of Thrasybulus. Kallipateira defied gender roles in the Olympics. Thrasydaeus beat off both hangovers and murder attempts. It is a strange decade, but one worth studying.
