419-410BC in Greece

Kylix painted by the Aristophanes Painter

This post will look at Greece and the wider Greek world from the years 419BC to 410BC. 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 Thucydides, Xenophon, Diodorus Siculus, Plutarch, and Pausanias. A more complete list of sources is given at the end of the blog.

In the year 419BC a state of uneasy peace had settled over the Greek world. The Sicilian cities were supposedly at peace with each other. In mainland Greece, Athens and Sparta had signed a treaty that had left many Spartan allies unhappy. These allies had begun to form alliances with the hitherto neutral city of Argos, which was unaffected by the war to date and which was a traditional rival of Sparta. Sparta and Athens had had a brief chance to unite against this new power bloc, but the young politician Alcibiades frustrated the Spartan requests and Athens became aligned with Argos, whilst the traditional allies of Sparta, such as Corinth and Thebes, gradually drifted back into their previous alliance with Sparta. This state of affairs meant that the Athenians now had an ally with a land army in the Peloponnese that could in theory threaten Sparta itself for the first time.

In this summer Alcibiades and a contingent of Athenian hoplites went into the Peloponnese (probably by sea) and attempted to influence matters. However the Corinthians and Sicyonians stopped them putting up certain forts. The Argives, encouraged by the presence of the Athenians, went to war with Epidaurus. Epidaurus lay directly to the east of Argos and was the quickest route between Athens and Argos.

Hoplite reenactor in Athens, standing on
the Areopagus with the Acropolis in
background

The Argives were unable to take Epidaurus by force and had to content themselves with ravaging their lands. Meanwhile the Spartans took to the field, led by their king Agis II, and marched to the edge of their territory, taking sacrifices to see whether or not they should attack Argos. The sacrifices proved unsatisfactory and the Spartans returned to their homeland.

Meanwhile there was a peace conference between the Epidaurians and the Argives, which came to nothing. All the while the Epidaurians were begging their allies to come to their aid, however, due to the sacred month of the Carneia, many of their allies simply didn't send any help at all. After the month of the Carneia, the Spartans marched to the edge of their lands once more, but once more the sacrifices did not allow them to attack.

Instead of attacking however, they slipped a number of troops across the Argolic Gulf that came to Epidaurus and reinforced the garrison there. The Argives were incensed that the Athenians had allowed the Spartans to cross the seas and requested that the Athenians allow raiding expeditions by the freed Messenian helots to be launched from Pylos once more. Pylos was a strategic headland that had been captured by the Athenians in the earlier years of the war. Under the terms of the Treaty of Nicias it was to have been returned to Sparta, but neither the Athenians nor the Spartans had been scrupulous in actually handing back towns or forts that had been taken. The Athenians allowed raiding to begin on Spartan land once more. However, neither the Athenians nor the Spartans were yet technically at war.

Electra,
painting by Frederic Leighton
AD1869

In this year, it is likely that the Athenian playwright Sophocles had his play Electra performed. This told the tale of the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. When Electra's mother had killed her father, Electra had sent her younger brother abroad to live in exile, so that her mother's lover would not murder him. The play deals with the return of Orestes to seek vengeance upon the slayers of his father and the recognition of her long-lost brother by the down-trodden Electra herself.

In the year 418, the Argive war against Epidaurus continued, but the city itself was not under siege. The Argives made a surprise attack on the city itself during winter, but the Epidaurians fought them off and the Argives retreated.

Fearing the danger to their reputation if Epidaurus fell, the Spartans summoned their allies from outside the Peloponnese and went to attack the Argives. The Spartans were reinforced with Thebans and Corinthians, while the Argives were reinforced by others from their alliance, but not the hoplite force from Athens. The two sides were on the verge of battle when a prominent Argive named Thrasyllus negotiated a truce with Agis II of Sparta. The two armies broke away from battle and were both extremely angry with their leaders for making peace instead of war. A four month truce was agreed to by the parties.

Thrasyllus' property was confiscated and he was lucky to escape with his life. In Sparta, the ephors were so furious that they threatened Agis with an enormous fine and were going to tear his house down. Agis II promised instead to win a great victory for Sparta in recompense, but the Spartans were angry enough that they gave him ten counsellors who would oversee the decisions of the king.

Meanwhile an Athenian contingent of hoplites led by Alcibiades arrived in Argos only to hear that the war had already ended. Alcibiades argued that the Argives had no right to make peace or war without their allies and that the treaty between the Argives and Spartans was therefore void. The Argives willingly abrogated the treaty and the Athenians and Argives, with their Mantinean allies moved against the Spartan city of Tegea.

Tegea controlled the northern entrances to Laconia and the loss of Tegea would effectively block the Spartans into their own narrow territory. This was probably the intention of attacking Tegea rather than Lepreum, as had been suggested by the Eleans.

The Spartans acted swiftly and bypassed the Argives at Tegea, moving northwards to attack Mantinea, which they judged would draw the alliance away from Tegea. The Theban and Corinthian allies were no longer with the Spartans, but the Spartans had mustered their full army and had perhaps around 9,000 hoplites in the field, including their elite Sciritae light infantry, which had the honour of holding the left flank.

Ruins at city of Mantineia

The area around Mantineia is quite flat and well suited to a hoplite battle. There are however some strong points along the plain and when it was seen that the Spartans had entered the plain of Mantineia the Argives followed and took up position on a small height. Agis II, ready to undo the damage to his reputation, tried to attack immediately, but was counselled that rash action here would be as bad as his undue caution previously. The Spartans broke off the attack.

The next day, the Spartans and the Argives gave battle in what was to become known as the First Battle of Mantineia. The Argive right wing was composed of the Mantineans (who were fighting for their homeland), the Arcadians, and the finest fighters of the Argives (an elite force known as The Thousand). The Argives mostly composed the centre of the force and the Athenians held the left wing.

The Spartan left wing was composed of the Sciritae, hardy light troops who were trusted to fight like full Spartiates. The Spartans made the main body of the centre, with the Tegeans holding the right wing of the Spartan army, bolstered with some Spartiates to strengthen them. Thus Agis had placed his main strength in the centre.

Illustration of a Spartan
warrior bearing a shield
with a lambda device 

The two lines advanced, with both lines being outflanked on their left flanks. Agis attempted to reform his line while the two armies neared engagement, but his orders were ignored and the two sides went into battle in their standard order.

Both left flanks seem to have immediately come into danger. The Argives broke the Sciritae and the Spartan forces and their elite troops were threatening the Spartan king. However on the other side of the battle, the Tegeans and the troops on the Spartan right had routed the Athenians. The Spartan right then wheeled in on the elite Argive force in the centre, where the fighting was hottest and threatened to surround them. However the Argives had fought well indeed and the Spartans eventually allowed them to escape, whether through policy or exhaustion.

Agis also on perceiving the distress of his left opposed to the Mantineans and the thousand Argives, ordered all the army to advance to the support of the defeated wing; and while this took place, as the enemy moved past and slanted away from them, the Athenians escaped at their leisure, and with them the beaten Argive division.
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 5 written circa 400BC

It was a great Spartan victory and one that had enabled them to brush off the shame of their men surrendering at Pylos. They had once more proven themselves the strongest fighting force in Greece. The Argives had fought well, but their courage was no match for Spartan discipline, tactics and numbers. The Athenians had not fought particularly well and suffered reputational damage, as well as suffering the death of Laches, who was one of their better generals. The Argives had lost perhaps 700 men, while the Athenians had lost about 200. Spartan losses were perhaps around 300, although casualty figures are notoriously unreliable for ancient battles.

Lambda symbol on a modern reproduction of a hoplite shield

In an aside, it seems likely that by the time of the Battle of Mantineia that the Greeks began to put standardised designs on their shields. The Spartan device was the letter Lambda, symbolising Lacedaemon. The Sicyonians used a Sigma, while the Thebans used a club as their symbol. I am not sure what the Athenian symbols were, although some standardisation does seem to have occurred around this time. E.g. Plutarch refers to Alcibiades' shield being different to the usual Athenian designs, which suggest some, but not full, standardisation.

Meanwhile the Epidaurians attacked Argos upon hearing of the Argive defeat. The Eleans had not been present at the battle, as they had marched away to carry on their own war against Lepreum and they marched to the aid of Argos with a substantial force of perhaps 3,000 hoplites. Athenian reinforcements arrived as well to aid the beleaguered Argives. These reinforcements pushed the Epidaurians back and the city of Epidaurus was put under siege.

The Argives had had enough of war however, and their elite fighting force, the Thousand, wanted to install an oligarchy instead of the traditional Argive democracy. The Argives thus made a peace with the Spartans that was to last for 50 years. The previous leagues and alliances were repudiated. The Athenians thus had to evacuate the forts near Epidaurus.

Ruins in ancient Sparta

All was now utterly changed from the previous year. Argos was now an oligarchy in alliance with Sparta. Mantinea, previously allied to Argos, now had to re-join the Peloponnesian League. Perdiccas II of Macedon was asked to join the Spartan alliance, which he did and was promptly attacked by the Athenians, despite Athens and Sparta not being officially at war. The democracy at Sicyon was jointly overthrown by the Argives and the Spartans.

In the year 417 it proved that the oligarchy at Argos was to be short-lived and the Argives overthrew the oligarchs, who were then slain and exiled. The Spartans did not actually provide much help to their allies in Argos, but war now threatened once more between Argos and Sparta, save that this time Argos was nearly without allies. They tried to build Long Walls to the sea, to once again allow an Athenian alliance, but the Spartans broke down the walls before they were built. There was once more an alliance of sorts between Athens and Argos, but with Argos being much weakened.

Alcibiades was to blame for much of this. He had been the prime mover in the Argive alliance and in the breaking of the truce between Thrasyllus and Agis. He may have been the leader of the Athenian contingent that did so badly in the Battle of Mantineia and bears much responsibility for the deaths that occurred there.

Greek helmets

It must be remembered that throughout this entire time, Athens and Sparta were not technically at war, despite having their armies meet in battle. In fact, they were still technically allies. Things were politically very strange in Greece at this time.

In this year it is said that The Clouds, a comedy by Aristophanes making fun of Socrates, was restaged. This version of the play was slightly rewritten from its earlier form and it is this slightly later version that we have handed down to us today.

In the year 416 the Athenians, who were labouring in a strange limbo between peace and war, sent some more troops to Argos, once again under the command of Alcibiades, and assisted the commoners of Argos in hunting down pro-Spartan oligarchs within their ranks. This must have been a dismal assignment, as civil war always is.

The Athenians also attacked the island of Melos. Melos was a Spartan colony in a small island to the southeast of the Peloponnese. It was not part of the Athenian Empire and had previously been attacked by the Athenians. They were a relatively small and helpless state, with no real navy or army that could hurt or harm the Athenians. The only real reason to attack Melos was because it was an island and the Athenians believed that all islands in the Aegean should be subject to them.

Replica plaster bust of Thucydides

Thucydides reports a dialogue between the Athenians and the Melians that is known to historians as the Melian Dialogue, (or Dialog if you will). It is a strange back-and-forth where the Melians protest that right is on their side and that the Athenians have no justification for this attack. The Athenians brutally respond that justice is only really a pretty fiction and that all states really consult their own self-interest and nothing else in action. It is extremely famous in that it is said to be the perfect statement of a school of thought known as Political Realism (or Realpolitik). Thucydides is often held to be the founder of this school of thought, primarily because of this dialogue. It is a magnificent piece of writing, but it is unlikely that Thucydides viewed the Athenian position positively and even less likely that the Dialogue itself ever took place in anything like the manner in which it is related.

Since you know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.
Athenians speaking to the Melians in the Melian Dialogue. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 5 written circa 400BC

The Athenians besieged the city on the island of Melos. Meanwhile, the Spartans, who as yet did not go to war against Athens, decreed that anyone could attack the Athenians if they wished. The freed Messenian helots continued to raid Spartan lands from Pylos. Corinth went to war against Athens. The Argives fought against their exiles who were in the nearby city of Phlius. But still Greece was technically at peace.

Meanwhile in Sicily the peace had broken down once more. Segesta, a city in the far west of the island, was at war with Selinus, also in the west of Sicily. The Selinuntines were Dorians, while the Segestans were not. The Dorians were particularly strong in Sicily, with Syracuse and Acragas both being Dorian cities. The Segestans appealed to the Athenians in an attempt to counterbalance the power of the Selinuntines' potential allies. The city of Leontini was also engaged in a struggle with Syracuse and appealed to Athens.

Coin of Athens

Finally, in the winter of this year, the city of Melos fell. The Athenians were extremely harsh despite the city falling by treachery rather than siege. The grown men were all put to death while the women and children were enslaved. The island was then repopulated with Athenian colonists. It was a harsh measure, viewed by others in the Greek world as effectively a war crime. The Athenians probably justified it by reference to Spartan and Theban actions at Plataea. The truth was that the Peloponnesian War, even during times of peace, was a brutal time and both sides began to act ever more viciously towards their foes.

In Athens itself around this time, although the dates are somewhat unclear, the populace was split into numerous parties. There was the party of Nicias, who was a respected general and a friend of Sparta. This would have included some aristocrats, but generally this might be referred to as the peace party. They might have viewed themselves as natural successors to the aristocratic democracy of Cimon some decades earlier.

Then there was the party of Alcibiades, which also included a number of aristocrats, particularly young aristocrats, who hoped to win glory and wealth in the wars. They might be referred to as the war party and certainly favoured war, particularly favouring the Argive alliance. They would also have laid claim to the legacy of Pericles, to whom Alcibiades was related. However, after the defeat at Mantineia, they may have been discredited.

Ostracon bearing the name of Hyperbolus

A less well-known party must have been formed as well. This was led by Hyperbolus, who was greatly disliked by the aristocrats. It is possible that Hyperbolus was attempting to form a popular party and to assume the legacy of Cleon. The leaders of the other parties were generally of aristocratic birth, but Hyperbolus was as common as they came.

Hyperbolus proposed an ostracism either in this year, or the years immediately before or after. There was a waiting period after the proposal of an ostracism. During this time Nicias and Alcibiades made a secret agreement that their followers would band together and ostracise Hyperbolus, who was widely viewed as being a buffoon and too low a target for this tactic. Ostracism had usually been used against nobles and it was viewed as a punishment reserved for the great and the good.

Hyperbolus was duly ostracised and Nicias and Alcibiades were safe. The Athenians thought the whole thing immensely funny, but eventually felt that they had dishonoured one of their institutions. A comic poet wrote that "The man deserved the punishment, but the punishment did not deserve the man". Thus the ostracism of Hyperbolus became the last ostracism in Athens. It would have served them better to have ostracised either Nicias or Alcibiades; both of whom were extremely dangerous to Athens in their own unique ways.

Later statue of Euripides

In this year Euripides produced the play Heracles for the Great Dionysia festival in Athens. This play shows the children of Heracles facing execution by an evil king of Thebes, while Heracles is performing heroic feats in the underworld. Heracles returns and saves his family, before falling into a madness sent by the gods, which causes him to kill his wife and children. Heracles recovers from the madness and sees what he has done, at the will of the gods and is inconsolable. His friend Theseus appears, who offers him forgiveness and a place of refuge in hospitable Athens. Heracles is grief-stricken by what he has done and will not accept the easy answers of his friend. He eventually consents to go into exile in Athens and leaves the stage a broken man.

The play is a complex exploration of faith and hope and the ways of gods and men. While many Athenians must have found it interesting, we know that they did not grant it the prize, but instead gave the prize to a dramatist named Agathon.

Plato's Symposium uses this as festival as its dramatic setting. Plato describes a banquet held at the house of Agathon. At the drinking party, the guests all compose a speech about the nature of Love. There are a number of guests, including the comic poet Aristophanes and the philosopher Socrates, who are both presented as being on good terms with each other. There is a doctor known as Eryximachus said to have been at the party, who was the son of another doctor known as Acumenus. These were real people who were well-known in Athens at the time.  After all the guests speak of love, the party is gate-crashed by Alcibiades, who is drunk. He speaks drunkenly in praise of Socrates and then all the party get drunk. Finally Socrates, who is not drunk, leaves quietly when everyone has fallen asleep.

It is a short, but memorable work by Plato, and it is very likely that Agathon did celebrate after winning his prize. It is even possible that some of those mentioned by Plato attended his party. But we must remember that the Symposium is a philosophical fiction by Plato rather than anything resembling a history.

Alcibiades entering the Symposium.
Painting by Feuerbach AD1869

A few moments after, they heard the voice of Alcibiades in the forecourt, very drunken and bawling loud, to know where Agathon was, and bidding them bring him to Agathon. So he was brought into the company by the flute-girl and some others of his people supporting him: he stood at the door, crowned with a bushy wreath of ivy and violets, and wearing a great array of ribbons on his head. "Good evening, sirs," he said; "will you admit to your drinking a fellow very far gone in wine, or shall we simply set a wreath on Agathon—which indeed is what we came for—and so away? I tell you, sir, I was hindered from getting to you yesterday; but now I am here with these ribbons on my head, so that I can pull them off mine and twine them about the head of the cleverest, the handsomest, if I may speak the—see, like this! Ah, you would laugh at me because I am drunk? Well, for my part, laugh as you may, I am sure I am speaking the truth. Come, tell me straight out, am I to enter on the terms stated or not? Will you take a cup with me or no?"
Plato, Symposium, written circa 385BC

Agathon was a prominent and interesting playwright in his own right, despite being best remembered from the Symposium. He was friendly with Aristophanes, who nevertheless fiercely criticises him in later works. He didn't exclusively use mythological subjects in his plays, instead creating new plots and stories, something which many Athenians found offensive. He later moved to the court of the king of Macedon where he died. In an unusual aside, Agathon was one of the few people in Classical Greece who could be described as homosexual in the modern sense. The classical world had many same-sex relationships, but these were generally transient and with wide age-disparities. Agathon had a long-term relationship with a man of a similar age. It was unusual enough for it to be mentioned in the Symposium and is worth remembering here.

Propylaea gateway to the Acropolis in Athens viewed
from the Areopagus Hill

The Olympic Games were held in this year. Exainetos of Acragas won the stadion race. Nikostratus of Heraia won the boy's wrestling competition. Androsthenes of Mainalos won the pancration competition. Finally the owner of the horses that won the tethrippon chariot race was none other than the flamboyant and notorious Alcibiades of Athens.

Around this time it is suitable to mention Antiphon of Rhamnus. He was a logographer, a type of professional writer that we would generally refer to as a speechwriter. He was active in the affairs of the state, where he favoured a generally oligarchic/aristocratic form of government. He wrote speeches for people to deliver, but generally he did not address the people himself. A number of his speeches survive, including a vivid denunciation of somebody's stepmother in a case of poisoning. The majority of his surviving speeches are speech templates however rather than speeches in and of their own right. Apparently the worthy Antiphon kept a stock set of replies for various arguments, so that someone prosecuting for murder or accidental homicide should never be at a loss for words. Antiphon of Rhamnus is known as the first of the Ten Attic Orators, famed in antiquity, whose speeches were preserved for students of rhetoric.

It seems that there are a number of sophistic treatises dating from this time that are ascribed to "Antiphon". Even from classical times, scholars have been unsure if this Antiphon was the same person as Antiphon of Rhamnus or should be classed as a separate individual, usually referred to as Antiphon the Sophist. Scholars are still unsure on this. If the two individuals are one and the same Antiphon this would suggest that Antiphon of Rhamnus was an accomplished man of letters indeed. But as yet he would make no speeches himself, preferring to avoid courts.

Later herm bearing the head of
Alcibiades

In the year 415, the Athenians made the decision to send an expedition to Sicily. They had sent previous expeditions there, and had some allies in the region, as they had been summoned by the people of Segesta and had friendly relations with the city of Leontini. Nicias was one of the generals for that year and he attempted to dissuade the people from launching a major expedition. However, Alcibiades argued very strongly for the expedition and the accounts of glittering prizes that were to be won, with wealth and riches and tribute, began to play on the minds of the Athenians.

In the Assembly, Nicias argued against the expedition, but was overruled and the expedition was put under the command of Alcibiades, Nicias and Lamachus. Alcibiades was seen as being a good general, but hot-headed and the Athenians felt that Nicias would be a good counter to Alcibiades, with Lamachus adding even more military expertise. Five days afterwards, Nicias, accepting that the expedition would be under his command, made an appeal to the Assembly, saying that the power of Sicily was great and that only a truly gigantic fleet would be able to conquer it. He probably hoped to dissuade the Athenians from undertaking the expedition, but all that happened was that the Athenians became even more enthusiastic and voted for an expedition of 100 triremes, numerous transport ships, 5,000 hoplites and numerous other mercenaries. All told it was a vast expedition, but not necessarily the largest that Athens had ever sent. It is likely that the Egyptian expedition in previous decades was at least this large.

All of Athens now became abuzz with preparations for the new war and the rumour of the expedition spread throughout the Greek world. An expedition of this size could not be hidden, but the Syracusans were slow in realising the danger of what was coming against them. Syracuse was not technically the target of the expedition, but any force of this size coming to Sicily must have been expected to inevitably clash with the greatest city on the island. Still, the Syracusans could not believe that, with the nearby Spartans so hostile, that the Athenians would dare risk such an attack on a nation so far away.

Coin of Athens

Shortly before the expedition was to sail, an incident occurred that gravely troubled the Athenians. Shrouded in darkness, a group of people desecrated a number of statues in an event that is sometimes referred to as the Desecration of the Herms.

This calls for some explanation. Greek houses of the time often had statues at boundary markers. These were generally of the form of squared pillars topped with a bust of a head, quite often a male head of the god Hermes, but very often of other divine or human figures. The figures generally had male genitalia about halfway down the square column. These ubiquitous figures were known as "herms". What had happened was that the faces of these were smashed and hacked, with the exception of a herm near the house of the orator Andocides, who immediately fell under suspicion.

The incident was seen as very serious. Such a desecration suggested an evil omen for the coming expedition. Others felt that this type of concerted attack suggested the activity of enemy agents, perhaps Spartans or Syracusans, or their sympathisers, active within the city. Suspicion fell on Andocides, whose herm had not been touched, and he was imprisoned. Perhaps to save himself, he began to accuse others of involvement. The common people feared the aristocratic youths, who were filled with the foreign learning of the sophists and philosophers and who laughed at the gods and the old ways. Many of the aristocrats also had ties to, or admiration, for the arch-enemy: Sparta.

Curse inscription and magic amulet from Athens,
dating from this period

As the generals prepared for their departure to Sicily, suggestions were made that some aristocrats had held mock ceremonies of the Eleusinian Mysteries in their private houses. Whether this was merely making fun of the sacred mysteries, or attempting some sort of sinister magic, was unclear. Among the accused was Alcibiades himself.

This threw Athens into an uproar. This was an offence punishable by death, but Alcibiades was at this point nearly the leading man in the state. His extravagant and unusual behaviour made the charge seem plausible enough however. His enemies were delighted and his supporters were outraged. Alcibiades protested his innocence vigorously and demanded a trial before the fleet set sail against Sicily. However, this request was not granted, as his opponents said that his trial could wait until his return from Sicily. This was so that when additional accusations were levelled, a new trial could be ordered and Alcibiades recalled, so that the soldiers, with whom he was popular, could not sway the jury.

Reluctantly and with a cloud of uncertainty over his fate, Alcibiades set sail with the Athenian navy towards Sicily. The expedition had other problems as well. The first was that the expedition was a large one, but had no clear goals. Were they to merely aid Segesta against Selinus, or to try and conquer all of Sicily? Most importantly, did their obligations to help the city of Leontini automatically commit them to attack the Syracuse, which was the enemy of Leontini? When the fleet reached Rhegium at the toe of Italy it became clear that the city of Segesta did not have the wealth that it had promised and was going to be unable to finance the expedition.

Map showing the 

This news and the lack of clear goals led to three radically different strategies from the generals. Nicias wanted to do nothing more than help Segesta, preferably for only as long as Segesta could pay for it, which as Nicias had already suspected, was not long. Alcibiades wanted to make allies in the region and then attack Syracuse. Lamachus wanted to attack Syracuse directly while their army was strongest.

Nicias' strategy was not great and ancient authors have criticised him for it. But in reality Alcibiades strategy was not great either. Few would be interested in allying with such a force, which was too large to be easily quartered, yet not large enough to be guaranteed of conquering Syracuse, which was a city-state comparable to any polis save Athens and Sparta. Lamachus' strategy was the best one, as it involved hitting their greatest foe while the terror of the fleet was at its height and before the Syracusans could prepare. But it would also involve the diplomatic odium of being a surprise attack without a declaration of war. In the end Alcibiades' strategy was adopted, to little avail.

Modern statue of Thucydides

The Athenian expedition moved on into Sicily where they made an alliance with the city of Catana, not far from Mount Etna on the north-eastern corner of the island. Catana was a sizeable city and its alliance was a great aid to the Athenians as a base. However an Athenian attempt to bring Camarina into an alliance failed.

Knowing now that the expedition was aimed at least partly at subduing Syracuse, the Syracusans were mustering an army and a navy to resist the Athenians. They were led in this by Hermocrates, who seems to have been the leader of the oligarchic party in Syracuse. The Athenians made a show of force against Syracuse, but the city was not overawed.

Meanwhile back in Athens, the people were almost in a state of hysteria. Accusations and counter-accusations of treason, blasphemy and espionage were made. New accusations against Alcibiades were made and thus the Salaminia, one of the two state triremes that was constantly at sea in the service of the Athenian state, was sent to Sicily to recall Alcibiades to face trial. The opponents of Alcibiades believed that he was aiming at nothing less than a complete overthrow of the democracy and the establishment of himself as tyrant. This is not outside the bounds of possibility.

To return to Alcibiades: public feeling was very hostile to him, being worked on by the same enemies who had attacked him before he went out; and now that the Athenians fancied that they had got at the truth of the matter of the Hermae, they believed more firmly than ever that the affair of the mysteries also, in which he was implicated, had been contrived by him in the same intention and was connected with the plot against the democracy.
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 6, written circa 400BC

When the summons for Alcibiades to return to face trial reached the expedition, Alcibiades took the news quite calmly and set sail as a free man in his own ship to return with the Salaminia to face trial. However, when the ships put into the port of Thurii, Alcibiades disappeared and could not be found. The Salaminia sailed onwards and the Athenians, now convinced of the guilt of the coward Alcibiades who would not face trial, passed a sentence of death in absentia on him. Alcibiades meanwhile sailed secretly to the Peloponnese and now offered his services to the Spartan state.

Maps showing the cultures of Sicily at the outbreak
of the Peloponnesian War

In the absence of Alcibiades, the Athenian fleet moved slowly. Nicias sailed to the west of the island of Sicily to overawe the city of Selinus and to take a few small and insignificant places along the way. This technically fulfilled one of the nebulous goals of the expedition, but was completely superfluous as long as Syracuse remained hostile and unconquered.

The Syracusans themselves had become so emboldened by the lack of Athenian movement that they led an army against the Athenians, marching northwards towards the Athenian base at Catana. They were particularly proud of the fact that they had excellent cavalry, by Greek standards, and the Athenians had very few cavalry with their expedition. The Athenians had sailed towards Syracuse and the Syracusans followed them back towards their city. A battle ensued, known as the First Battle of Syracuse where the Athenians soundly beat the Syracusans. However, the Syracusan cavalry proved their worth and despite the Athenians thoroughly routing the Syracusan infantry, the unbeaten cavalry kept them from inflicting great casualties in the pursuit.

Athenian grave stela

The Athenians made an attempt to take Messina by treachery, but this was found to have been foiled by messages sent from Alcibiades as soon as he had been ordered to return to Athens. Knowing that there was a plot to have Messina handed over, he informed the pro-Syracusan party secretly, who were then able to arrest the pro-Athenian plotters and stymie the Athenian attack. Alcibiades probably turned traitor to Athens from the moment that the Salaminia arrived to convey him back to Athens.

The large city of Camarina was appealed to by both Athenians and Syracusans, but they remained officially neutral, while secretly providing some small aid to the Syracusans. Whatever dreams the Athenians may have had of effortlessly "liberating" Sicily were not to be. The Athenians, realising that they needed more resources, sent messages to Athens asking for more money to pay the soldiers and sailors and perhaps to bribe certain politicians in Sicily.

The Syracusans meanwhile reorganised their army, restricting the number of their generals, actively strengthening their defences and allowing Hermocrates to oversee the overall defence of the state. They also sent envoys to Corinth and to Sparta, imploring them for aid and also begging them to attack Athens in mainland Greece. The Corinthians and the Spartans agreed to send some small reinforcements to Syracuse; military advisors so to speak, but despite information from Alcibiades on Athenian weaknesses, the Spartans refrained from direct attacks on Attica as yet.

Woodland near site of Decelea

Alcibiades had informed the Spartans of an Athenian weakness; a village named Decelea in the north of Attica near the Parnitha mountain range, which could be easily fortified year round by the Spartans and make Attica uninhabitable to the Athenians year round. This advice was noted by the Spartans, but not yet acted upon.

In this year Xenocles won the prize for tragedy in the Great Dionysia in Athens. Little is known of Xenocles, save that the comic playwright Aristophanes hated him. According to Aristophanes, "Xenocles, who is ugly, makes ugly poetry." Nevertheless in this year his trilogy of plays won the prize. I doubt Xenocles would be pleased at learning that he is remembered by posterity merely for winning once and for being disliked by Aristophanes, but at least his name is remembered for that much at least. He had a grandson who would later become a tragic playwright as well, of whom even less is known.

Euripides put forward the Trojan Women as one of the plays of his trilogy that year. This was a play along similar themes as his earlier play Hecuba. It dealt with the fate of the conquered after the fall of Troy. Hecuba, Cassandra and Andromache are horrified by the fates that await them, as slaves of the various Greek generals, amid the horror of the loss of their husbands and fathers. Andromache learns that her infant son Astyanax is to be murdered by the Greeks, hurled to his death from the battlements of Troy, for fear that he should avenge his father. It is a dark play, perhaps inspired by the massacre and mass enslavement of the Melians in the previous year. The anti-war themes of the play have seen it performed and adapted many times throughout history.

Pnyx Hill in Athens, the site where the Athenian Assembly
met and voted

Around this time the Athenians reshaped the layout of Pnyx Hill, with the speaker's stand now being at the southern side, so that the Athenians would be looking up at the speaker. The actual carved speaker's platform that is there today is from a later time, but the platform would probably have been in a similar location. I'm not sure why they chose to reverse the orientation of the Assembly, but perhaps it made it easier for the speakers to be seen.

Around this time Diagoras of Melos was said to have been banished, or to have fled, from Athens. It is possible that he feared being prosecuted for impiety and later classical writings refer to his as an atheist. It is said that he chopped up a wooden statue of the god Heracles to roast some lentils. It is said that he also spoke openly of the secrets of the Eleusinian Mysteries. He is the most famous atheist of that time, but I wonder if this is a later misreading of the events at the time.

Diagoras was from Melos, the island that had in the previous year been subject to a mass enslavement and genocide by the Athenians. It is no surprise that he should have become extremely hostile to the Athenian state and also to have been subject to great mistrust from the Athenians. The Athenians were also in a state of near hysteria regarding the desecration of the herms and the profanation of the Mysteries. In this atmosphere Diagoras would have been a definite target, even if he had no hostile opinions against the gods. He would doubtless have looked to flee and his flight would have been taken by his enemies as proof of all manner of impiety.

Vase painted by the Amykos Painter

Slaves under torture would doubtless invent stories of flagrant disrespect for the gods and Diagoras, in hiding, would have no manner of reply. Thus, while Diagoras may have been an ancient atheist, it is possible that this story is more indicative of the troubled nature of Athenian politics this year.

Also, around this time various vase painters flourished. The Amykos Painter, Chrysis Painter, Eretria Painter, Reed Painter and Aristophanes the vase painter all were active around this time period. As pottery is so durable, many of their works have survived and can be seen today in museums around the world. The Reed Painter specialised in painting white-ground works, while the other painters mentioned were red-figure painters. All were from Attica, which even in this time of war, still produced some of the finest high-status ceramics in the Greek world.

In the year 414 the Spartans moved to attack the Argives, but turned back because of an earthquake. The Argives then attacked the Spartans and took much plunder from the borderlands. There was civil war in Thespiae in Boeotia, where the common people tried to overthrow the oligarchy, however the Thebans came to the aid of the oligarchs and the leaders of the uprising fled or were executed. The Spartans had also dispatched the general Gylippus to aid the Syracusans in their war effort.

In Sicily, the Athenians had belatedly realised the crucial importance of attacking Syracuse and sailed against it once their reinforcements of cavalry, archers and money had arrived from Athens. Landing swiftly and defeating a Syracusan sally, the Athenians began to swiftly build a wall around the city that would wall in the Syracusans. When the city was invested by land the Athenian navy would keep the Syracusan ships bottled up and the city, which was not prepared for a siege, would fall.

Maps of the walls and counterwalls of the
Athenians (blue) and the Syracusans (red)

The Syracusans, unable to defeat the Athenians in open battle, began to build counter-walls that would extend like spikes from a hedgehog from their city. The Athenians would then have to attack and destroy these walls, or greatly extend their own walls to go around them. Both armies were soon entirely occupied in frantic building work and messy skirmishes with each other. Lamachus, one of the Athenian generals, died in one of these running battles. The Athenians eventually extended their walls to the sea on one side, but had yet to extend the walls to the other side, across a high hill known as the Epipolae.

Argive and Spartan armies clashed once more in mainland Greece and the Argives were defeated. However this time the Athenians came and attacked the Spartans with the crews and marines of thirty ships. The Spartans, who had up until this point considered the treaty between Athens and Sparta to still be in force, even if stretched to its utmost, now considered that the treaty was utterly null and void. However, they did not immediately go to war with the Athenians, as the campaigning season had passed.

In Sicily, the extension of the wall towards the sea to the south had caused great panic in Syracuse and there was talk of negotiating a surrender. However, at this point the Spartan, Corinthian and other allied reinforcements arrived under the command of a capable Spartan general named Gylippus. Gylippus carried on the resistance much as before, but in a more determined manner and in building a much longer counter-wall up the heights of the Epipolae.

Nicias was beginning to despair of the entire enterprise, which he had argued against from the start, then been placed unwillingly in charge of, then unwillingly prosecuted. He wrote a letter to the Athenians complaining of the great difficulties of the siege and the dangers caused by the reinforcements from Corinth and Sparta. The Athenians heard the letter and sent a fleet to stop any more reinforcements from reaching Sicily from Corinth. Meanwhile, the Spartans were preparing to resume the war fully once more and to carry operations into Attica again, however, the campaigning season was over so their preparations would be put into effect the following year.

Later herm bearing the name and
portrait of Aristophanes

That year saw the comic playwright Ameipsias win the Comedy competition at the Great Dionysia with a play known as the Revellers. Aristophanes' play The Birds won second prize, while the comic playwright Phrynichus, not to be confused with the tragic playwright of the same name earlier in the century, won third prize with his play Solitary or The Recluse.

The other plays do not survive, but The Birds by Aristophanes is still extant. It is a light-hearted affair where certain Athenians decide to ally with the birds and overthrow the Olympian gods in the sky. The comedy centres mostly on this outlandish idea and it is generally just a nice piece of escapist comedy that has no real bearing on current events, although a number of well-known Athenian characters are mentioned and occasionally lampooned.

Around this time the play Ion is written by Euripides. It is not his most famous play, but it is said to be among his more innovative ones, featuring the legendary king of Athens named Ion, who gives his name to the Ionian tribe of Greeks.

In the year 413 the Spartans launched another invasion of Attica in full force. While here, they not only ravaged the countryside as they had done in the previous phase of the war, but they also, on the advice of the traitor Alcibiades, built a fortification at Decelea, near the Parnitha Mountains. This fortress was far enough away from Athens that the Boeotians could support it if the Athenians ever attacked in strength. It also enabled the Spartans to raid Attica year round, and gave a place for the slaves of Attica to flee to. It particularly disrupted the workings of the silver mines in Laurion, which relied entirely on a large slave-labour force, working under gruelling conditions. These slaves now had a guaranteed haven to flee to. Thucydides records that 20,000 slaves defected to the fort at Decelea, although this was probably over the course of a few years of war.

Athenian grave stela

Meanwhile in Sicily, Gylippus had been travelling around Sicily trying to raise allies to fight the Athenian expedition. Reinforcements were also arriving from Corinth, having slipped past the Athenian ships attempting to command the seas. The Athenians meanwhile were unable to complete their wall due to the counter-wall on the Epipolae, but were awaiting reinforcements from Athens.

Gylippus decided to use the ships of the Corinthian reinforcements to attack the Athenians on sea. This attack was unsuccessful, but the Syracusans were successful in a land attack on the Plemmyrium, which was the hilly area on the southern end of the mouth of the harbour. This meant that the Athenian control of the harbour was threatened and that supplies could not be safely landed on that shore.

Meanwhile the Athenians, despite their troubles in Attica, had sent a huge relief force towards Sicily under the command of Eurymedon and Demosthenes. This was almost as large as the first force, but had fewer triremes with it. As the war between Sparta and Athens had now resumed in full force these two generals took their time on their journey, levying troops where they could, strengthening the fleet at the vital garrison port of Naupactus and ravaging Spartan territory on their way. News of their approach reached the Syracusans and Gylippus who decided to attack the Athenian expedition under Nicias before it could be reinforced.

Coin of Syracuse

The Syracusans began a naval battle with the Athenians in the harbour. The Athenians fought well, but the narrow confines of the harbour were ill-suited to their style of manoeuvre and neither side could gain the advantage. On the second day of the engagement the Syracusans attacked again, but then retreated, apparently for their sailors to eat. The Athenians likewise withdrew and beached their ships to eat, only to find the Syracusans once more manning their ships and moving to the attack. The Syracusans had strengthened the ramming beaks of their triremes to be able to do more damage in a head-to-head collision. This type of ramming technique worked well in a confined space, and the Athenian triremes suffered badly in the engagement that followed. It was not a serious defeat, but it showed that the Syracusans could beat the Athenians on land and sea.

The Syracusans could not long relish their triumph, as soon Demosthenes and Eurymedon arrived with their great armament of triremes, hoplites, archers and supplies. They must have been horrified to see the decline of the initial expedition force and in what straits the army and fleet under Nicias had sunk to. Demosthenes urged an immediate attack, while his men were fresh. He had brought an additional 5,000 hoplites, bringing their combined strength to perhaps 8-9,000 hoplites (as some had undoubtedly died in the previous engagements). This was not a huge force, but it was supported by a large number of lighter troops and the rowers of the triremes who could also be armed. Nicias, Demosthenes and Eurymedon would have had at least 20,000 fighting men at their disposal at this point and this was a formidable force indeed.

Vase painted by the Eretria Painter

Demosthenes realised that this force, though formidable, could not hope to outlast Syracuse, but must instead win their war immediately. He resolved on a daring night attack to capture the heights of the Epipolae, destroy the Syracusan counter-wall and complete the circumvallation of the city. Once this was done, the Athenians could easily resupply from the northern side of the Epipolae and move their fleet out of the harbour should they so wish. Then any naval fighting would happen in open water and favour the experienced Athenians trireme crews. It was a bold plan and strategically sound.

However, like all good plans, it can be ruined by simple bad luck and unforeseen factors. The night attack, which was always risky in ancient warfare, was complicated by the fact that both sides, when they would attack, would sing the paean, a type of battle song meant to inspire courage in their own men and fear in the enemies. However, due to there being Dorians and Ionians on the Athenian side and only Dorians on the Syracusan side, the paeans of the Argives (Athenian allies who were of the Dorian tribe) made it sound as if the Syracusans were fighting in and behind the Athenians. This eventually panicked enough of the Athenian force that they fled and many were cut down or fell to their deaths from the heights. As with all night battles at least some of their own side fought each other.

But what hurt them as much, or indeed more than anything else, was the singing of the paean, from the perplexity which it caused by being nearly the same on either side; the Argives and Corcyraeans and any other Dorian peoples in the army, struck terror into the Athenians whenever they raised their paean, no less than did the enemy. Thus, after being once thrown into disorder, they ended by coming into collision with each other in many parts of the field, friends with friends, and citizens with citizens, and not only terrified one another, but even came to blows and could only be parted with difficulty. In the pursuit many perished by throwing themselves down the cliffs, the way down from Epipolae being narrow…
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 7, written circa 400BC

Athenian grave lekythos

The defeat at the night battle had been disastrous for the Athenians. Just as Demosthenes had been right about wanting to decide the affair immediately, despite his plan failing, he now wanted to evacuate immediately, and was probably right to do so. This was in fact by far the wisest course and Eurymedon agreed. However, Nicias, who had been so dilatory in previous times, now wished to stay. Nicias seems to have had information from within Syracuse that there was a group who wished to overthrow the government and ally with Athens. Hoping that this revolution would happen Nicias voted against moving the army away. As Nicias was a highly experienced general and politician, Demosthenes and Eurymedon reluctantly agreed to stay.

The Syracusans were now bolstered by more reinforcements from the Peloponnese and confident that they were a match for the land army. At this point even Nicias agreed that they must retreat, and the Athenian expedition prepared to embark. However on the 28th of August there was a lunar eclipse. This was interpreted by Nicias to mean that they must wait 27 days. Later classical writers say that this was a mistake and that he should have only waited 3 days, but 27 makes more astronomical sense. I imagine that the astrologers changed their mind about the appropriate time of the omen after seeing the consequences of Nicias' decision.

However, they now decided to attack the Athenian navy at sea. A great battle took place in the harbour and once more, the strengthened prows of the Syracusan ships defeated the Athenians in an ugly, but effective, head-to-head contest. The Athenian general Eurymedon was killed in this battle, leaving only Demosthenes and Nicias in command of the expedition.

Reconstruction of a trireme

Things were now critical. The Athenian fleet was blockaded in the harbour and had no way of sailing away now even if they wanted to. To retreat to Athens they had to retake control of the sea. On the 9th of September the Athenians launched a final escape attempt trying to breach the blockade that the Syracusans were making at the mouth of the harbour. The battle lasted for much of the day with no clear advantage to either side, until the Athenians were pushed back.

This meant in effect an Athenian defeat. If they could not force the mouth of the harbour, then they could not escape. After losing half their ships and retreating, the Athenians disembarked. Demosthenes urged the men to return to the ships and fight once more, and Nicias agreed, but the men refused. They may have believed that even if they fought through, that they had lost too many ships to carry the men homewards. They had also lost all hope of victory.

The sea-fight having been a severe one, and many ships and lives having been lost on both sides, the victorious Syracusans and their allies now picked up their wrecks and dead, and sailed off to the city and set up a trophy. The Athenians, overwhelmed by their misfortune, never even thought of asking leave to take up their dead or wrecks, but wished to retreat that very night. Demosthenes, however, went to Nicias and gave it as his opinion that they should man the ships they had left and make another effort to force their passage out next morning; saying that they had still left more ships fit for service than the enemy, the Athenians having about sixty remaining as against less than fifty of their opponents. Nicias was quite of his mind; but when they wished to man the vessels, the sailors refused to go on board, being so utterly overcome by their defeat as no longer to believe in the possibility of success.
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 7, written circa 400BC

Coin of Syracuse

Sickness was rife in the camp and morale must have been at rock-bottom. The men had seen the pride at the outset of this "invincible" expedition and now saw what it had been reduced to. To make matters worse, Nicias, the senior Athenian general, had become gravely ill also. With their allies deserting them and control of the sea lost, supplies were also dangerously low.

The Syracusans, who still feared the Athenian host, were wary lest the Athenians should march overland and reach another Sicilian city. There were enough troops left to be formidable if they could find a base. The Syracusans spread a rumour that there were armies guarding the roads inland and this delayed the Athenian retreat.

On September 13th the Athenians finally began their slow and painful retreat. They abandoned their wounded and unburied dead and crossed the Anapus River, hoping to reach allies in the interior, possibly as far west as Catana. Demosthenes and Nicias encouraged their men as much as they could and split the army up into two divisions; each general commanding a division.

Vase painted by the Eretria Painter

Soon however they were met with a strong detachment of Syracusan troops. The main Syracusan army and their allies, led by Gylippus now began to follow the straggling Athenian column. The Syracusan cavalry was harassing the flanks of the army and following their every move. Nicias and Demosthenes made the decision to turn south to follow a route parallel to the coast, which might lead them to the city of Camarina on the southern coast of the island.

This decision was of no avail. The Syracusans caught up with the Athenian force later that day. The division of Demosthenes had fallen behind and was surrounded, taking shelter in an enclosure of sorts where they were besieged by the Syracusans. Eventually Gylippus offered Demosthenes a surrender option, which would see the prisoners enslaved, but not killed. 6,000 soldiers surrendered here.

While the rear-guard under Demosthenes had been destroyed by the Syracusans, Nicias had been leading his army on at speed, forcing the crossing of the Erineus River, but hearing of the disaster that had befallen the troops under Demosthenes' command. Nicias tried to negotiate with Gylippus, but Gylippus refused the terms offered. Nicias pressed onwards.

Map showing the route of the Athenian retreat

The next day, the expedition moved forwards, harassed by Syracusan archers and cavalry, knowing that Syracusans lay ahead on their path and that the main force pressed hard behind. They came to the Assinarus River and were so maddened with thirst that they rushed into the river and began to drink, heedless of the fact that there were soldiers holding the ford on the far side and butchering those who tried to make it across.

It was here that the main Syracusan army came upon the remnants of the expedition and in the confusion and disorder the battle turned into a massacre, with the Syracusans and the Peloponnesians slaughtering the Athenians in droves. Nicias surrendered himself to Gylippus and asked him to stop the killing, which was eventually done, but not before the vast majority of those with Nicias had fallen. Some few fugitives escaped, but aside the 1,000 taken as slaves, few Athenians survived from this place.

The Athenians pushed on for the Assinarus, impelled by the attacks made upon them from every side by a numerous cavalry and the swarm of other arms, fancying that they should breathe more freely if once across the river, and driven on also by their exhaustion and craving for water. Once there they rushed in, and all order was at an end, each man wanting to cross first, and the attacks of the enemy making it difficult to cross at all; forced to huddle together, they fell against and trod down one another, some dying immediately upon the javelins, others getting entangled together and stumbling over the articles of baggage, without being able to rise again. Meanwhile the opposite bank, which was steep, was lined by the Syracusans, who showered missiles down upon the Athenians, most of them drinking greedily and heaped together in disorder in the hollow bed of the river. The Peloponnesians also came down and butchered them, especially those in the water, which was thus immediately spoiled, but which they went on drinking just the same, mud and all, bloody as it was, most even fighting to have it.
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 7, written circa 400BC

Nicias and Demosthenes were executed by the Syracusans, probably against the wishes of Gylippus. Demosthenes was not liked by the Corinthians, Syracusans or Spartans. Nicias knew too much about possible traitors in the city of Syracuse. Now that victory was won, it was better for the continued peace of the city for that knowledge to go to the grave, and so they killed him.

Quarries in Syracuse said to be the same quarries the
Athenians were held prisoner in

The prisoners were held by the Syracusans in a quarry and fed starvation rations. Many of them died from the horrendous conditions. After about two months a number of the prisoners were sold, but the Athenians, Sicilians and Italians were held in the quarries for another six months, until nearly all had died. Some few survivors eventually escaped or were released and brought a tale from far-off; a rumour of the terror of the pits.

There was some small measure of comfort for some few Athenians from an unlikely source. It appeared that some Syracusans were passionate about the poetry and plays of Euripides, and any Athenian who could quote Euripides was sometimes given food and drink for it and in certain rare cases, even given their freedom. Those who did return eventually to Athens often visited the playwright to thank him.

The Sicilian Expedition was the most catastrophic defeat that Athens had yet suffered in any of its wars. The total loss of men was at the very least 20,000 and possibly as high as 50,000. Many of these of course were not Athenians, but from the armies of their allies, but it was still an extraordinary loss for the Athenian Empire. They had also lost 200 ships and effectively lost control of the seas. In addition to this they had gained a powerful new enemy, as Syracuse now wanted revenge upon Athens and was preparing to send a fleet to mainland Greece to aid the Spartans.

Lekythos painted by the
Reed Painter

To make matters worse, as the news spread, all who heard it considered that the power of Athens was broken and any state that wanted to revolt against Athens now gave it serious consideration. There was now also the risk that Persia would join the war on the Spartan side, as the Athenian fleet was no longer such a threat as it had once been.

The Athenians were shocked and stunned at the news of their defeat, but once they had poured out their anger and grief at their loss they began embark on an immediate program of ship building. They had also maintained a fleet of 100 triremes to be used as reserves in case of any disaster. These were now deployed, and these, combined with the existing fleets in the Aegean, Black Sea and at the naval base at Naupactus, still meant that Athens had probably the largest fleet in the Greek world. It was no longer unassailably large however. The men would prove more difficult to replace and the skilled crews could not be replaced at all. Athenian ships would now be roughly equal in ability to the ships of other cities.

Meanwhile Agis II, who was at the Spartan fortress of Decelea, received word that the Athenian tributary states were planning to revolt. Euboea, Lesbos and Chios were all preparing to revolt and the Spartans promised to aid them.

The Persian satrap of Lydia, named Tissaphernes, from one of the most prominent Persian families, sent a message to Sparta to let them know that he wished to join the war against Athens, as did the Persian satrap of Phrygia, Pharnabazus. All of these new allies in the war against Athens made the imminent defeat of the Athenians seem a certainty to all observers in the Greek world.

Tissaphernes had been sent by the king Darius II to crush the rebellion of a rebel satrap of Lydia, named Pissuthnes. This had been done, however Pissuthnes' son Amorges still continued in rebellion and it seems that the Athenians had been providing some form of assistance to him. Thus, even if the Sicilian Expedition had not failed, it is not unlikely that the Persians would soon have been at war with the Athenians.

Around this time a rift appeared between the Athenian exile Alcibiades and the Spartan king Agis II. Rumours began to spread that Alcibiades had slept with Agis' wife Timea and that his son Leotychidas was in fact the son of Alcibiades.

Coin of Archelaus I of Macedon

At some stage during this year King Perdiccas II of Macedon died. Archelaus I succeeded him as King of Macedon. The new king would prove to be a cultured and reforming monarch of Macedonia. Among other things, he reorganised the kingdom, building roads, founding a new capital at Pella and offering rewards to all the intellectuals and artists of Greece to come to Macedon and benefit from his patronage.

Another thing worthy of mention in this year is that Diocles of Syracuse, a prominent citizen of Syracuse, who had been noteworthy in pressing for the harshest penalties for the Athenians, was put in charge of reorganising the laws of the city. He imposed terms limits for certain magistrates, nominated a group of citizens, including himself, to create a new law code, and finally forbade the wearing of arms in the agora of the city under pain of death.

In this year it is said that the comic playwright Hegemon of Thasos put on a play known as the Gigantomachia, which was said to be so funny that even though the news of the defeat of the Sicilian Expedition reached the theatre, that the audience stayed in their seats and continued watching until the end. This is a later story and probably at least partly untrue.

Theatre of Dionysus in Athens

Possibly around this year, although the dates are uncertain, Euripides' play Electra was performed. This was a very popular theme for playwrights, with both Aeschylus and Sophocles treating it in their plays. Euripides covers the same ground, but with a somewhat ironic tone, parodying the recognition scene of Aeschylus' play, where Electra recognises her long-lost brother.

In the year 412 the entire focus of the war shifted eastwards. The Syracusans had sent a fleet of 35 ships under the command of Hermocrates to aid the Spartans, but the Persian satraps were offering to pay for the upkeep of a Spartan navy. In return they wanted a free hand to collect tribute from the Ionian cities on the coast of Asia Minor; cities that had been under Persian rule before the wars earlier in the century. These cities included some of the wealthiest cities of the Athenian Empire. The straits of the Hellespont and Bosphorus were also vital to the Athenians, as their grain came to them from the region of the Black Sea. Thus, if the Spartans wanted to support their new fleets and the Athenians wished to preserve their empire, both sides must struggle for control of Ionia and the Hellespont.

The Spartans readied a navy and sent Alcibiades with it to raise Chios in open revolt. The Athenians caught and blockaded some of this fleet, but Chios rose in rebellion once Alcibiades reached it, as did some other important allies of Athens, including the Milesians. Shortly afterwards the cities of Lesbos were persuaded to revolt. However the Athenians brought Clazomenae and Lesbos back under control swiftly and the initial revolt did not spread.

The Spartans and the Persians under Tissaphernes now made a treaty saying that the King of Persia would finance the Spartan war effort and use his own troops as well in the war, but that the lands that had once been ruled by the Persians would be ruled by them once more. This clause may have been kept secret from the Ionians, who disliked the Athenians for their heavy taxation, but had no great desire to swap Athenian taxation for Persian taxation.

Around this time there was a civil war in Samos, whereby the common people overthrew the aristocrats. This tied them much more closely to Athens, which generally favoured democracies, while Sparta favoured oligarchies.

The blockaded Peloponnesian fleet broke out and made it across the Aegean, where it joined the other Peloponnesian and Chian ships. Many small naval actions were fought between the Athenians and their enemies, but there were no great decisive battles. The Athenian navy reorganised and won an indecisive victory against the Peloponnesians, Chians and Milesians near Miletus, but the news of an approaching Peloponnesian fleet prevented the Athenians from following up any of their partial successes. The Athenians then began to besiege Chios.

Tissaphernes then ordered the army and navy to move against Teichiussa. Here they were able to swiftly capture the city and take Tissaphernes' enemy Amorges prisoner.

At some point in this year, Alcibiades seems to have appointed himself as a personal representative of the Spartans with the Persian satrap Tissaphernes. He began to advise Tissaphernes to not give the Spartans everything they asked for. He particularly advised him not to bring up the Phoenician fleet, which would be able to end the war decisively one way or the other. Because of the bad blood between Alcibiades and Agis, it seemed that Alcibiades decided to effectively defect to Persia from Sparta, although it is certain that he was conspiring with certain Athenian commanders in the eastern Aegean as well.

Theatre of Dionysus in Athens

It seems that it was in this year that Euripides' satyr play Cyclops was performed. This is the only satyr play to have come down to us intact, although there are a number of papyrus fragments that have been found in Egypt. The Satyr play was a bawdy, bizarre play that would be staged after a trilogy of tragedies. It was neither tragic nor comic, but rather contained certain elements of both and may have been intended to allow the audience to unwind from the high drama of the tragedies.

The Olympic Games were held this year. Exainetos of Acragas won the stadion race for the second time.

In the year 411 the Spartans won a small naval victory in the Battle of Syme near the Carian coast, but it was not to prove crucial. The Athenians had by now gathered reasonable navy that had a base at Samos and was able to continue the siege at Chios.

Meanwhile, certain generals conspired with Alcibiades to bring him back to Athens. Alcibiades was held to have great influence with Tissaphernes and said that he could bring both Tissaphernes and the King of Persia onto the Athenian side if they could change the government of the city from a democracy to an oligarchy. The aristocrats of Athens were impoverished by the war and after the disaster of the Sicilian Expedition, were ready to try a change of government. Alcibiades was, as always, playing a type of double-game, as it is likely that he was outstaying his welcome with the satrap Tissaphernes and wanted to return to Athens at whatever cost before he fell out of favour entirely.

A number of generals went to meet Alcibiades, including Thrasybulus and Peisander, both of whom were committed democrats, but who were desperate for any way of raising funds to save the city. Alcibiades had changed his phrasing from asking for an oligarchic government to merely asking for a government other than a democracy.

Vase painted by the Eretria Painter

One of the Athenian generals, Phrynichus, vehemently disagreed with everything Alcibiades said, despite favouring an oligarchic government. He argued that Alcibiades was fundamentally untrustworthy and that he cared nothing for democracy or oligarchy, but merely cared for himself. Phrynichus was overruled and then secretly sent word to Astyochus, the commander of the Spartan fleet, that Alcibiades was playing a double or triple game. Astyochus in turn betrayed Phrynichus' betrayal, with both Phrynichus and Alcibiades hoping that the other would be executed by their friends.

The Athenian forces at Samos were informed that the change in government was being contemplated, and after many protests, the Athenian troops eventually sullenly acquiesced at this as the only way to save the city. Meanwhile the generals, particularly Peisander, went on with their plans for a double coup, both at Samos, where the fleet lay, and at Athens itself. However, while these plans were afoot, their negotiations with Tissaphernes broke down, with the Persians demanding more than the Athenians felt that they could give.

Tissaphernes is described as being extremely duplicitous, but he was no more deceitful with the Greeks than they were to him or to each other. He half-supported the Spartans, half-supported the Athenians, humoured the fickle Alcibiades for as long as Alcibiades could be useful and gave the all-important Phoenician fleet to no one. It is said that the Phoenician fleet moved as far as Aspendus, but then stayed there and made no further move. It is possible that Tissaphernes had no authority to move it, and perhaps it was afterwards sent south to help crush a rebellion that was breaking out in Egypt, but it is equally likely that Tissaphernes wanted the Persian navy nearby, but felt ill-inclined to risk it for the good of either Athens or Sparta. To the Greeks he may have been the model of treachery, but he was certainly an able and trusty servant to the King of Persia.

Astyochus, in command of the Spartan navy, supported a rebellion against the Athenians in Rhodes. Shortly afterwards a revolt against the Athenians broke out on the Hellespont, supported by Spartan land troops. The Athenian navy was now stretched thin, trying to fight battles against the Spartan navy, hold the Hellespont and continue the siege of Chios, which was broken shortly thereafter.

Lekythos painted
by the Reed Painter

Meanwhile Peisander sailed to Athens to set up an oligarchy. The aristocrats of the city were already prepared, with the logographer Antiphon of Rhamnus as the main organiser of the affair. Theramenes, who was a supporter of moderate oligarchy, was an active member of the conspiracy also. The people were brought together and made to vote on a suspension of the constitution, with 20 people appointed to draw up a new constitution. The people eventually passed this motion. Shortly after this, the plotters dismissed all the magistrates under the previous government and set up a Council of 400.

Theramenes, son of Hagnon, was also one of the foremost of the subverters of the democracy—a man as able in council as in debate. Conducted by so many and by such sagacious heads, the enterprise, great as it was, not unnaturally went forward; although it was no light matter to deprive the Athenian people of its freedom
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 8, written circa 400BC

The new council immediately sent messages to Agis II at Decelea to ask him for peace terms. Agis instead marched against the city to attack it, but even in the middle of a coup, the Athenians still manned their walls and drove off the Spartan king. Seeing this Agis opened negotiations, as this was still a very real chance to end the war.

During the coup, the orator Andocides, who had been imprisoned on suspicion of desecrating the herms and who afterwards turned informer on many others, used this excuse to return to Athens. However no sooner did the wandering Andocides turn up in Athens than he was promptly imprisoned, as even the oligarchs wanted nothing to do with someone who was said to be a sacrilegious informant. They had wanted to execute him, but he had run to an altar and claimed sanctuary as soon as he realised their intentions. He was released through some means shortly thereafter and fled to Cyprus.

Vase painted by the Meidias Painter

Messages were sent to the fleet at Samos that the coup had taken place and that the oligarchy had been established for the greater good of the city. However at Samos the fleet had turned against the idea of oligarchy. The city of Samos itself had only recently overthrown the oligarchy of that city and now they were being asked to overthrow their democracy and reinstate an oligarchy. The Samians reflected that they were the last loyal allies of the Athenians. The Athenians reflected that they had had democracy for a century and that they had always been the enemies of oligarchs and tyrants.

The coup in Samos thus failed, although Hyperbolus, the last Athenian to be ostracised, was killed in the confusion. The fleet sent word back to Athens to say that they had stayed staunchly democratic. This message arrived after the coup had taken place so one of the messengers escaped the imprisonment of the oligarchs and returned to Samos to paint a lurid picture of the tyranny.

Thrasybulus was now the leader of the fleet. He was in favour of democracy and a patriot of his city. Realising the danger of the oligarchic coup in Athens, and the futility of Persian aid from Tissaphernes, he made the troops swear an oath that they would favour the democracy in future and that they would continue the war and be enemies of the Council of Four Hundred. In Thrasybulus' words, the fleet was not in rebellion against Athens; the fleet itself was Athens. If anyone was in rebellion, it was the Council of Four Hundred.

Portrait of Tissaphernes from one of his coins

The Spartans were not unaware that the Athenians were in the middle of civil strife and may have wanted to break the fleet at Samos. However, they did not feel that their own numbers made victory secure. The Spartans were also annoyed with Tissaphernes for withholding their pay (either on the advice of Alcibiades or simply because Tissaphernes had no real interest in paying the Spartans promptly). The Spartan fleet moved northwards to the Hellespont, where they were in the pay of the Persian satrap Pharnabazus. This would not only improve their prospects of pay, but would threaten the lifeline of grain that the Athenians depended on.

As the Spartans had gone from Tissaphernes, the Athenians now made an alliance of sorts with Tissaphernes and also recalled Alcibiades to the fleet at Samos. As predicted by Phrynichus, Alcibiades cared neither for democracy nor oligarchy, but was merely interested in moving back to Athens, as his position with the Persians was becoming precarious.

This understanding between Tissaphernes and the Athenians led to an even worse breakdown of relations between Tissaphernes and the Spartans. The Spartans quarrelled with their allies, particularly Hermocrates of Syracuse, who had expected to lead the Syracusans to join in a triumphal overthrow of Athens, but instead found himself and his men locked in an ever more confusing tangle of diplomacy, manoeuvre, and treachery. Astyochus, who may have been conspiring with Tissaphernes himself, returned to Sparta, taking with him Hermocrates and some Persian representatives to argue their respective cases before the Spartans.

While the Spartan fleet was leaderless, the Athenians nearly went to war among themselves, with the representatives of the Four Hundred going from Athens to the fleet at Samos and trying to reconcile the two sides. The sailors and soldiers of the fleet were against the oligarchs and would have sailed to attack Athens had not Alcibiades intervened and said that as long as both city and fleet survived, Athens stood and might yet be reconciled, but that if either was destroyed then Athens was lost. It was perhaps the one piece of true public service that Alcibiades ever did.

Meanwhile the oligarchs in Athens were divided themselves. Moderate oligarchs like Theramenes wanted a broader franchise, while the more extreme oligarchs like Phrynichus and Antiphon would have had a smaller government than 400 if they could. The extreme oligarchs began to build a fortification in Piraeus that was believed to be a method of betraying the city to the Spartans. The people began to wonder if a broader franchise, an assembly of Five Thousand rather than a council of Four Hundred, might be better. The general Phrynichus was assassinated and his killer refused to name his accomplices even under torture. Theramenes, the moderate oligarch, now carried the day and the fortification of the Piraeus was torn down and the Five Thousand began to rule.

Vase painted by the Meidias Painter

Andocides took this opportunity to return to Athens once more, but he was still very much unwelcome. He tried to bribe officials to let him stay, but he was still unwelcome. He wrote a speech petitioning for his return. The speech still survives and is called "On His Return". Whether or not you think it was a good speech, Andocides was told in no uncertain terms to leave the city.

Meanwhile another practitioner of oratory was in trouble. Antiphon of Rhamnus was put on trial for his role in the coup. He was a writer of speeches, but had never spoken in court before. This was his first time actually delivering one of his speeches. It does not survive, but Thucydides remarks that it was possibly the best speech that had yet been heard in Athens by a man fighting for their life. But even with all his brilliance, Antiphon of Rhamnus was condemned to death by the people for his role in the overthrow of the democracy.

The island of Euboea, which lies very close to Attica, had revolted at this time and Peloponnesian ships sailed past Athens to support the rebellion in Euboea. The new assembly of the Five Thousand met on the Pnyx Hill to pass emergency measures and see to the defence of the city against the new threat.

Meanwhile, the Athenians, following some Spartan reinforcements to the Hellespont, came upon the main Peloponnesian navy and prepared for battle. The two sides were nearly evenly matched, but the Athenians were slightly outnumbered. The Athenians under the command of Thrasybulus and Thrasyllus won a decisive victory after an initial setback. Because the coastline was so near, many of the Peloponnesian ships escaped, but it was nevertheless a signal victory and the first major victory that the Athenians had won since the disaster at Syracuse. The battle was known as the Battle of Cynossema and the good news was conveyed to the city of Athens, which emboldened the people and began to restore their faith in the democracy.

It is around this point that the account of Thucydides in his History of the Peloponnesian War breaks off, literally midsentence. We know that the book itself was still being written perhaps a decade later, so why it should end in this manner is simply not known. It is nevertheless to be regretted that he did not write more. Putting down the writings of Thucydides is like bidding farewell to an old friend.

Oxyrhynchus papyrus fragment of
Thucydides work

Tissaphernes, upon hearing of this act of the Peloponnesians in addition to what had occurred at Miletus and Cnidus, where his garrisons had been also expelled, now saw that the breach between them was serious; and fearing further injury from them, and being also vexed to think that Pharnabazus should receive them, and in less time and at less cost perhaps succeed better against Athens than he had done, determined to rejoin them in the Hellespont, in order to complain of the events at Antandros and excuse himself as best he could in the matter of the Phoenician fleet and of the other charges against him. Accordingly he went first to Ephesus and offered sacrifice to Artemis….
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 8 breaking off mid-sentence, written circa 400BC

Others have taken up the burden of writing at this point, most particularly Xenophon, who begins his book "Hellenica" at this point. Another anonymous historian whose work is only preserved in fragments wrote a similar history, which is generally known as the Hellenica Oxyrhynchia.

The Athenians now established a base at Sestos, while the Spartans, who were at Abydos, summoned reinforcements. These reinforcements were caught by the Athenians and the Spartan navy had to sally out and attack the Athenians. The Athenians looked as if they might be beaten when Athenian reinforcements led by Alcibiades arrived in the nick of time from Samos. This time the Spartans suffered heavy enough casualties to even the odds between the two fleets. This battle was known as the Battle of Abydos.

In this year, Sicily continued in a disordered state and the cities of Selinus and Segesta went to war. Segesta had been allied with Athens in the time of the Sicilian Expedition and had thus been wary of causing any offence to any of her neighbours. However the Selinuntines used this caution as a good excuse to carve away large swathes of territory for Segesta. Segesta appealed to Carthage. The Carthaginians were wary of becoming too involved in Sicily, but after initially offering to allow Syracuse to arbitrate, they agreed to send a supporting force to Segesta.

In this year it is likely that Euripides produced the play Helen. It has survived to us and is a play strongly denouncing the evils of war. These evils must have been well known by now to the Athenians.

A statue from an earlier period depicting a
Spartan girl

Even the comic playwrights were now writing once more on this theme. Aristophanes wrote the play Lysistrata, which describes the women of Greece going on a sex-strike to force the men of Greece to finally bring an end to the long war. It is perhaps the easiest of the Old Comedy plays to be shown to a modern audience. In certain ways it shows the transition towards Middle and New Comedy, as the characters are moving more towards stereotypes rather than highly personalised satires against individuals.

In the year 410 Seuthes I of Odrysia, the most powerful ruler of the many potentates among the Thracian tribes, died. He was succeeded as ruler of the Odrysian confederation by Amadocus I, who was later engaged in conflicts with the warlike Triballi tribe of Thracians on the southern bank of the Danube. Amadocus appointed a general named Seuthes to guard his domains on the Aegean shore. However, this general later made himself an independent king, known as Seuthes II, and fought against his supposed overlord.

Around this time Evagoras made a surprise attack on Salamis in Cyprus and captured the city from the Phoenicians that had controlled it. Evagoras' family had previously controlled Salamis so he had a lot of local support, but feared retaliation from the Persian Empire. To try and bolster his weak position, Evagoras sent to the Athenians and made some form of an alliance with them. He also attempted to conciliate the Persians and was not at this time at open war with them.

In this year, Corcyra, which was one of the reasons that the Athenians had gone to war in the first place and which had proved singularly useless in the war, had yet another coup attempt. The oligarchs tried to retake control of the city once more, perhaps reasoning that the Athenians could no longer intervene in the favour of the commoners. The Athenians did in fact intervene, with their general Conon sailing from Naupactus to Corcyra and helping the commoners destroy the oligarchs in yet another massacre. Corcyra continued to be useless to the Athenian cause thereafter.

Euboea, which was in revolt against Athens, appealed to Thebes to assist them in making a causeway to join Euboea to Boeotia between the cities of Chalcis and Aulis, where the channel was narrowest. This was quite a good idea and causeways were stretched out from the land until only a short channel was left for the sea, which could be bridged easily. The Athenian general Theramenes was dispatched with a naval force to put a stop to this, but he was unable to.

Stater of King Archelaus I of Macedon

Archelaus, king of Macedon, was attacking the city of Pydna. As he was still a supporter of Athens, at least in theory, the Athenians sent some troops to help him, led by Theramenes, the moderate oligarch who had been involved in the setting up of the government of the Five Thousand. After assisting for a brief time, Theramenes took his ships to join Thrasybulus and Alcibiades and the main Athenian navy. The Athenians needed to keep a good relationship with Macedonia, as it was one of the few places they could obtain timber for the ships they desperately needed to build and man.

The Athenians had won a victory in the previous year at Abydos, but the Peloponnesians and their allies, under the command of Mindarus and with the assistance of the Persian satrap Pharnabazus, had made good their losses. They once again matched the Athenian fleet in numbers. Pharnabazus was also able to assist them with some land-based forces. While the Spartans threatened the sea traffic from the Black Sea, they had their foot upon the windpipe of Athens, as it was through these straits that the grain ships bound for Athens had to pass. The Athenians had to somehow defeat the Spartans here.

The Spartans launched an attack on Cyzicus, between the Bosphorus and the Hellespont. The Athenians slipped by in the night and hid their fleet near the island of Marmara. Theramenes and Thrasybulus each commanded large squadrons while Alcibiades led a small squadron within sight of the harbour of Cyzicus. Knowing that this would be an irresistible target to the Spartan commander Mindarus, the Athenians lingered in the area before turning to flight once the Spartan navy put to sea.

Reconstruction of a trireme

As the Spartans pursued, the squadrons of Thrasybulus and Theramenes emerged from hiding and the Spartans, surrounded and facing a battle they were not prepared for, retreated towards the coastline, where Persian reinforcements had gathered. Some ships were probably sunk on the pursuit, but most made it to the shore.

The Athenians had landed some troops the previous night and Theramenes landed his squadron near where the friendly troops were. Meanwhile the ships of Thrasybulus and Alcibiades were beached and their troops attempted to pursue the Spartans. The Persians tried to drive them back into the sea, but the reinforcements under Theramenes arrived in time to catch the Spartans and Persians between the two forces. Thoroughly out-generalled, the Spartan commander Mindarus was slain after hard fighting and the Spartans and Persians fled inland, leaving the Athenians in possession of not only their own fleet, but most of the Spartan fleet. The only exception of the Syracusan vessels, which had been burned before abandonment.

The Athenians had to put to sea quickly after the battle, as Pharnabazus was hastening to the scene with a strong force of cavalry, but they had won a brilliant victory. The Athenians now retook Cyzicus. While the Battle of Cyzicus was a dramatic victory for the Athenians, they were quite short of funds and this stopped them from following up their victory.

Athenian grave stela

While the Athenians were busying themselves with these matters, Mindarus, the Lacedaemonian commander, was himself fighting with Alcibiades for the ships that were being dragged off, and he dispatched Clearchus the Spartan with a part of the Peloponnesians against the troops with Thrasybulus; and with him he also sent the mercenaries in the army of Pharnabazus. Thrasybulus with the marines and archers at first stoutly withstood the enemy, and though he slew many of them, he also saw not a few of his own men falling; but when the mercenaries of Pharnabazus were surrounding the Athenians and were crowding about them in great numbers from every direction, Theramenes appeared, leading both his own troops and the infantry with Chaereas. Although the troops of Thrasybulus were exhausted and had given up hope of rescue, their spirits were suddenly revived again when reinforcements so strong were at hand. An obstinate battle which lasted a long time ensued; but at first the mercenaries of Pharnabazus began to withdraw and the continuity of their battle line was broken; and finally the Peloponnesians who had been left behind with Clearchus, after having both inflicted and suffered much punishment, were expelled.
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Book 13 written circa 40BC

The Persian satrap Pharnabazus must have been annoyed with the poor showing of both his own troops and the vaunted Spartans and their allies, but he is said to have encouraged the survivors and to have ordered them paid and to await new orders. He promised to assist them in building new ships. It was around this time that the news came from Syracuse that the new Syracusan regime, led by Diocles, had banished the captains in the east, particularly Hermocrates. New captains arrived from Syracuse to continue the war, while Hermocrates went to Pharnabazus, who gave him large sums of money to aid in his revenge.

It is said that the Spartans sent a letter back to Sparta, laconically stating "Ships gone. Mindarus dead. Men starving. Send orders." It is hard to know if this is true or just one an anecdote. It is hard to see how they could be starving considering that Pharnabazus was supplying them. I suspect that this is legendary.

The Spartans were deeply concerned with the outcome of the battle however. A few years earlier Athens had been deemed to be on its knees. Now the courage of the Athenians had so changed the situation that the Spartans sent an embassy offering terms of peace. Even the Spartans must have grown tired under the weight of this endless war.

It almost appears inexplicable now, but the Athenians refused the Spartan terms. A popular leader named Cleophon spoke to them of the victories that had been won and that they might yet win. Athens viewed itself as the full equal of Sparta, and to have fought this long war and to have gained no advantage whatsoever seemed to be intolerable to the Athenians. Peace was refused and the long war ground onwards.

Temple in Segesta, Sicily

In this year, the Carthaginians, under the command of Hannibal Mago, sent a small force to Sicily to aid the city of Segesta against the aggression of its neighbouring city, Selinus. Hannibal Mago was the grandson of Hamilcar who had been slain by the Greeks in the Battle of Himera earlier in the century. The diplomacy of Hannibal Mago had ensured that the powerful state of Syracuse would not aid Selinus. The city of Acragas also seemed to show no interest in getting involved in the war.

The Carthaginians and Segestans caught the Selinuntines as they were raiding Segestan territory and inflicted a severe defeat on them. Selinus now appealed once more to Syracuse, who offered to help, but did not in fact do anything. Meanwhile Hannibal Mago was gathering a much larger force in Africa to prepare for the next stage of the war.

In this year, Plato the comic poet (not Plato the philosopher) won the prize for Comedy in the Great Dionysia festival. Like most plays from this time, it sadly does not survive.

Around this time the sophist brothers Euthydemus and Dionysodorus were said to have flourished in Athens. They spoke and lectured together as a team and are satirised by Plato in one of his dialogues (named after Euthydemus) where Socrates is said to have questioned the brothers and found most of their rhetorical excellence to be composed mainly of cheap pseudo-logical sleights of hand.

Coin of Selinus in Sicily

Critias is also said to have been in love with Euthydemus. Critias was a sharp-minded brilliant member of the aristocracy who had little love for democracy or for the people at large. He was a sophist of sorts in his own right, but none of his writings survive that we know of. He is said to have written poetry, various political writings on the constitutions, admiring works about the Spartans and even a Satyr play that was said to have been very daring in its disrespect of the gods. He had been a student of Socrates at one time and had also been implicated, but eventually released, in the affair of the Desecration of the Herms. He was a thoroughgoing oligarch and was probably involved in the coup of 411, although his name is not mentioned in the sources. Critias would go on to become one of the most notorious names in Athenian politics, but for now, he merely flourished as a sophistic gentleman scholar in Athens.

If we are mentioning people connected to Socrates, now is as good a time as any to mention Xanthippe, who was the wife of Socrates. She is seldom mentioned in the works of Plato or Xenophon, but in certain later writers such as Diogenes Laertius, she is depicted a shrewish wife who is constantly scolding or nagging her husband. This is a harsh reputation to go down in history with, but Socrates is said to have borne it rather meekly, treating the scolding as like the later St Paul's "thorn in the flesh", something unpleasant, but to be stoically endured nonetheless. Xanthippe leaves behind no words of her own, (it is not clear that she was literate) and thus cannot set the record straight. It must be admitted that Socrates was, according to all the sources, a rather singular gentleman and one who occasioned much annoyance even among his dearest friends. I can therefore sympathise with his long-suffering wife and feel she has been much maligned.

Athenian grave stela

Around this time the great painter Zeuxis is said to have flourished. He was hired by Archelaus I of Macedon to paint his palace in the new capital of Pella. It is said that 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. It is known that Zeuxis was a great painter, but painting does not survive well from the classical era.

The Meidias Painter also flourished around this time. He was an Attica red-figure vase painter who painted in the Rich Style and whose works have survived to the present day.

And thus the period draws to a close. The decade was tumultuous, beginning with the uneasy Peace of Nicias still in force before the horrendous losses for the Athenians in the Sicilian Expedition. This was followed by coups in Athens, treachery and double-dealing on all sides in Ionia and finally a recovery of sorts by the Athenians, allowing the long war to finish its sad and sorry course. I will continue the story of the history of the Greek world in the next blog.

Athenian grave stela

Primary Sources:
Aristophanes, The Clouds, written 423BC
Sophocles, Electra, written circa 419BC
Euripides, Heracles, written circa 416BC
Antiphon of Rhamnus, Orations, written circa 416BC
Antiphon the Sophist (possibly identical to Antiphon of Rhamnus), Fragments, written circa 416BC
Euripides, Trojan Women, written circa 415BC
Euripides, Ion, written circa 414BC
Aristophanes, The Birds, written 414BC
Euripides, Electra, written circa 413BC
Andocides, On His Return, written 411BC
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, written circa 400BC
Plato, Symposium, written circa 385BC
Xenophon, Hellenica, composed circa 355BC
The Parian Chronicle, written circa 216BC
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, written circa 40BC
Plutarch, Life of Nicias, written circa AD100
Plutarch, Life of Alcibiades, written circa AD100
Pausanias, Description of Greece, written circa AD150

Secondary Sources:
Historical eruptions on Mount Etna
Catalogue of Greek coins

Related Blog Posts:
Greece 429-420BC
419-400BC in the Near East
419-400BC in Rome
409-400BC in Greece

439-420BC in Rome

Etruscan warrior
statuette

This blog post will look at the years 439-420BC 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.

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 439 Titus Quinctius Capitolinus Barbatus and Menenius Agrippa Lanatus were elected consuls in Rome. There had been a famine in the previous year and food supplies were still short. A wealthy plebeian by the name of Spurius Maelius had helped to alleviate the famine by buying a great deal of grain from Etruria and distributing it for free or at reduced prices. This made him quite popular among the poorer classes, but had made him an object of suspicion among the patricians.

The consuls certainly believed that Spurius Maelius was up to no good. Rumours of weapons being collected at his house came to the ears of the magistrates, whether there was anything to them or not. Whenever any citizen became overly popular, there was always the suspicion that they were attempting to become king, a title that was hated in Rome beyond all others.

A painting depicting Cincinnatus earlier being called from
his plough to the dictatorship

The consuls nominated Cincinnatus as Dictator, he promptly appointed Gaius Servilius Ahala as the Master of Horse, an important military role. Gaius Servilius Ahala was immediately dispatched to bring Spurius Maelius to the Dictator. When Spurius Maelius saw the Master of Horse coming against him with officers and lictors. Spurius Maelius fled into the crowd and begged protection from them. Gaius Servilius Ahala followed him into the turmoil of the crowd and struck him down with the sword.

He entreated them to come to his help in this terrible crisis, and not suffer him to be butchered before their eyes. Whilst he was making these appeals, Servilius overtook him and slew him. Besprinkled with the dead man's blood, and surrounded by a troop of young patricians, he returned to the Dictator and: reported that Maelius after being summoned to appear before him had driven away his officer and incited the populace to riot, and had now met with the punishment he deserved. "Well done!" said the Dictator, "Gaius Servilius, you have delivered the republic."
Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita, 4.14, written around 18BC

Etruscan warrior statuette

Cincinnatus then summoned the people to an assembly and said that Spurius Maelius had been lawfully killed, in that he had refused an order of the Dictator. This was a questionable point, as he had appealed to the people for protection, and no citizen of the Republic should be without appeal, even against the word of the lawful Dictator of Rome. But, eventually the people, though disgruntled, acquiesced. The house and property of the supposed traitor were confiscated and turned over to the city. It was never very clear that Spurius Maelius was in fact aspiring to become king or was conspiring to do anything at all in fact.

Cincinnatus resigned his dictatorship immediately the supposed danger was averted and returned to his farm in the countryside. Despite the protestations of the patricians that this entire episode had been for the security of the state, the plebs were still angered. It is said that they determined to elect tribunes with consular powers at the next elections rather than consuls.

In the year 438 Mamercus Aemilius Macerinus, Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus (the son of the Dictator of the previous year) and Lucius Julius Iulus were elected as consular tribunes in Rome. During this year Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus (the Dictator of previous years) died and was mourned by the Romans.

During this year war threatened to break out between Rome and the nearby Etruscan city of Veii. The Roman colony of Fidenae had rebelled against Rome and murdered some Rome envoys. Both Fidenae and Veii were close by to Rome and it was likely that this murder occurred late in the year as no action was taken during the year for the vengeance of the Romans.

In the year 437 Marcus Geganius Macerinus and Lucius Sergius Fidenas were elected as consuls in Rome. Now the war against Veii was kindled. The Veientes and Fidenates were arrayed against Rome. The anti-Roman coalition was led by Lars Tolumnius, the King of Veii, who was said to have ordered the murder of the Roman envoys in the previous year.

An earlier statue from Veii (circa 500BC)
probably depicting Apollo

Veii was a wealthy city and the coalition against Rome was held to be a serious one. The Romans fought a difficult battle south of the Anio and were said to have triumphed, but had suffered heavy losses. In these difficult circumstances, the Romans appointed Mamercus Aemilius Macerinus as Dictator to lead them into battle. Lars Tolumnius withdrew back across the Anio and summoned fresh reinforcements from Falerii.

The two sides met in battle and the war hung in the balance. Finally a Roman cavalry officer named Cornelius Cossus killed Lars Tolumnius, king of Veii and the Etruscans broke and fled. It was a great victory for Rome and Mamercus was granted a triumph before laying down his dictatorship.

In the year 436 Lucius Papirius Crassus and Marcus Cornelius Maluginensis were elected consuls in Rome. There were a number of plundering expeditions launched against Veii and Falerii. There was the possibility of unrest among the plebeians, as a relative of the slain Spurius Maelius tried to prosecute Servilius Ahala for the murder of his relative. But the prosecution was not successful. A pestilence broke out in Rome around this time.

In the year 435 Gaius Julius Iulus and Lucius Verginius Tricostus were elected consuls in Rome. The pestilence grew worse, and the men of Fidenae took advantage of this to attack Rome. They advanced as far as the Colline Gate near the edge of the city. The consuls appointed Aulus Servilius as Dictator and the hastily levied army of the Dictator, plague-ridden or otherwise, beat back the men of Fidenae. The Romans won a victory on the road, and then decided to besiege Fidenae itself. The town was very close to Rome and to leave it untaken was a grave risk. Diversionary attacks were launched against the walls while mines and sapping operations were begun, aiming to reach the citadel from underground. The city of Fidenae was captured by Rome and I cannot imagine that the Romans were merciful to those who were captured.

Etruscan statuette of a warrior on horseback

In the year 434 Gaius Julius Iulus and Lucius Verginius Tricostus were elected consuls in Rome, except that perhaps maybe they weren't. It would be quite unusual for a single consul to be returned, but quite extraordinary for two consuls to be returned for the next year. Livy records that there is some confusion about this year and that different records said different things. I would imagine that there has been confusion in the documentation.

There was a threat to the Romans from the Etruscans. The people of Veii had summoned the Twelve Towns of Etruria and were trying to rally their fellow Etruscans to join a great war against Rome. The Romans appointed Mamercus Aemilius Macerinus as Dictator to meet the threat. However, the existential threat never came. Veii was unable to muster support from the other Etruscans and the threat of a pan-Etruscan coalition came to nothing.

Etruscan statue from Veii

Mamercus Aemilius Macerinus prepared to lay down his dictatorship, but before doing so he decided to aid the people by reducing the power of the newly created office of censor. The censorship at this time lasted for 5 years. Mamercus Aemilius Macerinus reduced the tenure of the office to 18 months. This was known as the Lex Aemilia de Censoribus. The censors were able to assess taxation and to take censuses, determining who was a citizen and what type of citizen they were. They reacted vindictively, and once Mamercus Aemilius Macerinus had resigned his office of Dictator, the censors increased his taxation eight-fold, made him the lowest class of citizen, ineligible for any office ever again.

The censors were extremely angry with Mamercus for having limited the power of a Roman magistrate, they struck him out of his tribe, increased his assessment eightfold, and disfranchised him. It is recorded that he bore this most magnanimously, thinking more of the cause which led to the ignominy being inflicted upon him than of the ignominy itself. The leading men amongst the patricians, though disapproving of the limitation imposed on the censorial jurisdiction, were shocked at this instance of the harsh exercise of its power, for each recognised that he would be subject to the censors more frequently and for a longer time than he would be censor himself. At all events the people, it is said, felt so indignant that no one but Mamercus possessed sufficient authority to protect the censors from violence.
Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita, 4.24, written around 18BC

Mamercus, who had celebrated a triumph three years previously, took the vindictiveness with good grace and would not allow his supporters to hurt or punish the censors. Thus, even those who had opposed the limiting of the censorship came to gradually agree with Mamercus.

Etruscan statue from Veii

In the year 433 Marcus Fabius Vibulanus, Lucius Sergius Fidenas and Marcus Folius Flaccinator were elected as consular tribunes in Rome. There was a pestilence again in this year and the Romans had to buy grain abroad, as there was fear that there would be famine in the land as well. The Sibylline Books were opened and it was decided that a temple to Apollo would be dedicated to try and turn aside the wrath of the god, who was said to cause plague.

In the year 432 Lucius Pinarius Mamercus, Spurius Postumius Albus Regillensis and Lucius Furius Medullinus were elected as consular tribunes in Rome. In this year the pestilence began to abate and thus the threat of impending famine also appeared to diminish. There was political strife, with the tribunes of the plebs passing a law that forbade open campaigning. This was intended to stop the patricians from having an advantage in the election of consular tribunes. It is probable that it had little effect. There was a rising of the Aequi and the Volscians this year, but it was too late in the year for military action to be taken immediately.

Elsewhere in Italy, the colony of Heraclea was founded by the Greek cities of Taras and Thurii as a compromise colony. It would include settlers from both cities and was built on a piece of land that had previously been disputed by these cities in a war.

In the year 431 Titus Quinctius Poenus Cincinnatus and Gaius Julius Mento were elected as consuls in Rome. The two consuls quickly found out that they hated each other and disagreed on nearly everything. The Aequi and the Volsci occupied Mount Algidus and it may be that the Romans suffered a defeat here under the command of the consuls. It was decided that a Dictator would be called and Aulus Postumius Tubertus was named as Dictator.

Etruscan warrior
statuette

A great battle was fought on Mount Algidus and the Romans were once more victorious, as they had so often been at this battleground. Some Volscians escaped under the leadership of Vettius Messius, who was acknowledged by the Romans as a worthy foe, but most of the Aequi and Volscian soldiers were captured and sold into slavery. Aulus Postumius Tubertus resigned his dictatorship and returned to Rome. It is reported that Aulus Postumius Tubertus had executed his son for the crime of having left his post, even though his son had left through enthusiasm rather than cowardice. Livy reports the tale, but raises a number of objections to it.

The consul Gaius Julius Mento, who had remained at Rome while his colleague accompanied the Dictator, dedicated the temple to Apollo Medicus in Rome. This temple had been vowed some years earlier as part of a desire to be free of plague. The temple stood near what is now the Theatre of Marcellus and some columns of a later temple can be seen there, as the temple was rebuilt a number of times over the years.

In the year 430 Lucius Papirius Crassus and Lucius Julius Iulus were elected as consuls in Rome. The year was a quiet one. The Aequi applied for a treaty and were granted an eight year truce. The Volscians were locked in an internal civil war on the question of whether they should seek peace with Rome. The consuls put forward a bill to regulate how fines were assessed. This was a popular bill so the consuls put it forward so that the tribunes of the plebs could not get the credit for it.

In the year 429 Hostus Lucretius Tricipitinus and Lucius Sergius Fidenas were elected as consuls in Rome. Livy records nothing of note that happened in this year.

In the year 428 Aulus Cornelius Cossus and Titus Quinctius Pennus were elected as consuls in Rome. Raiding parties from Veii attacked Roman territory and it was suspected that some of the Roman settlers from Fidenae had accompanied them. The Romans conducted some investigations and banished some who were said to be guilty.

Etruscan rock-hewn tomb 5th century BC

There was a drought in the land during this year and the consuls intervened to stop the Romans from worshipping other gods in an effort to bring rain. I find it interesting that there were other gods being worshipped in Rome and wonder which gods they were?

Pretended soothsayers went about introducing new modes of sacrificing, and did a profitable trade amongst the victims of superstition, until at last the sight of strange un-Roman modes of propitiating the wrath of the gods in the streets and chapels brought home to the leaders of the commonwealth the public scandal which was being caused. The aediles were instructed to see to it that none but Roman deities were worshipped, nor in any other than the established fashion.
Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita, 4.30, written around 18BC

In the year 427 Gaius Servilius Ahala and Lucius Papirius Mugillanus were elected as consuls in Rome. They wished to prosecute a war against Veii, but the progress of the war was slow.

In the year 426 Titus Quinctius Poenus Cincinnatus, Marcus Postumius Albinus Regillensis, Gaius Furius Pacilus Fusus and Aulus Cornelius Cossus were elected as consular tribunes in Rome.

Etruscan statue from Veii

The Romans sent an army to attack the armies of Veii, but the Romans suffered a defeat. Once again the Romans summoned Mamercus Aemilius Macerinus to act as Dictator. Thus the man who had been made the lowest in the state by the censors was called upon to save it.

Mamercus rallied his troops and took them to fight at Fidenae, which had revolted from Rome again, where they engaged the army of Veii once more. The battle hung in the balance and the men of Fidenae poured forth from the city bearing torches, but this fiery attack disoriented, but did not defeat the Romans, who fought back and won a victory of Veii and Fidenae. Mamercus returned to Rome and celebrated a triumph before resigning his dictatorship.

In the year 425 Aulus Sempronius Atratinus, Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, Lucius Furius Medullinus and Lucius Horatius Barbatus were elected as consular tribunes in Rome. Livy does not record any events that took place in this year.

In the year 424 Appius Claudius Crassus, Lucius Sergius Fidenas, Spurius Nautius Rutilus and Sextus Julius Iulus were elected as consular tribunes in Rome. That year a festival of games was held in Rome and was celebrated with great pomp.

There were some political debates to the effect that in the next year, the plebeians should coordinate to ensure that some of their number were elected as consular tribunes. However, through a piece of trickery, the senators were able to ensure that consuls would be elected in the following year, which the plebeians were not eligible to stand for.

In this year, the Etruscan town of Volturnum was seized by the Samnites. The Samnites were a central Italic people who spoke an Oscan language. They had been allied with the Etruscans of Volturnum but murdered them in their sleep after a festival, before renaming the town Capua.

In the year 423 Gaius Sempronius Atratinus and Quintus Fabius Vibulanus were elected as consuls in Rome. War with the Volscians was brewing and the Romans mustered an army. A confused and uncertain battle was fought between the Volscians and the Romans, with Gaius Sempronius Atratinus in charge of the Roman army. A soldier named Tempanius and a small troop of cavalry distinguished themselves and broke through the enemy lines, becoming separated from the main body of troops.

Darkness had fallen and Tempanius and his comrades found the Volscian camp abandoned, before returning to the Roman camp and finding it abandoned as well. They returned to Rome and found that the main Roman army had survived mostly intact and that there was no great disaster. But it was a most unsatisfactory campaign.

Roman currency from
around this time period

The tribunes brought charges against the consuls of previous years who had suffered a defeat at Veii three years earlier, partly exploiting public anger at Sempronius' conduct of the Volscian campaign. Tempanius was called to testify and is said to have refrained from passing judgement on his commander. Marcus Postumius was found guilty of having mismanaged the campaign against Veii earlier and was fined 10,000 asses (the heavy Roman bronze currency), which was a substantial sum.

In the year 422 Lucius Manlius Capitolinus, Lucius Papirius Mugillanus and Quintus Antonius Merenda were elected as consular tribunes in Rome. Charges were brought by a tribune of the plebs named Hortensius against Sempronius, who had been consul in the previous year and had led them to a draw/defeat against the Volscians. The other tribunes of plebs pleaded with Hortensius for the charges to be dropped, in that Sempronius had made some mistakes, but did not deserve to be humiliated. Hortensius eventually dropped the charges.

In the year 421 Titus Quinctius Capitolinus Barbatus and Cnaeus Fabius Vibulanus were elected as consuls in Rome. After the qualified success of the Volscians in previous years, the Aequi decided to try and attack Rome, but they were defeated very quickly.

The city then was paralysed by a political dispute as to whether or not the quaestorship, elected officials who were to assist the consuls in administration, should be open to plebeians. No decision was made, but the debate was postponed to previous years.

In the year 420 Quinctius Cincinnatus, Lucius Furius Medullinus, Marcus Manlius Vulso and Aulus Sempronius Atratinus were elected as consul tribunes in Rome. The tribunes suspected that there had been vote rigging, whether it had happened or not, and took the ex-consul Sempronius to trial once more for the conduct of his campaign against the Volscians three years previously. This time the trial went to court and Sempronius was fined 15,000 asses.

Later painting of an idealised Vestal Virgin

One of the Vestal Virgins, named Postumia, was accused of breaking her vows of chastity. However, it was proved that she had not in fact broken them but was merely acting flirtatiously. After being warned against such behaviour she was released.

In this year the Greek city of Cumae was taken by the Campanians. This had been the first Greek colony on the mainland of Italy, and had resisted attacks by the natives before. It was a colony of Euboea and had a long and glorious history, but it finally fell to the Oscans and Samnite peoples in this year. The walls of the city were broken down and it may have been abandoned for some time, before eventually being restored in the next century.

And thus the period draws to a close. It is not the most eventful two decades in Roman history, but it shows the operation of the Roman state at this time of the Republic. In particular it shows the prevalence of both tribunes with consular power and the calling of dictators, which happens frequently. The Struggle of the Orders continued of course, but it had not paralysed the city and it seemed that the plebeians and patricians were managing to at least coexist. Meanwhile the old enemies of the Volscians and Aequi appeared to be becoming weaker, while to the north, the city of Veii must have feared that a final showdown between themselves and Rome was coming.

Apulian style Corinthian helmet from southern Italy

Primary Sources
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, written circa 40BC
Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita, written around 18BC
Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita, written around 18BC (a different translation)
Fasti Triumphales, written circa 19BC
Fasti Capitolini, written circa AD13

Related Blog Posts
459-440BC in Rome
439-420BC in the Near East
439-430BC in Greece
429-420BC in Greece
419-400BC in Rome

439-420BC in the Near East

Probable tomb of Artaxerxes I from Naqsh-i-Rustam

This blog will try and look at the Near East for the years 439-420BC, 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.

During this period Artaxerxes I was ruling as Great King of Persia. A peace had been negotiated between the Athenians and the Persians, which was possibly formalised in a treaty known as the Peace of Callias. 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.

In the year 439, the Samian rebellion against Athens failed. In the previous year, a Persian satrap in Asia Minor had given support to the islanders of Samos in their revolt against the Athenian Empire. Technically the Persian Empire was at peace with the Athenian Empire, but the satraps of Persia had a great deal of flexibility in their foreign affairs and the Persians could always claim that the satrap Pissuthnes was acting independently. Perhaps he was acting in his own capacity. Regardless of whether he acted on his own, or on the commands of Artaxerxes I, the revolt failed in this year. The Athenians were too preoccupied with the danger from Sparta to be interested in pursuing a quarrel with the Great King and thus peace reigned between Athens and Persia once more.

Not much can be said, to my knowledge, for the years 438, 437 and 436. Presumably things happened, but sadly I am not aware of them.

Cylinder of Talakhamani from Kush

Around the year 435 Malewiebamani the King of Kush who ruled in Meroe, died. He was succeeded by Talakhamani who was possibly his son, or perhaps a younger brother. Little is known about either of these kings save their names and places of burial. It is a sad fact that for now, the kings of Kush are little known, despite their known wealth. Malewiebamani was buried in the royal cemetery at Nuri.

Not much can be said, to my knowledge, for the year 434. Presumably things happened, but sadly I am not aware of them.

In the year 433 Nehemiah returned to Susa to serve King Artaxerxes I again. He was the personal cupbearer to the king, a position of considerable influence. However, he had been allowed to go to his homeland and served as governor of the small Persian province of Yehud Medinata, containing the city of Jerusalem and the rebuilt Temple of the Jews. His going was contingent on his returning at some point in the future, so in this year Nehemiah returned to resume his duties as cupbearer to the King.

It is possibly around this time that the book of Malachi is to be dated. This was a book containing prophecies. It called upon the returned exiles in Yehud to be more faithful in the fulfilment of their religious duties and noted the poverty that was creeping over the land as the result of the neglect of these duties. It is perhaps the last of the books of prophecy in the writings referred to as the Old Testament.

"I the LORD do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you," says the LORD Almighty.
Malachi 3:6-7, written perhaps circa 433BC

Not much can be said, to my knowledge, for the year 432. Presumably things happened, but sadly I am not aware of them.

Kushite pyramids at Nuri

In the year 431 Talakhamani, the King of Kush who ruled in Meroe, died and was buried in Tomb 16 in the Kushite royal cemetery at Nuri. He was succeeded by his brother, or possibly nephew, Amanineteyerike.

Also in this year, the Great Peloponnesian War broke out between Athens and Sparta. This did not immediately affect the Persian Empire in the short term, but it meant that the two strongest Greek states no longer had an interest in fighting the Persians and gave the Persian Empire a measure of security.

Around the year 430, although the dates are open to interpretation, Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem from the court of the King of Persia. He was probably sent out to become governor again. It is not clear who was the governor in Jerusalem for the province of Yehud in his absence. The High Priest Eliashib probably had had some important role in the administration. The High Priest Eliashib had family ties with Tobiah the Ammonite, who together with Sanballat the Horonite, was an enemy of Nehemiah. Sanballat, Tobiah and possibly Geshem the Arabian, were governors of the small regional units bordering the province of Yehud. In the Persian Empire governors were afforded considerable freedom, which could extend to fighting wars among themselves, as long they took care to not harm the interests of the king.

Upon Nehemiah's return he found that Tobiah had been granted store rooms on the grounds of the temple. Nehemiah ordered these rooms emptied and purified, before reassigning them to their proper purpose. He also prohibited the traders from entering Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, as well as once more prohibiting the intermarriage of the Jews and their surrounding neighbours. This brought him once more into conflict with the high priestly family, which had marriage ties with Sanballat the Horonite. The account of the book of Nehemiah ends here.

Detail from the Lycian sarcophagus

Sometime later I asked his permission and came back to Jerusalem. Here I learned about the evil thing Eliashib had done in providing Tobiah a room in the courts of the house of God. I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah's household goods out of the room. I gave orders to purify the rooms, and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense.
Nehemiah 13:6-7, probably written no earlier than 420BC

Not much can be said, to my knowledge, for the years 429, 428, 427 and 426. Presumably things happened, but sadly I am not aware of them.

In the year 425 the Spartans, who were faring badly in the Peloponnesian War, were sending emissaries to Persia, some of whom requested aid in various forms, but none of whom agreed with each other. Artaxerxes I sent an emissary to Sparta requesting that Sparta send one group of ambassadors who could speak for Sparta, as the current situation was too confusing. This Persian emissary was captured by the Athenians at Eion and detained. He was taken to Athens, where his cuneiform dispatches were translated and read by the Athenians. This would have let the Athenians know that the power of Persia might soon be ranged against them. Not wanting to allow the emissary to reach Sparta, but not wanting to arouse the anger of the King, the Athenians put the emissary on a ship and sent him to Ephesus, from which he could easily reach Persian territory.

The incident is a fascinating one, as it gives an insight into ancient diplomacy, but also shows that there were at least some people in Athens who were able to read cuneiform (which was probably written in the Akkadian language, but possibly Old Persian). This means that it would have been possible for Babylonian mathematical and astronomical documents to be read and understood by at least some people in Athens, and this may help explain the diffusion of knowledge in these matters that had been happening in the Greek world.

Lycian sarcophagus

During the winter ensuing, Aristides, son of Archippus, one of the commanders of the Athenian ships sent to collect money from the allies, arrested at Eion, on the Strymon, Artaphernes, a Persian, on his way from the King to Lacedaemon. He was conducted to Athens, where the Athenians got his dispatches translated from the Assyrian character and read them. With numerous references to other subjects, they in substance told the Lacedaemonians that the King did not know what they wanted, as of the many ambassadors they had sent him no two ever told the same story; if however they were prepared to speak plainly they might send him some envoys with this Persian. The Athenians afterwards sent back Artaphernes in a galley to Ephesus, and ambassadors with him, who heard there of the death of King Artaxerxes, son of Xerxes, which took place about that time, and so returned home. 
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 4, written circa 400BC

Around this time, in Sidon, a beautiful sarcophagus, carved in the Greek style by Ionian artists was made. It is known as the Lycian sarcophagus of Sidon, as the style of the tomb is done in such a way that it matches the Lycian tombs in Asia Minor. The Phoenician kings seem to have developed an interest in elaborate sarcophagi, with each king wanting a more elaborate tomb than the previous. The Lycian sarcophagus is decorated with Greek mythological motifs, such as the battle between the Lapiths and Centaurs, however more generic scenes such as lion-hunting are also shown. Whereas previous Sidonian kings had taken Egyptian sarcophagi, the new generation were quite interested in copying Greek culture.

Probable tomb of Artaxerxes I at
Naqsh-i-Rustam

In the year 424 Artaxerxes I, known as Artaxerxes the Long-Handed, died, probably in or around the months of November or December. According to Ctesias, his wife Damaspia also died the same day, although he does not say why. Ctesias then says that his son took the throne under the name of Xerxes II. Xerxes II ruled for 45 days and then was murdered by his half-brother Sogdianus while Xerxes II lay in a drunken stupor. Ctesias then reports that Sogdianus took over the empire and ruled for about a year, before he was killed by his brother, who reigned as Darius II.

Now, Ctesias is well-known for being an unreliable narrator and his confounded history is one of the most infuriating pieces of historical writing to emerge from the classical world. Worse, he was supposedly a physician at the court of the king of Persia, not that long after these events took place, so he absolutely should have known the correct story. Yet, the story that is given here appears to be incorrect. There are Babylonian tablets that mention Darius II reigning within about a month after the death of Artaxerxes I, which does not leave enough time for the two kings that Ctesias mentions.

What is most likely to have happened is that there was a civil war upon the death of Artaxerxes I and that Xerxes I took over the palace, before being killed by his rival Sogdianus who was based nearby in Elam. Finally Sogdianus was defeated and killed by Darius II who probably had his powerbase in Babylonia. Thus this would explain the three kings of Ctesias and the Babylonian documents. This is speculation of course. It is entirely possible that Ctesias is just wrong.

It is likely that Amestris died in or around this time, although it is not clear that it had anything to do with the civil war. Artaxerxes I was probably buried in a rock-cut tomb in the Achaemenid cemetery at Naqsh-i-Rustam. His name is not inscribed upon the tomb, so the identification is uncertain, but probable. The tomb is decorated with a relief of the king, holding a bow and saluting Ahura Mazda, while the subject peoples of the empire are arranged below, upholding the platform.

Relief from Tomb of Artaxerxes I showing the
nations of the empire

In the year 423 Sogdianus was killed and Darius II became the undisputed king of Persia. It is possible either that Darius II revolted against Sogdianus, or, more likely, that the two half-brothers had been at war from the year before, following the death of their father Artaxerxes I.

Secydianus, then summoned Ochus to court, who promised to present himself but failed to do so. After he had been summoned several times, he collected a large force with the obvious intention of seizing the throne. He was joined by Arbarius, commander of the cavalry, and Arxanes, satrap of Egypt. The eunuch Artoxares also came from Armenia and placed the crown on the head of Ochus against his will. Thus Ochus became king and changed his name to Dariaeus. At the suggestion of Parysatis, he endeavoured by trickery and solemn promises to win over Secydianus. Menostanes did all he could to prevent Secydianus from putting faith in these promises or coming to terms with those who were trying to deceive him. In spite of this Secydianus allowed himself to be persuaded, was arrested, thrown into the ashes, and died, after a reign of six months and fifteen days. 
Ctesias, Persica, written circa 398BC

Not much can be said, to my knowledge, for the years 422 and 421. Presumably things happened, but sadly I am not aware of them.

A much later (medieval) scroll of the book of Esther

Around the year 420, although the dates are very inexact, the sacred writings of the Jews began to be collected and others were written. It is likely that the books of Esther, Ezra, Nehemiah and Chronicles were written in something resembling their current form at around this time.

There may have been a few additional decades of rearrangement of materials. For example Nehemiah 12:10-11 seems to have been a later interpolation giving the family tree of the High Priests down to around the year 350. But the majority of the book of Nehemiah itself almost certainly predates this and was probably written in or around this time period. Esther would later have Greek interpolations added to it, perhaps as late as the 2nd or 1st century BC, but these are clearly late additions and done in a completely separate language. I would not get too concerned over the exact dating of these books, but it is important to note that this is the probable time of their composition.

One of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib the high priest was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite. And I drove him away from me. Remember them, my God, because they defiled the priestly office and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites. So I purified the priests and the Levites of everything foreign, and assigned duties to them, each to his own task. I also made provision for contributions of wood at designated times, and for the first fruits. Remember me with favour, my God.
Nehemiah 13:28-31, probably written no earlier than 420BC

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 that at the beginning of the period Artaxerxes I was ruling and that at the end of the period, Darius II was ruling. It is a terrible thing that there are such gaps in our knowledge, but this is the state of affairs. I will continue the story in the next blog.

Detail from the Lycian Sarcophagus

Primary Sources
Elephantine Papyri, written between circa 459-402BC
Book of Malachi, written perhaps circa 433BC
Book of Esther, written possibly as early as 420BC
Ezra, probably written no earlier than 420BC
Nehemiah, probably written no earlier than 420BC
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, written circa 400BC
Ctesias, Persica, written circa 398BC
The Parian Chronicle, written circa 216BC
Apocrypha 1 Esdras (2 Esdras in Slavonic, 3 Esdras in Appendix to Vulgate), written circa 170BC
2 Esdras (3 Esdras in Slavonic, 4 Esdras in Appendix to Vulgate: Composite work comprising 5 Ezra [chs 1-2], 4 Ezra [3-14], 6 Ezra [chs 15-16]). All three works were composed by circa AD250, but may only have been combined as late as AD800
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, written circa 40BC
Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, written circa AD93
Sukkah, written perhaps circa AD230

Secondary Sources
Clarification page on books called Ezra/Esdras

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