The faction hostile to Alcibiades triumphed in Athens following a minor Spartan victory by their skillful

general Lysander at the naval battle of Notium in 406 BC. Alcibiades was not re-elected general by
the Athenians and he exiled himself from the city. He would never again lead Athenians in battle.
Athens was then victorious at the naval battle of Arginusae. The Spartan fleet
under Callicratidas lost 70 ships and the Athenians lost 25 ships. But, due to bad weather, the
Athenians were unable to rescue their stranded crews or to finish off the Spartan fleet. Despite their
victory, these failures caused outrage in Athens and led to a controversial trial. The trial resulted in
the execution of six of Athens's top naval commanders. Athens's naval supremacy would now be
challenged without several of its most able military leaders and a demoralized navy.

In 404 BC, the Athenian General Alcibiades, exiled in the Achaemenid Empire province of Hellespontine

Phrygia, was assassinated by Persian soldiers, who may have been following the orders of
Satrap Pharnabazus II, at the instigation of Sparta's Lysander.[32][33][34] La mort d'Alcibiade. Philippe Chéry, 1791.
Musée des Beaux-Arts, La Rochelle.
Unlike some of his predecessors the new Spartan general, Lysander, was not a member of the
Spartan royal families and was also formidable in naval strategy; he was an artful diplomat, who had
even cultivated good personal relationships with the Achaemenid prince Cyrus the Younger, son of
Emperor Darius II. Seizing its opportunity, the Spartan fleet sailed at once to the Dardanelles, the
source of Athens's grain. Threatened with starvation, the Athenian fleet had no choice but to follow.
Through cunning strategy, Lysander totally defeated the Athenian fleet, in 405 BC, at the Battle of
Aegospotami, destroying 168 ships and capturing some three or four thousand Athenian sailors.
Only twelve Athenian ships escaped, and several of these sailed to Cyprus, carrying
the strategos (general) Conon, who was anxious not to face the judgment of the Assembly.
Facing starvation and disease from the prolonged siege, Athens surrendered in 404 BC, [2] and its
allies soon surrendered as well. The democrats at Samos, loyal to the bitter last, held on slightly
longer, and were allowed to flee with their lives. The surrender stripped Athens of its walls, its fleet,
and all of its overseas possessions. Corinth and Thebes demanded that Athens should be destroyed
and all its citizens should be enslaved. However, the Spartans announced their refusal to destroy a
city that had done a good service at a time of greatest danger to Greece, and took Athens into their
own system. Athens was "to have the same friends and enemies" as Sparta. [35]

Aftermath
The overall effect of the war in Greece proper was to replace the Athenian Empire with a Spartan
empire. After the battle of Aegospotami, Sparta took over the Athenian empire and kept all of its
tribute revenues for itself; Sparta's allies, who had made greater sacrifices for the war effort than had
Sparta, got nothing.[3]
For a short period of time, Athens was ruled by the "Thirty Tyrants", and democracy was suspended.
This was a reactionary regime set up by Sparta. In 403 BC, the oligarchs were overthrown and a
democracy was restored by Thrasybulus.
Although the power of Athens was broken, it made something of a recovery as a result of
the Corinthian War and continued to play an active role in Greek politics. Sparta was later humbled
by Thebes at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC, but the rivalry between Athens and Sparta was
brought to an end a few decades later when Philip II of Macedon conquered all of Greece except
Sparta, which was later subjugated by Philip's son Alexander in 331 BC.[36]

References
1. ^ Barry Strauss: Athens after the Peloponnesian War. Class, Faction and Policy 403-386
B.C., New York 2014, page 80.
2. ^ Jump up to:a b Salomon, Marilyn J. (1974).  Great Cities of the World 3: Next Stop... Athens. The
Symphonette Press. p.  19.
3. ^ Jump up to:a b c Bury, J. B.; Meiggs, Russell (1956). A history of Greece to the death of
Alexander the Great. London: Macmillan. pp. 397, 540.
4. ^ Kagan, The Peloponnesian War, 488.
5. ^ Fine, The Ancient Greeks, 528–33.
6. ^ Kagan, The Peloponnesian War, Introduction xxiii–xxiv.
7. ^ Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 1.23
8. ^ Fine, The Ancient Greeks, 371
9. ^ Kagan, The Peloponnesian War, 8
10. ^ Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War 1.89–93
11. ^ Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War 1.92.1
12. ^ Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War 1.102
13. ^ Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War 1.103
14. ^ Kagan, The Peloponnesian War, 16–18
15. ^ In the Hellenic calendar, years ended at midsummer; as a result, some events cannot be
dated to a specific year of the modern calendar.
16. ^ Kagan, The Peloponnesian War, 23–24
17. ^ Thucydides, Book I, 49–50
18. ^ Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 1.56
19. ^ Fine, The Ancient Greeks, 454–56
20. ^ Buckley Aspects of Greek History, 319–22
21. ^ Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War 1.67–71
22. ^ Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War 1.73–75
23. ^ Kagan, The Peloponnesian War, 45.
24. ^ Rollin, Charles (1851).  The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians,
Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Grecians, and Macedonians. W. Tegg and Company. p. 110.
 25. ^ "The winter following Tissaphernes put Iasus in a state of defence, and passing on to
Miletus distributed a month's pay to all the ships as he had promised at Lacedaemon, at the rate of an
Attic drachma a day for each man." in Perseus Under Philologic: Thuc. 8.29.1.
26. ^ Harrison, Cynthia (2002). Numismatic Problems in the Achaemenid West: The Undue
Modern Influence of 'Tissapherness'. pp. 301–319.
27. ^ The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General
Information. University Press. 1910. p.  708.
28. ^ "He then assigned to Lysander all the tribute which came in from his cities and belonged to
him personally, and gave him also the balance he had on hand; and, after reminding Lysander how
good a friend he was both to the Lacedaemonian state and to him personally, he set out on the
journey to his father." in Xenophon, Hellenica 2.1.14
29. ^ Xenophon. Tr. H. G. Dakyns. Anabasis I.I. Project Gutenberg.
30. ^ Plutarch. Ed. by A.H. Clough. "Lysander," Plutarch's Lives. 1996. Project Gutenberg
31. ^ Brownson, Carlson L. (Carleton Lewis) (1886).  Xenophon;. Cambridge, Mass.  : Harvard
University Press. pp.  I-2–22.
32. ^ Isocrates, Concerning the Team of Horses, 16.40
33. ^ H.T. Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities and W. Smith, New Classical
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, 39.
34. ^ Plutarch, Alcibiades, 39.
35. ^ Xenophon, Hellenica, 2.2.20,404/3
36. ^ Roisman, Joseph; Worthington, Ian (2010). A Companion to Ancient Macedonia. John
Wiley & Sons. p.  201. ISBN 9781405179362.

Further reading