Lysander

When the sun rose, however, and the Athenians sailed up with all their ships in line and challenged to battle, although he had his ships drawn up in line to meet them and fully manned before it was light, he did not put out from his position, but sending despatch-boats to the foremost of his ships, ordered them to keep quiet and remain in line, not getting into confusion nor sailing out to meet the enemy.

And so about midday when the Athenians sailed back, he did not allow men to leave their ships until two or three triremes, which he sent to reconnoiter, came hack, after seeing that the enemy had disembarked. On the following day this was done again, and on the third, and at last on the fourth, so that the Athenians became very bold and contemptuous, believing that their enemies were huddling together in fear.

At this juncture, Alcibiades, who was living in his own fortress on the Chersonese, rode up to the Athenian army and censured the generals, first, for having pitched their camp in a bad and even dangerous place on an open beach where there was no roadstead; and second, for the mistake of getting their provisions from distant Sestos,

when they ought to sail round the coast a little way to the harbor and city of Sestos, where they would be at a longer remove from their enemies, who lay watching them with an army commanded by a single man, the fear of whom led it to obey his every order promptly. These were the lessons he gave them, but they would not receive them, and Tydeus actually gave him an insolent answer, saying that he was not general now, but others.[*](Cf. Xen. Hell. 2.1.20-26; Plut. Alc. 36.4-37.1.)

Alcibiades, accordingly, suspecting that some treachery was afoot among them, went away. But on the fifth day, when the Athenians had sailed over to the enemy and back again, as was now their wont, very carelessly and contemptuously, Lysander, as he sent out his reconnoitering ships, ordered their commanders, as soon as they saw that the Athenians had disembarked, to put about and row back with all speed, and when they were half way across, to hoist a brazen shield at the prow, as a signal for the onset.

And he himself sailed round and earnestly exhorted the pilots and trierarchs to keep all their crews at their post, sailors and soldiers alike, and as soon as the signal was given, to row with ardor and vigor against the enemy. When, therefore, the shield was hoisted on the lookout ships, and the trumpet on the admiral’s ship signalled the attack, the ships sailed forth, and the land forces ran their fastest along the shore to seize the promontory.

The distance between the two continents at this point is fifteen furlongs, and such was the zealous ardor of the rowers that it was quickly consumed. Conon, the Athenian general, who was the first to see from the land the onset of the fleet, suddenly shouted orders to embark, and deeply stirred by the threatening disaster, called upon some, besought others, and forced others still to man the triremes.