Hellenica

and the right wing was under the command of Protomachus, with fifteen ships; and beside him was Thrasyllus with fifteen more; and Lysias, with the same number of ships, was stationed behind Protomachus, and Aristogenes behind Thrasyllus.

The ships were arranged in this way so as not to give the enemy a chance of breaking through[*](The διέκπλους consisted in driving at full speed between two ships of the enemy’s line,—breaking oars and inflicting any other possible damage on the way,—and then turning to attack the sterns or sides of the hostile ships. In the περίπλους the same object was accomplished by rowing around the end of the enemy’s line.) the line; for the Athenians were inferior in seamanship. But all the vessels of the Lacedaemonians were arranged in single line, with a view to breaking through the enemy and circling round him, inasmuch as they had superior seamen. And Callicratidas was on the right wing.

Now Hermon the Megarian, the pilot of Callicratidas’ ship, said to him that it was well to sail away; for the triremes of the Athenians were far more numerous. Callicratidas, however, said that Sparta would fare none the worse if he were killed, but flight, he said, would be a disgrace.

After this they fell to fighting, and fought for a long time, their ships at first in close order and afterwards[*](406 B.C.) scattered. But when Callicratidas, as his ship rammed an enemy, fell overboard into the sea and disappeared, and Protomachus and those with him on the right wing defeated the opposing Lacedaemonian left, then began a flight of the Peloponnesians to Chios, though very many went to Phocaea; while the Athenians sailed back to the Arginusae.

The loss on the Athenian side was twenty-five ships, crews and all, with the exception of a few men who were brought to shore, and on the Peloponnesian side nine Laconian ships, out of a total of ten, and more than sixty ships of the allies.

After this victory it was resolved by the Athenian generals that Theramenes and Thrasybulus, who were ship-captains, and some of the taxiarchs, should sail with forty-seven ships to the aid of the disabled vessels and the men on board them, while they themselves went with the rest of the fleet to attack the ships under Eteonicus which were blockading Mytilene. But despite their desire to carry out these measures, the wind and a heavy storm which came on prevented them; accordingly, after setting up a trophy, they bivouacked where they were.

As for Eteonicus, the dispatch-boat reported to him the whole story of the battle. He, however, sent the boat out again, telling those who were in it to sail out of the harbour in silence and not talk with anyone, and then to sail back immediately to his fleet, wearing garlands and shouting that Callicratidas had been victorious in battle and that all the ships of the Athenians had been destroyed.

This they proceeded to do; and when they were sailing in, Eteonicus began to offer sacrifices for the good[*](406 B.C.) news, and gave orders that the soldiers should take their dinner, that the traders should put their goods into their boats in silence and sail off to Chios (for the wind was favourable), and that the triremes also should sail thither with all speed.

And he himself led his land forces back to Methymna, after setting fire to their camp. Conon now launched his ships, and, since the enemy had stolen away and the wind was quieter, went to meet the Athenians, who had by this time set out from the Arginusae, and told them what Eteonicus had done. The Athenians put in to Mytilene, sailed thence against Chios, and, accomplishing nothing there, sailed back towards Samos.

Now the people at home deposed the above-mentioned generals, with the exception of Conon; and as his colleagues they chose two men, Adeimantus and Philocles. As for those generals who had taken part in the battle, two of them—Protomachus and Aristogenes—did not return to Athens, but when the other six came home—

Pericles, Diomedon, Lysias, Aristocrates, Thrasyllus, and Erasinides,—Archedemus, who was at that time a leader of the popular party at Athens and had charge of the two-obol fund,[*](For the relief of poverty and distress caused by the war, not to be confounded with the theoric fund; see Wilamowitz, Aristoteles und Athen, Vol. II. pp. 212 ff.) brought accusation against Erasinides before a court and urged that a fine be imposed upon him, claiming that he had in his possession money from the Hellespont which belonged to the people; he accused him, further, of misconduct as general. And the court decreed that Erasinides should be imprisoned.

After this the generals made a statement before the Senate in regard to the battle and the violence of the storm; and upon motion of[*](406 B.C.) Timocrates, that the others also should be imprisoned and turned over to the Assembly for trial, the Senate imprisoned them.

After this a meeting of the Assembly was called, at which a number of people, and particularly Theramenes, spoke against the generals, saying that they ought to render an account of their conduct in not picking up the shipwrecked. For as proof that the generals fastened the responsibility upon no person apart from themselves, Theramenes showed a letter which they had sent to the Senate and to the Assembly, in which they put the blame upon nothing but the storm.

After this the several generals spoke in their own defence (though briefly, for they were not granted the hearing prescribed by the law) and stated what they had done, saying that they themselves undertook to sail against the enemy and that they assigned the duty of recovering the shipwrecked to certain of the captains who were competent men and had been generals in the past,—Theramenes, Thrasybulus, and others of that sort;

and if they had to blame any, they could blame no one else in the matter of the recovery except these men, to whom the duty was assigned. And we shall not, they added, just because they accuse us, falsely say that they were to blame, but rather that it was the violence of the storm which prevented the recovery.

They offered as witnesses to the truth of these statements the pilots and many others among their ship-companions. With such arguments they were on the point of persuading the Assembly, and many of the citizens rose and wanted to give bail for them; it was decided, however, that the matter should be postponed to another meeting of the Assembly (for[*](406 B.C.) by that time it was late in the day and they could not have distinguished the hands in the voting), and that the Senate should draft and bring in a proposal[*](Athenian procedure required in general that a matter should first be considered by the Senate, whose προβούλευμα, or preliminary resolution, was then referred to the Assembly for final action.) regarding the manner in which the men should be tried.

After this the Apaturia[*](A family festival, at which the members of each Athenian clan gathered together.) was celebrated, at which fathers and kinsmen meet together. Accordingly Theramenes and his supporters arranged at this festival with a large number of people, who were clad in mourning garments and had their hair close shaven, to attend the meeting of the Assembly, pretending that they were kinsmen of those who had perished, and they bribed Callixeinus to accuse the generals in the Senate.

Then they called an Assembly, at which the Senate brought in its proposal, which Callixeinus had drafted in the following terms: Resolved, that since the Athenians have heard in the previous meeting of the Assembly both the accusers who brought charges against the generals and the generals speaking in their own defence, they do now one and all cast their votes by tribes; and that two urns be set at the voting-place of each tribe; and that in each tribe a herald proclaim that whoever adjudges the generals guilty, for not picking up the men who won the victory in the naval battle, shall cast his vote in the first urn, and whoever adjudges them not guilty, shall cast his vote in the second;

and if they be adjudged guilty, that they be punished with death and handed over to the Eleven,[*](A Board which had charge of condemned prisoners and of the execution of the death sentence.) and that their property be confiscated and the tenth thereof belong to the goddess.[*](Athena, the state deity, into whose treasury a tenth part of the revenue derived from confiscations was regularly paid.)

And there came before the[*](406 B.C.) Assembly a man who said that he had been saved by floating upon a meal-tub, and that those who were perishing charged him to report to the people, if he were saved, that the generals did not pick up the men who had proved themselves most brave in the service of their country.