The history of the Battle of Arginusae

After the disaster in Sicily in 413, where the Athenian fleet was destroyed, the Spartans began to make inroads into the Athenian Empire and liberating cities under their control. Backed by Persian gold, the Spartan commander Lysander had succeeded.

Alcibiades returned from exile and started a new offensive against Sparta, retaking the Hellespont. Lysander defeated an Athenian fleet at Ephesus that was keeping guard at nearby Notium, and although Alcibiades was not present, he was responsible, as the overall commander of the fleet, for this setback.

Realizing that the news would not be well received in Athens, Alcibiades fled to a castle in the Hellespont, where he had made plans to secure his safety. In Attica, a Spartan army had continuously occupied the Decelea fort, depriving Athens of much-needed resources. The Spartan offensive in the eastern Aegean Sea was becoming successful in 407 and threatened to defeat Athens once and for all.

During the winter of 407-406, both sides prepared for the spring campaign. The Spartan fleet under Callicratidas had 140 ships, while Conon, who led the Athenians, had only 70. The two sides battled at Mytilene, and Conon lost thirty ships, with the rest pinned in Mytilene. The situation was grave, and Athens dipped into its reserves in the temple and constructed a new fleet; with the allies, it sent a total of 150 warships to free Mytilene.

Callicratidas’s fleet had risen to 170, and leaving 50 ships behind at Mytilene, he sailed with the remainder to meet the Athenians near the island of Lesbos. A battle was fought between the two navies at Arginusae, where 70 Spartan ships were either sunk or captured. In the battle, the Athenians drew up their fleet in two battle lines of roughly the same numbers. Their plan was to prevent the Spartans from breaking through the lines and enveloping the fleet. The Spartans were forced to split their fleet and attack both sides of the Athenians.

During the battle, the Athenian left wing in the open sea under Aristocrates and Pericles, the son of the statesman by the same name, successfully defeated Callicratidas, who was killed either onboard after engaging Pericles’s ship or by falling overboard and drowning when he rammed the ship. The Peloponnesian fleet fled to Chios.

While the Athenians won a great victory, it was not complete since a strong north wind prevented the fleet from sailing to Mytilene to attack the Spartan fleet there. The Spartan admiral at Mytilene now had time to evacuate his fleet, which allowed Conon and the Athenian ships to meet up with the main fleet.

Since the storm prevented the fleet from sailing to Mytilene, it also failed to rescue the crews from 25 ships the Athenians had lost during the battle. Both acts probably infuriated the Athenians just as much, since they had failed to wipe out the Spartan navy and lost over 4,000 men.

The victory at Arginusae restored the Athenian naval power in the eastern Aegean. The Spartans proposed a peace agreement in which they would evacuate the Decelea, but it was rejected by the Athenians. The Spartans now began to rebuild their fleet under Lysander, once again with the help of Persian gold. The new fleet under Lysander sailed north to the Hellespont to engage the Athenians again.