much-reduced Athenian fleet was finally defeated at the battle of Aegospotami in the
Hellespont. With no fleet to protect her and besieged by land, Athens capitulated in
- Sparta required her to dismantle her long walls and the fortifications of the
Piraeus, to maintain a fleet of no more than twelve ships and to recall citizens exiled
when the earlier oligarchy had been overthrown. An oligarchic coup with Spartan
support followed. A board of thirty took over and began a reign of terror against
their political opponents. Leading democrats who had escaped to Thebes then
returned, occupied the Piraeus and fought the Thirty, killing a number of them. Helped
by disputes within the Spartan leadership which prevented their decisive action,
democratic opposition had retaken the city by the fall of 403.
Spartan hegemony and the Second Athenian League
Sparta now inherited the Athenian empire and was the undisputed leader of the Greek
world. In spite of her declared aim to free the Greek states from the tyranny of Athens,
she proceeded to substitute one form of control for another which was even more
resented, since she established oligarchic governments of ten men supported by a
military presence in a number of key states. The imperialism of Sparta appears to
have been considerably less enlightened than that of Athens in her heyday. Nor were
her foreign relations more wisely pursued, for she lost the crucial support of Persia
(without which she could never have defeated Athens) when she supported the
unsuccessful revolt of Cyrus, the younger brother of the Persian king, Artaxerxes.
Cyrus’ army included a number of Greek mercenaries (over 10,000). They marched
from Sardis near the coast of Asia Minor to the confluence of the Euphrates and the
Tigris, where they defeated the troops of Artaxerxes, who had marched west from
the Persian capital, Susa, to meet them. But when Cyrus himself was killed, the whole
purpose of the expedition was lost. This campaign and the long march back of the
Ten Thousand is recorded by the Athenian Xenophon, who took part in it and became
general in its later stages. The safe return of the Greeks after their long march was a
tribute to their discipline and purpose, but also led to a new view of the weakness of
the Persians, who had not prevented it. At Cyrus’ instigation, the Greek cities of Asia
Minor had revolted from Persian control and received Greek garrisons. Under threat,
the Asiatic Greeks appealed to Sparta for protection, so that Sparta became
embroiled in war with Persia. She took the war into the interior of Asia Minor, but lost
her fleet in a naval engagement with the Persians and the Athenian mercenary Conon
in 394. The Persians proceeded to expel all Spartan garrisons from the Aegean, then,
persuaded by Conon, helped the Athenians to rebuild their walls. In 389 the Athenian
fleet sailed to the Hellespont and established Athens’ old imperial alliances in the
northern Aegean. This, however, was not in Persian interests, and Sparta succeeded
70 THE GREEKS