194 GREECE monians invaded Attica and established thera- s-lv.-s in Decelea, acting under the advice of Al. il.iades, who had passed over from Italy to the Peloponnesus. Yet the Athenians resolved not only to ravage the coast of Laconia, but to send reenforcements to Sicily. They accord- ingly despatched 75 triremes, under the com- mand of Demosthenes, with 5,000 heavy-armed and a large body of light-armed troops. After several unsuccessful attempts upon the outer positions, and when sickness broke out among the troops, it was found necessary to withdraw from the great harbor ; but an eclipse of the moon, occurring on the appointed night, pre- vented their departure. This fatal delay gave the Syracusans an opportunity of attacking them by land and sea. Gylippus suffered a repulse by land; but the Athenian fleet was defeated, and Eurymedon the commander slain. The entrance to the harbor was blocked up. A terrible battle was immediately fought, the Athenian fleet driven ashore, their crews leap- ing out, and flying to the camp for refuge. Escape by sea was now cut off; the ships were all abandoned to the enemy ; and in attempt- ing to retreat by land, the divisions of the army, greatly reduced by their sufferings, were successively surrounded and made prisoners. The captives were set to work in the stone quarries of Achradina and Epipolae, and Nicias and Demosthenes were doomed to death. The calamitous close of this expedition overwhelmed the Athenians with sorrow and despair, and the popular fury vented itself on those who had proposed or encouraged the enterprise. The occupation of Decelea by the Lacedaemo- nians still harassed the city, keeping it almost in a state of siege. The consequences soon be- gan to be felt in the defection of the allies and subjects, who were encouraged and aided by Sparta in throwing off the yoke. Alcibiades was actively engaged in stirring up the spirit of revolt. But the Athenians were not long in taking measures to remedy as well as they could these terrible disasters. They appointed a committee of public safety, under the name of probuli, commenced a new fleet, and forti- fied Sunium. Acting under the advice of Al- cibiades, the Lacedemonians sent a fleet in aid of the Chians. The movement was successful, and other cities and islands on the Asiatic coast followed the example of revolt. The Atheni- ans now appropriated the fund of 1,000 talents reserved by Pericles to fitting out a fleet against the Chians ; but the revolt continued to extend, embracing Teos, Lesbos, and Miletus. The Sa- mians remained faithful, and Samos became the headquarters of the Athenian fleet. Sev- eral victories soon crowned the changing for- tunes of Athens. By this time Alcibiades, whose manners also were offensive to the Spartans, excited their distrust by his intrigues with the Persians. At length he brought mat- ters to such a pass that the Athenians, pressed by the necessities of their condition, agreed to restore him, and to change the constitution to | an oligarchy, on condition of aid from Persia. ! A revolution was effected, and the government I of the 400 established, with the power of con- j vening a select body of 5,000 citizens whenever 1 they saw fit ; but the expected aid from Persia I was not received. The 400 opened negotiations I with Agis, the Spartan king. But dissensions broke out, a counter revolution was partially successful, and the democratic constitution was maintained in Samos. The Lacedaemonians failed to seize the opportunity of striking a blow by taking the Piraeus, but the Athenian fleet was defeated at Eretria in Eubcea. The old constitution was finally restored, and several leaders of the oligarchical party, among whom was Antiphon the orator, were put to death. From this period, although the Lacedaemonians still held possession of Decelea, the war was mainly carried on by sea. An attempt was made by Mindarus, the Lacedaemonian com- mander, to effect a revolt of the Athenian de- pendencies in the neighborhood of the Helles- pont. Thrasyllus the Athenian followed him, and the battle of Cynossema, in which the Athe- nians were victorious, was fought (411); the shattered remains of the Lacedaemonian fleet were wrecked off Mt. Athos. Another battle was soon after fought near Abydos, which was decided in favor of the Athenians by the arri- val of Alcibiades from Samos. A third battle was fought near Cyzicus the next year, and, the Spartan running his ships ashore, Mindarus was slain, the fleet taken, and the Athenians became again masters of the Propontis. The Lacedaemonians now offered peace; but the Athenians, elated by their recent victories, and influenced by the harangues of Cleophon, an influential demagogue, rejected the terms. In the two following years the Athenians re- covered Selymbria and Byzantium, chiefly through the active services of Alcibiades ; and in 407, after an exile of eight years, he was fully restored, the sentence against him was annulled, and he was placed with unlimited powers at the head of all the forces of the re- public, by land and sea. In the mean time Cyrus; the younger son of Darius II., was sent down as satrap to the provinces of Lydia, Phrygia, and Cappadocia, and the able Lysan- der was sent from Sparta to take command of the Lacedaemonian fleet. They resolved to act in concert. Alcibiades sailed from Athens to Andros, where he left a part of the fleet under Conon to prosecute the siege, and pro- ceeded to Samos. He attempted to raise money by force; and while absent from Samos on this business his pilot Antiochus, contrary to his orders, hazarded a battle, and sustained a defeat. These events, and the profligate con- duct of Alcibiades, lost him the confidence of the Athenians, and he was deprived of his command. Ten new generals, the chief of whom was Conon, were appointed to super- sede him. A battle was fought between Co- non and Callicratidas, the successor of Lysan- der, in the harbor of Mitylene, in which Co-
