Spartan Lysander Shows Mercy on Athens, Ending the Peloponnesian Wars

Today we will learn and reflect on Plutarch’s Life of
Lysander, also consulting Thucydides and Xenophon.
You cannot understand the Platonic dialogues
without first understanding the history of the
Peloponnesian Wars, because so many of the leading
figures of this period are referenced in the Platonic
dialogues.

Lysander was appointed as the Spartan naval commander near
the end of the war. He was both an effective military leader and
an able diplomat, negotiating Persian assistance from Cyrus the
Younger in building and funding the fleet of triremes that would
check Alcibiades and the generals who succeeded him, eventually
winning the Peloponnesian Wars for Sparta.
At the end of our talk, we will discuss the sources used for this
video. Please feel free to follow along our PowerPoint script
posted to SlideShare. Please, we welcome interesting questions
in the comments. Let us learn and reflect together!

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The Peloponnesian Wars followed the Greco-Persian Wars
by about fifty years, or as Thucydides describes it, the
Pentecontaetia. We reflect on the period between the
Greco-Persian Wars, and the life and career of the Athenian
statesman Pericles up through his death by the plague in
the second year of the Archidamian War, the first phase of
the Peloponnesian Wars.

.
479 BC: Xerxes
retreats to Persia

https://youtu.be/QabwtFANCDc
https://youtu.be/uhtGzfxVdzk
https://youtu.be/1ra58mg33nM
Aristides and Cimon were two Athenian generals who were
asked by the Ionic Greek colonies to lead the defensive Delian
League against Persia, that evolved into the Athenian Empire.
The rise of Pericles and the reforms leading to
the Radical Democracy of Athens.
Pericles as general and statesman before and
at the start of the Peloponnesian Wars.

After the war-hawk generals of both Athens and
Sparta were killed in battle, Nicias negotiated the
Peace of Nicias, which although it was not very
peaceful, it did end direct hostilities between Athens
and Sparta for nearly seven years.

https://youtu.be/1ra58mg33nM
The play by Aristophanes on the Peace of Nicias,
showing popular opinion of the war. We ponder
whether Pericles started the war needlessly.
The Peace of Nicias, and why it was not so
peaceful, ending the Archidamian War,
the first phase of the Peloponnesian Wars.
Comparing and contrasting:
Pericles’ Funeral Oration
Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
Churchill’s speech, Battle of Britain
https://youtu.be/szi7-9QQWI0
https://youtu.be/UHRzKH-asoo

But the Peace of Nicias was broken when Alcibiades agitated for
Athens to send out a large portion of its triremes, plus thousands
of hoplites, in the doomed Sicilian Expedition. The talented
general Alcibiades was indicted on trumped up charges, and went
into exile in Sparta when his conviction appeared certain. When
the Syracusans defeated the dilatory and timid Nicias, the
Athenians lost everything, triremes, hoplites, rowers, even
generals, including Nicias, were destroyed and slain, very few
escaped, and Sparta restarted the war in response to Athenian
aggression and her loss in Sicily.

Alcibiades was exiled from Sparta after he slept with the king’s wife, and
she gave birth to their son, and he fled to the court of the Persian satrap,
Tissaphernes, who was allied to Sparta. He advised Tissaphernes that he
should not decisively support either Athens or Sparta but keep them
evenly matched so they could wear each other out, so Persia could then
swoop in and take over. The Persians under Tissaphernes brought the
Ionian Greek city-states, particularly those on the coast of Asia Minor,
back under Persian control.
Alcibiades maneuvered to be reappointed as general of the Athenian
forces, and likely could have won the war for Athens if the Athenian
Assembly were not so judgmental and hyper-critical of his efforts and his
mistakes.

Moral lessons, Thucydides History:
Revolt at Mytilene
Revolution at Corcyra
Melian Dialogue
Plutarch and Thucydides on the role of
Alcibiades in the Peloponnesian Wars,
History of the Wars after Syracuse
Disastrous Defeat of Athens at Syracuse,
much of the Athenian fleet were slaughtered,
leading to revolts of allies and her eventual
defeat in the Peloponnesian Wars.
https://youtu.be/yECl8cKCzao
https://youtu.be/SaIqQ35ysl4
https://youtu.be/b7QLp1HrOMs

We will cut a general video on Sparta in the near
future, this video on Lysander will cover the final
phase and final defeat of Athens in the Peloponnesian
Wars, that last over two decades, and over two
generations of combatants.
PLUTARCH’S LIFE OF LYSANDER

Later antiwar plays by Aristophanes on the role
of women in Greek society, we will reflect
whether these plays influence Plato’s Republic.
Plutarch’s Life of Lysander, why he showed mercy
on Athens when she lost the Peloponnesian Wars,
consulting Xenophon’s History
Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus,
Lawgiver of Sparta,
The Unique Warrior Culture of Sparta
CURRENT VIDEO

Plutarch says only this about his early
years, “Lysander was brought up in
poverty,” and like a good Spartan, “he
had a manly spirit, superior to all
pleasures.” Like all good Spartans, he
felt “pain at disgrace, and exalted
when commended,” and these
qualities enhanced his virtue.
“Ambition and the passion for
distinction were imbedded in his
character by his Laconian education.”
“Lysander was submissive to great
men, beyond what seems to be
agreeable to the Spartan temper and
could easily bear the haughtiness of
those who were in power.”
A spartan woman giving a shield to her son, by Jean-Jacques-François
Le Barbier, painted 1826

“Lysander endured poverty, and he was
not at all enslaved or corrupted by
wealth, yet he filled his country with
riches and the love of riches.” Although
he “imported an abundance of gold and
silver after the Athenian war, he did not
keep one drachma himself.”
The historical sources reveal little about
the youth of Lysander, which perhaps
reflects the Spartan custom of placing
youths in military training camps
beginning at a very young age.
Three Spartan Boys Practising Archery, Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, circa 1812

SELECTION OF LYSANDER AS SPARTAN
COMMANDER
Plutarch describes when Lysander was
pressed into service. After the disaster
in Sicily, Athens was no longer the
master of the sea, and was challenged
everywhere. But “Alcibiades, returning
from banishment, took the command,
produced a great change, again making
the Athenians a match for their
opponents by sea; and the
Lacedaemonians, greatly alarmed,
with fresh courage and zeal,” seeking
“an able commander with powerful
armaments, selected Lysander as
Admiral of the Seas.”
The theater of ancient Sparta with Mt. Taygetus in background.

The King of Persia sent his younger son, Cyrus the
Younger, to administer the Ionian provinces, and to
assist the Spartans in their war efforts. Professor
Kenneth Harl of the Teaching Company comments
that Lysander and Cyrus had an excellent working
relationship, that Cyrus respected the competency of
Lysander, and saw in Lysander a Spartan leader who
could win battles when fighting the Athenians.

- Encounter between Cyrus the
Younger (left), Achaemenid,
satrap of Asia Minor, and
Spartan general Lysander (right)
in Sardis. The encounter was
related by Xenophon, by
Francesco Antonio Grue, 1600's

Xenophon reports, “Lysander went inland to visit
Cyrus, and took with him the ambassadors from
Sparta. They lost no time in telling Cyrus how
badly, in their opinion, Tissaphernes had behaved,
and they begged him to take a really serious and
energetic part in the war. ‘That,’ said Cyrus, ‘is
exactly what my father, the king, has asked me to
do and that is what I mean to do myself. I shall do
all that I can.’ He told them that he had brought
five hundred talents with him. If that was not
enough, he said, he would use his own money,”
“and if that also ran out, he would break up his
throne of silver and gold on which he sat.”

Cyrus asked him what he wanted in the
conflict, and Lysander said, “Since you
are so very kind, I earnestly request you
to add one penny to the seaman’s pay,
so that instead of three pence, they
may now receive four pence,” which
meant that now their pay would exceed
that of the Athenian rowers for the first
time in the war, tempting some
mercenary rowers to switch sides for a
pay raise.

Thucydides writes, “the Spartans often proved to be
remarkably helpful enemies for the Athenians. For
Athens, particularly as a naval power, was enormously
helped by the very great difference in the national
characters, the Athenian speed versus the Spartan
slowness, Athenian enterprise versus the Spartan lack of
initiative.”
Xenophon likewise notes that Lysander was not an
aggressive commander. Although “Lysander had
distracted and weakened his enemies, he was afraid to
engage by sea, Alcibiades being an energetic
commander, having a superior number of ships,”
“unconquered in both land and sea.”

This caution did not mean Lysander was a timid commander like Nicias was, but it
did mean that he understood the strengths of the Athenian fleet, and his fleet’s
weaknesses, so Lysander was cautious. Alcibiades was a brilliant commander, so
Lysander often avoided open combat, waiting for his enemy to make a mistake.
In this respect, Lysander can be compared to the later Roman general Fabius, who
faced the brilliant Carthaginian General Hannibal after he wiped out two Roman
armies through brilliant battlefield tactics, after he marched his war elephants over
the Alps with his army into Italy. Fabius’ surname was Cunctator, or delayer, and he
was one of the first general to employ guerilla tactics, avoiding pitched battles that
he could lose against Hannibal, constantly dogging and ambushing the forces of the
enemy, wearing him down since his supply lines were so long, waiting for the enemy
to make a mistake that he could capitalize on.

Hannibal Crossing the Alps, by Jacopo Ripanda, 1510

ALCIBIADES IS RELIEVED OF COMMAND AND GOES INTO EXILE
The Athenians expectations for Alcibiades, since he was such a skilled
general, were so high that they would not tolerate any mistakes, and
unfortunately, he made a mistake. Alcibiades left the fleet in Samos to
attend to a military matter in the Hellespont, leaving his helmsman
Antiochus in charge of the fleet, with strict instructions not to engage the
enemy in his absence. This was a mistake that Lysander took advantage
of, luring Antiochus into a naval engagement, the Spartan fleet was
orderly, the Athenian fleet was disorganized, and although the Athenians
did not suffer high casualties, but Athens lost fifteen triremes, damaging
the perfect reputation of Alcibiades, who went into exile in his castle near
the Hellespont.

Will Durant has an excellent retelling of the
history following the exile of Alcibiades.
“Desperate, the Athenians ordered that the
gold and silver in the statues on the
Acropolis should be melted down to build a
new flotilla of a hundred and fifty triremes,
and offered freedom to those slaves, and
citizenship to those aliens, who would fight
for the city. The new armada defeated a
Spartan fleet near Lesbos, and Athens once
again thrilled with the news of victory.”

The Athenians, experiencing easy victories, thought all victories are easy, and even
after Alcibiades was gone, asked too much of their generals. There was a hard-
fought naval battle with the Spartans, and although there was a great Athenian
victory, some Athenian ships were wrecked, and her crews were clinging
precariously to the wreckage some distance away from the main fleet. Some of the
fleet pursued the fleeing Spartan ships. A fierce storm hit the ships who were
assigned to rescue the wrecked Athenian rowers, so they were unable to sail. Not
only did these rowers clinging to the wreckage drown in the rough seas; their bodies
were swept away by the storm could not be recovered. Due to the importance that
Greeks place on burying the dead so they do not eternally wander the face of the
earth, charges were brought against the ten generals for this perceived act of
impiety.
Xenophon devotes an entire chapter to the debate and trial of the generals in his
history. The trial itself was illegal, even under the lax judicial procedures of the time,
as the Assembly voted on their fate, not a jury.

The Battle of Salamis, by Wilhelm von Kaulbach (1868)

Sea storm with
shipwrecks, by
Joseph Vernet,
1770

The Battle of Salamis, by Wilhelm von Kaulbach (1868)
Xenophon writes, “Each of the generals spoke in his
defense, their speeches were short, since they were not
allowed to speak for the length of time permitted by law.” It
was pointed out that “what prevented the recovery of the
bodies of the veterans was the violence of the storm.”

The generals were not tried separately, the
Athenian Assembly took one vote on whether to
execute all of them, and the injustice extended to
their families as their property was confiscated.
Socrates famously protested that these procedures
were illegal, as the trials were not heard by a jury.

Acropolis, by Leo von Klenze, painted 1846
This is an excerpt from the speech defending the generals in
Xenophon’s history: Why “this excessive haste? What are you
frightened of? Is it that, if you act legally, you will not be able
to condemn or absolve anyone you like, whereas you can do
so if you act illegally” “by one vote” by the Assembly?

The defense speech continues, “Yes, but suppose you put to
death an innocent man? Just remember how painful it is and
how useless indeed to regret what one has done. And how
much more so when one’s mistake has cost a man his life!”

And indeed, “quite soon afterwards, the Athenians
regretted what they had done and voted that
complaints should be lodged against those who had
deceived the people,” talking them into the execution.

But this remorse could not resurrect the dead
generals, so the Athenians then appointed less
experienced generals to replace them.
Plutarch like to comment on the moral qualities on
those whose lives he comments on.

Plutarch criticized Lysander for abusing his office.
“Lysander promoted those who were his friends to
honors and offices, and to gratify their covetousness,
and was their partner in injustice and wickedness. So
much so, that all flocked to him and courted and
desired him, hoping, if he remained in power, that
their highest wishes would be gratified.” Plutarch
also complains how Lysander had a great
indifference to the obligations of an oath, his
recommendation, according to this account, “was to
cheat boys with dice, and men with oaths,” “which is
not very honorable to a lawful commander, not in
line with the Laconian character.”
Spartan cosplay during the
DragonCon Parade in Atlanta in 2007

We do not know where Plutarch got this from, or what
this criticism really means. He was writing over four
centuries later, and his sources were prejudiced, as are
all sources, and the sources for Spartans are somewhat
sparse. Which is why his Lives of Lysander and other
Spartans have fewer personal observations than his Lives
of Athenians. Perhaps Plutarch is suggesting Lysander is
not the typical Spartan commander, because he valued
winning the war over keeping his oaths.

Plutarch retells how Alcibiades tried to warn the
Athenians of their upcoming doom if they were
not more careful of their position. “Alcibiades
came on horseback from his castle nearby to the
Athenian army, and found fault with their captains,
first that they had dangerously pitched their camp
on an exposed and open beach, a very bad landing
for the ships,” and secondly, they were far from
their supplies at Sestos, whereas if they simply
sailed to Sestos, the supplies would be close, and
the anchorage would be both safer and further
from the enemy. But the commanders were
disdainful, they would not listen, “so Alcibiades,
who even suspected treachery, departed.”
Alcibiades, by François-André Vincent, 1776

Plutarch continues, “Conon, one of the
Athenian commanders, was the first who
saw the Spartan fleet advancing, and
shouted out to embark in great distress.”
“But all his diligence came to naught,
because the men were scattered about,”
“some went to market, others walked about
the country, or went to sleep in their tents,
or got their dinners ready,” as their
commanders were oblivious of the danger.
As “the enemy advanced with shouting,
Conon, with eight ships, sailed out, making
his escape, went to Cyprus.”

Plutarch continues, “The Peloponnesians falling
upon the rest,” took many ships, destroying
others, “while many men returning to their ships
unarmed and scattered, died at their ships, or
were slain when they fled.” “Lysander took three
thousand prisoners with generals,” except those
few who fled with Conon. “Taking the Athenian
ships in tow, having plundered their tents, with
pipe and songs of victory, Lysander sailed back to
Lampsacus, having accomplished a great work
with small pains, having finished in one hour” a
protracted war lasting decades. Some looked
upon the results as a divine intervention from
the gods.

It was common practice in the ancient world, to execute those
whom you capture as prisoners of war. The practical question
here for Lysander, What would he do with three thousand
prisoners, and how is he going to feed them?
This victory was even more complete than the American victory
over the Japanese in the Battle of Midway in World War II,
where the tide of war turned when, in a fateful five minutes,
three Japanese aircraft carriers were fatally bombed by
American dive bombers, and a fourth carrier was fatally dive
bombed a few hours later.

US Navy buries
enemy combatants
at sea.
US Navy torpedo
bombers.

Cimon takes command of the Greek Fleet, illustration
from 'Hutchinson's History of the Nations', 1915
Plutarch tells us that after
this victory, “Lysander,
sailing about to the various
cities, bade all the Athenians
he met to return to Athens,
declaring that he would
spare none, but kill every
man whom he found out of
the city, intending to cause
immediate famine and
scarcity in Athens, so they
would not make the Spartan
siege laborious.”

Plutarch continues, “When suppressing the
popular governments and all other
constitutions, he left a Lacedaemonian chief
officer in every city plus ten rulers.” “He sailed
leisurely about, establishing his supremacy over
the whole of Greece. Neither did he choose
rulers by birth or wealth, but appointed as
rulers his own friends and partisans, doing
everything to please them, and putting absolute
power of reward and punishment into their
hands.” Lysander participated in “bloodshed and
massacres, helping his friends to expel their
opponents,” which did not set a good example
of Lacedaemonian government.

Detail of the Chigi Vase depicting hoplites in action
Plutarch continues,
“Lysander united his
forces in Attica with
those two kings Agis and
Pausanius, hoping to take
the city without delay.
But when the Athenians
defended themselves, he
with his fleet passed
again to Asia, destroying
the forms of government
in all the other cities,
placing them under the
rule of ten rulers, killing
many, exiling many. In
Samos, he expelled the
entire population.”

In his history of the War, Xenophon mentions Melos,
and the massacre of the Melians by the Athenians,
when he tells of the terror the Athenians felt when
news first came that their fleet had been destroyed,
and that Athens was now defenseless from the fleet
commanded by the Spartan general Lysander.

Xenophon tells us the worries of the
Athenians, “As news of the disaster was told,
one man passed it on to another, and a sound
of wailing arose, first from the Piraeus,” the
port of Athens, “then all along the Long Walls
until it reached the city. That night no one
slept. They mourned for the lost, but more
still for their own fate. They thought that they
themselves would now be dealt with as they
had dealt with others, with the Melians,
colonists of Sparta, after they had besieged
and conquered Melos,” and he then lists
several other atrocities the Athenians
regretted committing.

When Lysander knew the Athenians were
suffering from famine, “he sailed to the
Piraeus, reduced the city, which was
compelled to surrender unconditionally.”
Lysander wrote to the Ephors in charge in
Sparta, “Athens is taken,” and that the
magistrates wrote back, “Taking is enough.”
This laconian response was a wishful memory,
Plutarch says the more complete instruction
was to “pull down the Piraeus and the long
walls;” and to the Athenians, “quit all the
towns, and keep to your own land; and if you
do those things, you shall have peace, if you
wish it, also restoring your exiles.”
Lysander outside the walls of Athens

Lysander is referring to all the Athenians who took
up residence in the cities of her allies.

In a Congress of the Spartan allies,
some states proposed “that the
Athenians should all be sold as
slaves,” a Theban said they should
“pull down the city and turn the
country into sheep pasture.” But
afterwards, in “a meeting of the
captains, they melted with
compassion as it seemed to be a
cruel deed to destroy and pull down
a city which had been so famous and
produced such men” as helped fend
off the Persians in the Greco-Persian
Wars, some generations before. Battle of Marathon, Athenians defeats Persians, by Georges
Rochegrosse 1859

It was common practice in the ancient world, when
conquering a hostile city, to execute the military age
men and enslave the women and children.

Xenophon continues, “The Spartans offered to make peace on the
following terms:
• The Long Walls and fortifications of the Piraeus must be
destroyed.
• All ships except twelve would be surrendered.
• All the exiles are to be recalled to Athens from the allied cities.
• Athens will have the same enemies and friends as Sparta, and
to follow Spartan leadership in any expedition Sparta might
make either by land or sea.”

Plutarch says that
Lysander sent for flute
women, and “pulled
down the walls, and
burnt the ships to the
sound of the flute, the
allies being crowned
with garlands, and
making merry together,
counting from that day
the beginning of their
liberty.”

“Lysander altered the government,
placing thirty rulers over Athens,”
known as the Thirty Tyrants, “and ten
rulers in the Piraeus. He stationed a
garrison in the Acropolis and appointed
the Spartan Callibius as governor.”

ANALYSIS OF PELOPONNESIAN WARS
In the annual battles before the Peloponnesian Wars, the Greeks
preferred to battle in hoplite formation, eyeball to eyeball, shield wall to
shield wall, in front of their cities. Pericles innovated with a new tactic,
although the Athenian hoplites were more than capable of facing their
Spartan counterparts, he would refuse to battle the Spartans in Attica,
but sought rather to destroy the economic base of Sparta and her allies
using her superior navy to interdict trade and raid coastal areas. But this
led to such hatred between the populations that these larger wars were
nearly impossible to stop. Perhaps Pericles unwittingly doomed Greece to
six decades of destructive wars by this change of tactics.

Detail of
the Chigi
Vase
depicting
hoplites
in action

Not only were the economies of all Greek city-states devastated, but also the
demographic bases of these economies were decimated. Historians don’t often
discuss the effects of these massive casualties that easily dwarfed the American
casualties of the Civil War, and probably even the Russian and German casualties of
World War II. We can estimate the casualties best for Athens, in addition to the
casualties of decades of heavy fighting, we can estimate that a quarter of the armies
were wiped out in the Plague, maybe another quarter in the doomed Sicilian
Expedition, maybe another quarter were slaughtered when Lysander captured the
Athenian fleet due to their carelessness, plus those whom the Thirty Tyrants
executed afterwards. The total casualty rate must have exceeded fifty percent of the
Athenian hoplites and rowers, and civilian casualties were also high. After the war,
Athens must have been a city mostly populated by widows and orphans.

Picket’s Charge,
Battle of Gettysburg,
bloodiest battle of
the Civil War, by
Thure de Thulstrup,
Restoration by Adam
Cuerden, 1887
Gettysburg
casualties:
Union: 23,000
Confederate: 28,000

PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD

PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE BATTLE OF BERLIN

Rough Estimate of Athenian Battlefield
Casualties in Peloponnesian Wars
• 25% Athenian Plague behind the walls
• 25% Doomed Sicilian Expedition
• 25% Slaughter of captured fleet by Lysander
• Plus, casualties in decades of heavy fighting.
• Plus, executions by the Thirty Tyrants.
Afterwards, after a decade of uneasy peace,
another three decades of wars.

After the end of the Greco-Persian Wars, Sparta initially led the effort to
liberate the Ionian Greek colonies from Persian rule, but the Spartan
general Pausanius caused resentment for his harsh treatment of these
allies, leading then to ask Athens to form the Delian League that evolved
into the oppressive Athenian Empire. But now, at the end of the
Peloponnesian Wars, the Spartan leader Lysander was far harsher,
tolerating corruption and murderous terror from the aristocrats the
Spartans had placed in power when the radical democracies were
dismantled. This led to the Athenians overthrowing the Thirty Tyrants
when Lysander was in Egypt, and reestablishing their radical democracy,
which was tolerated by the Spartan King Agis who was tiring of the harsh
policies of Lysander.

This proclamation that Thucydides credits to the Athenian
guest-friends, who addressed the Spartan Assembly when
they were initially debating whether to declare war, was
prophetic: “On one point we are quite certain: if you
were to destroy us and to take over our empire, you
would soon lose all the goodwill which you have
gained because of others being afraid of us.”

These perpetual large-scale wars did not end. The peace once again
simmers for a decade, but then the Corinthian War, and then the
Boeotian Wars erupt. The account of these wars dominates Xenophon’s
Hellenica, History of My Times, that begins by documenting the end of
the Peloponnesian Wars. Though perhaps not as destructive as the
Peloponnesian Wars, large-scale wars are waged for another three
decades. Sparta is eventually defeated by Thebes, who frees her
Mycenean helot slave populations. These perpetual wars left all Greek
city-states in a weakened state, vulnerable to takeover by the
expansionist Macedonia under King Philip and his son Alexander the
Great in a later generation.

LIFE OF LYSANDER AFTER PELOPPONESIAN WARS
After the war ended, Lysander sent the public
money with the “gifts and crowns” from many
who sought the “favor of a man with such great
power” with Gylippus, but Gylippus is caught
skimming out of the sacks of coins, his servant
revealing in a riddle to the officials, “that under
the tiles of his house lay many owls,” as Athenian
owls were the most common coin of Greece.
Gylippus went into exile in disgrace. Plutarch
notes that “the wisest of the Spartans,”
“dreading the influence of money which had
corrupted the greatest citizens, objected to
Lysander’s conduct, and declared that all the
silver and gold should be sent away as mere
‘alien mischiefs.’”
Silver tetradrachm coin depicting the owl of Athena.
These Athenian drachmas were called glaukes (γλαῦκες,
owls). This silver coin was first issued in 479 BC in Athens
after the Persians were defeated by the Greeks.

Here Plutarch make a general
observation, that “moral habits,
induced by public practices, are far
quicker in making their way into
men’s private lives, than the failings
and faults of individuals are in
infecting the city at large.”
Plutarch also observes that “Lysander,
having greater power than any Greek
before, showed a pride and a
superiority greater than even his
power warranted.”

Plutarch judges Lysander harshly, “This
ambitious temper of Lysander was indeed
only burdensome to” aristocrats, “but
through having so many people devoted to
serve him, his character became a mix of
contentiousness and ambition. He observed
no sort of moderation” “either in rewarding
or in punishing;” “his friends and guests held
absolute power over the cities.” The only
thing that would satisfy “his wrath was the
destruction of his enemy; banishment would
not suffice.”

Hoplites (in modern Greece) in a 5th century B.C. formation of hoplites
Plutarch comments that “the
slaughter of those in the
popular party in the towns” of
the Athenian allies “exceeded
all expectations; as he did not
kill only for offenses against
himself,” but allowed his
friends who were the local
rulers to execute whomever
they chose, to satisfy their
“their many hatreds and
cupidity.” What offended many
was “a certain licentiousness
and wanton self-will;
Lysander’s power was feared
and hated because of his
unmerciful disposition.”

Lysander visited the Temple of Ammon in
Egypt, and Plutarch notes that on his return,
“Lysander regained the reputation of a
person who employed his command not in
gratification of others, not for applause, but
strictly for the good of Sparta.” However, he
was resentful that the kings checked his
power, as he was no longer the commander
of all Greek city-states, and Plutarch
mentions he was scheming to lead a revolt
against the leaders of Sparta at the time of
his death.
Lysander outside the walls of Athens; 19th
century lithograph

Lysander died on the battlefield
soon thereafter, fighting the
Thebans in Boeotia. The Spartans
were grieved by his death, and
Plutarch reports that on his death,
the discovery of his poverty proved
his merit, since this was a poverty
not tempted by “so much wealth
and power from the homage of the
cities, and of the Persian Kingdom.” Lysander outside the walls of Athens; 19th
century lithograph

DISCUSSING THE SOURCES
Our primary sources for this video are Plutarch’s Life of Lysander, and the histories by Thucydides
and Xenophon. And I am going to once again complain about the Dryden translation of Plutarch,
often I am drastically tinkering and condensing the verbiage to make the English as quotable as
was the original Greek.
Although Thucydides lived through the war, his account drops off in mid-paragraph and mid-
sentence soon after the Oligarchic Coup, after Alcibiades was recalled as general, and Xenophon
literally begins his history, “After those events.” Xenophon was known in antiquity as an historian,
a general, and a philosopher, a moral philosopher in the Stoic mold.
Xenophon was highly regarded by both ancient and medieval scholars, and with Plato and St
Augustine, he is part of unique club of prolific ancient authors whose writings have survived,
where no major works are lost, which means that copyists were diligent in preserving their
writings. But Xenophon is deprecated by many modern scholars, the attitude of the British
lecturer Bury whose lectures we have reviewed in prior videos, is typical:

JB Bury states there were three historians
writing immediately after Thucydides, and he
dismissively says that of these three, “the only
name that is familiar is Xenophon, who was
probably the least meritorious of the three.”
“In history as in philosophy Xenophon was a
dilettante; he was as far from understanding
the methods of Thucydides as he was from
apprehending the ideas of Socrates.”
JB Bury does condescend to compliment
Xenophon somewhat: “He was a happy literary
talent, and his wide-ranging writings, taken
together, reveal him as an interesting figure in
Greek literature. But his mind was essentially
mediocre, incapable of penetrating beneath
the surface of things.”

JB Bury thinks he is deprecating
Xenophon, but he is accidentally
complimentary: “If Xenophon had
lived in modern times, he would
have been a high-class journalist
and pamphleteer; he would have
made his fortune as a war-
correspondent.” “So far as history
is concerned, his true vocation
was to write memoirs, such as his
Anabasis,” often translated as The
Persian Expedition.

The Anabasis is Xenophon’s humble and often humorous true-life
adventure story of how the Greek mercenary army, the Army of
the Ten Thousand, who elected Xenophon general, was trapped
in a field in the middle of the Persian Empire after the main battle
when his client, Cyrus the Younger, was fighting to succeed his
father as king. The Greek hoplites won the battle militarily, but
this win was wasted when a spear ran through their patron Cyrus
when he charged his brother in battle. The Greek forces
successfully marched for months through hostile territory,
battling both Persians and fierce mountain tribes, to reach the
Greek colonies on the shores of the Black Sea.

The Anabasis, the Retreat of the Ten Thousand Greek mercenaries of Cyrus, by Jean-Adrien Guignet, 1842

Route of Xenophon
and the Ten Thousand
(red line) in the
Achaemenid Empire.
The satrapy of Cyrus
the Younger is
delineated in green.
Battle was
fought and
Cyrus was killed
in Babylon.

IMHO, Professor Bury, our historian of historians, is guilty
of what all historians are guilty of, that is, in his history he
is telling us more about himself than he is Xenophon.
Professor Bury is more the dilettante than Xenophon, and
if you consult the source, you will discover I simplified his
dilettantish choice of words chosen to show off his
erudition. And what is wrong being the Ernest Hemingway
of antiquity? We plan to cut a video on Xenophon’s
Anabasis in 2023, since it is a highly entertaining adventure
story.

Modern scholars lose sight of the fact that Plato was not Socrates’ only student, his
students also include the Cynic philosopher Antisthenes, and Zeno and the other
Greek Stoics were inheritors of the Cynic tradition. Likewise, the Socrates of
Xenophon can be seen as following more in the stoic tradition of focusing on moral
teaching. St Justin Martyr quotes Xenophon’s Stoic Socrates on Ladies Virtue and
Vice. We also consulted Xenophon when studying the Platonic dialogues on the trial
and execution of Socrates. Xenophon also wrote his recollection of a dinner party
like Plato’s Symposium, which features Alcibiades.
There is no debating that Plato was a better writer than Xenophon, but Xenophon
was also an excellent writer in his own right, and just because his classical Greek
stoic viewpoint sounds simpler than the mystical platonic philosophy of the forms
and the unintelligible Supreme One of Neo-Platonism does not make his simpler,
moral teachings less relevant, you can argue they are indeed more relevant to
learning how to live a godly life.

https://youtu.be/zAAal5p8AX8
https://youtu.be/LWfoHhtNY8I
https://youtu.be/-E3r8Z4IE1c
https://youtu.be/Mip1vgRKH1E

And there is no doubt that Thucydides was a more accurate historian than was
Xenophon, you can tell that from the footnotes, though many scholars suspect the
last book of Thucydides may have been a rough draft, since it has more than the
usual number of inaccuracies. We consulted another Greek historian for this period
that Professor Kenneth Harl mentions, Diodorus Siculus, who lived in the first
century BC, in the period between Xenophon and Plutarch, but I did not find any
interesting additions for the broad narrative, though I did find an interesting
addition for the period of the Thirty Tyrants.
We read in Thucydides that the talented Syracusan naval fleet that was assisting
Sparta was recalled to battle Carthage, who was trying to conquer the island of
Sicily. Diodorus Siculus tells the history of how, over many years and many battles,
the Greek and native cities of Sicily were able to counter the forces of mighty
Carthage, just as the Greeks had repelled the Persians generations before.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diodorus_Siculus
Website with works of
Diodorus Siculus:
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/

Which leads us to the question, What was Alcibiades thinking
when he talked the Athenians into embarking on the Sicilian
Expedition? What if they had defeated the Syracusans? Would
they then have to battle the mighty empire of Carthage?
Dr Wikipedia thinks that Carthage did not include war elephants
in her forces until later when fighting the later Greek King
Pyrrhus, of pyrrhic victory fame, but Egyptians were using war
elephants at this time, so perhaps Carthage was also. After all,
what is Carthage without her war elephants?

Porus at the Battle of the Hydaspes, tapestry from 1500’s
Idealized depiction of
Carthage from the
1493 Nuremberg
Chronicle.

https://amzn.to/3IHA1sl
https://amzn.to/3c7hsl7
https://amzn.to/3AFKvX8
Donald Kagan is frequently quoted source by Professor Harl of the Teaching
Company, he also has a four-volume history of the Peloponnesian Wars.

Since all our videos on the Peloponnesian Wars use
many of the same sources, we have a video on Book
Reviews of ancient Greek history.

To find the source of any direct
quotes in this blog, please type in
the phrase to the search box in
my blog to see the referenced
footnote.
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