The Fall of the Athenian Empire-(A New History of the Peloponnesian War) Donald Kagan - (1987)

2 I4 -THE FALL OF THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE
Phamabazus continued to urge the Spartan admiral to bring his fleet
into the Hellespont and cause rebellions in the cities of the Athenian
Empire on their shores. Finally, Mindarus received the word that set
him free. When Tissaphemes sailed to Aspendus, the Spartans sent
one of their officers, Philippus, with him. Now Mindarus received
letters from Philippus and from another Spartan, Hippocrates, who
was stationed at Phaselis near by, telling him that Tissaphernes was
deceiving the Spartans, that the ships would never come because they
had set sail and were on the way back to Phoenicia." This gave Mindarus
hard proof that Tissaphernes would not keep his promise, and
he released the Spartans from their obligations to the deceptive satrap.
They were now free to go to the Hellespont, join his rival Pharnabazus,
and try to end the war quickly by cutting off Athens' main source of
food.
The Peloponnesian fleet under Astyochus at Mycale had numbered
11 2 ships. Since that time 10 of their ships had gotten through the
Hellespont to raise rebellions at Byzantium and in neighboring cities;
either Astyochus or Mindarus had sent another I 6 ships to reinforce
them." These I 6 ships had gained control of part of the Chersonnesus
on the European side of the straits. Now Mindarus sent a squadron
of I 3 ships under the Thurian commander Dorieus to cope with a
rebellion that threatened Spartan control of Rhodes." Although he
was shifting the main theater of operations to the Hellespont, Mindarus
could not ignore the threat in the south, especially since Alcibiades
had taken a fleet of I 3 ships in that direction when he heard of Tissaphernes'
voyage to Aspendus. 16
The Spartan admiral faced no easy task, for between the remaining
7 3 ships at Miletus and his goal to the north lay the Athenian naval
base at Samos. When last encountered there, the Athenians had disposed
of 108 ttiremes, which the Spartans had been unwilling to engage
IJThucydides does not say that the ships had sailed eastward, but Diodorus (IJ. 38. 5)
flatly reports that Tissaphemes "sent the fleet back to Phoenicia" &.1rEOTE1.A.e T0v aT6Aov
el.~ oLvLK'l'JV, and there is no reason to doubt him. At this point, he clearly knows
some facts omitted by Thucydides. In the same passage, for instance, he tells us that
Mindarus sent Dotieus to Rhodes with a small fleet, a fact confirmed by Xenophon
(I.I.2).
14 Mycale: 8. 79· 1; ten to the Hellespont: 8.8o. 3-4. Thucydides mentions the sixteen
reinforcing ships in 8.99 as having been sent "earlier in the same summer," but he does
not say just when or who sent them.
15
Diod. IJ.J8. 5.
16
8.88.