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

CYRUS, LYSANDER, AND THE FALL OF ALCIBIADES 297
who could win. Finally, Cyrus was unlikely to gain the Persian throne
without fighting for it, for Arsaces was young, vigorous, and competent
enough to defend his claim to the succession when the time came.
Ever since the battle of Marathon, repeated conflicts between Greeks
and the armies of the Persian Empire had shown the superiority of
the Greek hoplite phalanx. Collaboration with the Spartans and their
Peloponnesian allies, by and large the best of Greek hoplites, offered
the chance to acquire the army he needed.
His mother's power and influence could protect him against his
Persian enemies, but to satisfy his other needs, he must find unusual
Spartans, men who could win at sea and men who would have the
power and the will to use the soldiers of the Peloponnesus for Cyrus'
purposes. Although it would not be easy to find a successful Spartan
admiral, men possessing all of the required qualities would be even
rarer. After all, Spartan and Persian interests were far from identical.
Spartans might differ in their plans for the Greek cities of Asia Minor,
some wanting to restore their freedom and others to replace Athens
as their masters, but none had any interest in turning them over to
Persia as the treaties required. The Spartan state, however, had even
less interest in supporting an effort by a younger son to usurp the
Persian throne. There was little chance that Cyrus could persuade the
Spartan kings, ephors, gerousia, and assembly to use their power in
his behalf, even if they could find a way to win the war. To succeed,
he must discover a faction or an individual with a reason to cooperate
with him and the power to bring Sparta along with him. By a remarkable
stroke of luck such a man was waiting for him as he made
his way to Sardis in the summer of 407. 20
Some months before, in the spring of 407, the new Spartan navarch,
Lysander, had entered the Aegean to take up his command at the
expiration of the term of his predecessor, Cratesippidas. 21 Like GyliploXen.
1.5 .I.
21
]bid. The date of Lysander's assumption of the navarchy has been much debated.
Xenophon says that the Spartans had sent Lysander out "not long before these things":
11'p6Tepov Toin"(l)v oV 1T0AA4l xp6vqJ. If ,-olrrrov refers to the events described in the previous
passage,. Alcibiades' attack on Andros and his arrival on Samos, which took place
in late October or early November, Lysander will have taken office in the autumn of 407.
But Xenophon's chronological transitions are sometimes imprecise: at J.l.2I, for instance,
having related events of the year 399, he makes a transition with the words "while
these things were being done in Asia" to events in Greece of the year 402 (Lotze, Lysander,
14, n. 1). Beloch, therefore, has suggested (GG 2 Il:2, 273-274) that the reference is to
Alcibiades' decision m return to Athens in I +8, perhaps in mid-May, and places Lys-