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

3JO
THE FALL OF THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE
ported policies inimical to their own interests, should not gain the
success that belonged to their patron and would deprive them of
victory.
Callicratidas met the challenge swiftly, courageously, and shrewdly.
He called together the entire Spartan fleet, which had grown to 140
ships by then, and addressed the men. This, in itself, was a clever
maneuver, for the faction of Lysander would have formed only a very
small group in the gathering of 28,ooo or so. Xenophon's report of his
brief, laconic speech deserves quotation: "I, for my pan, am satisfied
to stay at home, and if Lysander or anyone else believes he is more
expert in naval matters I certainly will not stand in his way. But I
have been sent by the state to command the fleet, and I can do nothing
else than what I have been ordered to do to the best of my ability.
Your task is to consider the ambitions I am striving to achieve and the
criticisms made against our state, for you know them as well as I do,
and give me your best advice as to whether I should stay or sail home
and report the state of affairs here."" The speech was entirely effective,
for Callicratidas had called the bluff of Lysander's men. No one dared
suggest that he disobey the orders he had received; still less could they
permit him to report their mutinous behavior to the authorities in
Sparta.
Lysander, however, had done something else to sabotage his successor
that presented an obstacle far more difficult to overcome. He
had not spent all of the money Cyrus had given him. Although it
would have been natural for a retiring commander to give the remainder
to a new commander when he turned over the fleet, Lysander instead
returned the money to Cyrus." This was a truly shocking act. It did
harm to the Spartan cause by depriving the new commander, who had
brought no money from home, of the resources he needed to act against
the enemy. Beyond that, it showed that Lysander regarded the money
Cyrus had provided not as given to him as the Spartan commander
but as given to him personally; "the act implied that Lysander considered
himself. .. as an agent of the Prince.,,. It was intended, no
doubt, both to ingratiate himself with Cyrus by compelling the new
navarch to ask for the money and so make himself responsible to the
21
Xen. 1.6.4.
nlbid., 1.6. w; Plut. Lys. 6. 1.
24
Bommelaer, Lysandre, 96.