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

334 _THE FALL OF THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE
prisoners but had them assembled in the marketplace. His allies urged
him to sell them all as slaves to acquire further booty, but he refused.
There was no question of freeing the Athenians from the garrison;
these men, along with the captives who were already slaves, were sold.
But he released the Methymnaeans and restored the autonomy of the
city, no doubt turning it over to the faction friendly to Sparta. He
underscored his generosity with a ringing proclamation that brought
to mind the noble slogan of freedom for the Greeks with which the
Spartans had undertaken the war. He said that "while I am in command,
so far as is in my power, no Greek will be enslaved."" The
proclamation announced Callicratidas' policy; it was aimed both at the
Greeks who were free from Athenian control and those who were still
allied to Athens. To the former, it was a call to Panhellenism, a second
step, after the rejection of Persian aid, toward a campaign conducted
by Greeks to achieve freedom both from Persia and Athens. To the
latter, it offered gentle and generous treatment to those who broke
away from Athenian control. Both action and statement were excellent
propaganda in a campaign to win the war quickly without Persian
help.
After the victory on Lesbos, he sent a message to Conon in which
he expressed his intention to put an end to the Athenian admiral's
"adulterous affair with the sea." We may well believe that this was
more than youthful bluster and was part of the psychological warfare
the young navarch had been using since his arrival. It appears to have
had a double purpose, implying that control of the sea legitimately
belonged to Sparta and that Conon had been free to conduct an affair
with it until his arrival because of the failures of his predecessor and
rival, Lysander, and also offering a challenge meant to draw Conon's
fleet into battle against overwhelming odds. Conon was too clever to
take the bait, but the threat to Athenian interests posed by Callicratidas'
attack on Lesbos was too great for him to ignore. He had made the
best possible use of his brief time as commander on Samos. After
consolidating his forces, he had trained and equipped them and "prepared
them for battle as no previous general had done."" News of the
attack on Methymna had led him to take his full force of seventy ships
from port and move them toward Lesbos. He arrived too late to prevent
15
Xen. I.6.Il-I4; Diod. IJ-76-4-5·
l 6 Diod. I]. 77. I.