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

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14. The Trial of the Generals The victory at Arginusae ought to have brought relief, joy, and unity to the Athenians. Instead, it became the source of acrimony, division, and a public outrage that may have been the most shameful in Athenian history. Soon after their great triumph, six of the generals who commanded at Arginusae were condemned and executed by the Athenian people for whom they had fought so successfully; the other two escaped only because they had rejected the summons ordering them to return to Athens for scrutiny, going into voluntary exile instead. The charge against them was failing to rescue survivors of the battle and to recover the bodies of the dead. Controversy surrounding the legitimacy of the complaint, the procedures employed in the investigation and trial, the verdict, and the penalty has been heated from the start. Neither of the major ancient sources is full, dispassionate, or satisfactory, and these sources cannot be perfectly blended to construct a complete and thoroughly reliable account. The narrative presented here, therefore, is very much an interpretation. 1 1 The two ancient narratives are in Xenophon (I.6.JJ-7·35) and Diodorus (IJ.IOo IOJ.z). Although they differ on many points, the main and most obvious disagreement between their versions concerns the activities ofTheramenes. For Xenophon, he is the villain of the piece; for Diodorus, it is not he but the Athenian mob that is to blame. Busolt, as was his usual practice and like most scholars of his time, followed Xenophon, rejecting Diodorus as rhetorically inventive and unreliable (for typical strictures, see GG Ill:z, 1596, n. 4• and 1598, n. 1). Even Grotc (VIII, I7S-2lo}-whose brilliant and moving account rejects Theramenes' culpability, softens and explains the behavior of the people, and places the chief blame on the generals-stays close to Xenophon while accepting some evidence from Diodorus on occasion. P. Cloche's most thorough and very useful discussion (Revue HistoriqueCXXX [1919], s-68) treats the two accounts 354
THE TRIAL OF THE GENERALS 35 5 The last phase of the battle found the Athenian fleet stretched over a large area of the sea. The original line of battle had been long, and the opening maneuvers in which the ships on the wings had made flanking movements had stretched it further. Later, the right wing must have advanced the two miles to the west to Cape Mal ea on Lesbos to close off escape to the north. Afterward, some of the Athenian ships will have gone south in pursuit of the routed enemy. The ships on the Athenian left also will have pursued the defeated enemy ships to the south when they turned to flee. On both wings the pursuit was fierce and extended, for it was important to destroy as much of the enemy fleet as possible. 2 Thirteen of the twenty-five lost Athenian ships had disappeared beneath the waves, but the wrecks of twelve ships,' with well over a thousand men clinging to them, and the bodies of many dead Athenian sailors bobbed on the choppy sea over a space of at least four square miles. 4 Breaking off their pursuit, the scattered Athenian ships made no effort to rescue the survivors or pick up the bodies but hurried back to the Arginusae Islands to regroup and confer about their next step. 5 In his passionate defense of the Athenian people for their ultimate condemnation of the generals, Grote denounced the latter for their with an open mind, using each when it seems appropriate. Influenced by the discovery of the Hellenica Oxyrhynchia and the unmistakable evidence that Diodorus often used it, A. Andrewes (Phoenix XXVIII [1974], 112-122) has argued that he used it, in part, for his account of the trial as well. He says, "we need not hesitate to prefer the Diodoran version, at least down to that point towards the end of 101 where he begins to abbreviate so heavily that we lose any flavour of his ultimate original" (120). His argument is persuasive, and I think we should be ready to believe Diodorus when there seems good reason to do so. At the same time, we need to be willing to accept Xenophon when his version is better. My own practice resembles Cloche's, although my conclusions are different. 2 Diodorus (I]. lOO. I) tells us that the Athenians pursued for a considerable distance: Eel>' i.Ka:vOv. 1 Xen. 1.6.]5; 7.30; Busolt, GG lll::z, 1596, n. I. 4 Diod. 13.100.1. I calculate the area by assuming that pursuit to the south went as far as the distance between the islands and Lesbos, two miles. It seems likely that this is a low estimate. The number of survivors is likewise conservative. L. Herbst (Die Schlacht beiden Arginusen [Hamburg, t855], 37, n. 51)places the number at I ,:zoo, Busolt (GG Ill:2, 1596) at :z,opo. It is noteworthy that Diodorus consistently refers to corpses only throughout the affair, whereas Xenophon speaks of the survivors. 5 Xenophon (1.6.33; 7.29) makes it dear that the Athenians returned to the islands and held a conference there before making any attempt at rescue. Diodorus (1 3· 100. I- 3) tells of the conference before the return to Arginusae, but Xenophon is surely correct. As Cloche points out (RH CXXX [1919]), it is entirely unclear how the scattered Athenian ships could have met for a discussion anywhere but Arginusac.
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The Fall of the Athenian Empire DON
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Contents Maps Abbreviations and Sho
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THE WAR IN THE HELLESPONT 227 The s
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428 BIBUOGRAPHY Bradeen, D. W. "The
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430 BIBLIOGRAPHY ---. "The Phoenici
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4 J 2 BIBLIOGRAPHY Vlastos, G. "The
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4 34 GENERAL INDEX Alcibiades (cont
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Index of Ancient Authors Aelian 4·
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INDEX OF ANCIENT AUTHORS 447 GHI (c
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INDEX OF ANCIENT AUTHORS 45 1 Helle
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Index of Modern Authors Adeleye, G.
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INDEX OF MODERN AUTHORS 455 Pleket,
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The Fall of the Athenian Empire-(A New History of the Peloponnesian War) Donald Kagan - (1987)

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