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

366 THE FALL OF THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE
him alone, thus sparing the others." It is hard to see, however, why
a member of the democratic faction should want to condemn Erasinides,
one of the generals most plausibly identified as a democrat himself.
' 9
Why would he do this to save, among others, a man like
Aristocrates, a member of the Four Hundred and a leading figure in
the Five Thousand? The most likely motive for attacking Erasinides
first was his unique vulnerability. Not long after the return of the
generals, the story of the conference and Erasinides' recommendation
that the whole fleet sail to Mytilene and abandon the survivors will
have become known. Archedemus may have accused him because he
believed that he was uniquely gnilty or, at least, more guilty than the
others. Perhaps he wanted to be sure that someone was punished;
perhaps he hoped that if Erasinides was singled out he might give
evidence against his colleagues. Whatever the value of these speculations,
we need not invent political motives to understand Archedemus'
actions.
Next, the five remaining generals came before the Council of soo.
At this point they appear to have returned to their original defense,
that the violence of the storm was to blame. 40 Assessing the situation
in Athens after their return, they may have discovered that Theramenes
and Thrasybulus had not been the source of the accusations
against them and that it had been a mistake to antagonize them. If so,
the reversion to the earlier strategy was of no avail. On the motion of
a certain Timocrates, the council voted to imprison the generals and
remand them to the assembly for trial.., At that assembly several men,
chief among them Theramenes, accused the generals of being responsible
for the loss of the survivors. Theramenes and the others argned
that the generals should be made to explain their failure to rescue the
shipwrecked men. As evidence that the generals alone should be held
responsible, Theramenes read their first letter in which they blamed
only the storm."
In light of the generals' restraint, why did Theramenes and his
associates take the offensive instead of renewing the common front and
claiming that no one was to blame? There are the usual attempts to
find motives in factional politics, but as we have seen, they are un-
"Cloche, RH CXXX (1919), 41.
39 See above, n. 12.
40
Xen. I.].J.
41
Xen. I.J.J.
42
Xen. I.J·4·