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

THE FALL OF ATHENS 4"9
side in Media, he found the Great King gravely ill. We know that he
would die in March of 404."' So the seriousness o:' the illness must
have been apparent, and news of it must have reached the Greeks by
the winter of 405/4. The death of Darius Il would bring to the Persian
throne Artaxerxes Il, the older brother and bitter rival ofCyrus. That
would mean an end to Cyrus' command in Asia Minor, as we know
it did, and his power to aid Lysander. The new Persian monarch might
revert to the policy of playing Sparta off against Athens or might even
support Athens against Sparta, which was rapidly becoming the new
imperial power in the Aegean. Such developments would hardly bring
Athens victory, but they could help Athens hold out until it secured
even better terms. They would also undercut Lysander's importance.
His own interests lay in obtaining an Athenian surrender while he was
still in command, at the height of his influence. The glory of defeating
Athens must be his, and a compromise on the terms proposed by
Theramenes would not be too much to ask to achieve it.
Perhaps the knowledge of the state of affairs in Persia was the "something
of great value" to which Theramenes had referred. "' Perhaps it
was that as well as his knowledge of Lysander's precarious position in
Spartan politics. In any case, when Theramenes finally returned to
Athens about the beginning of March, he brought news of important,
indeed vital, concessions he had won. To be sure, Athens must give
up its empire, walls, and fleet, and it must receive its exiles. However,
the city and its people would be spared and would enjoy autonomy
under the ancestral constitution. We need not be surprised that this
report persuaded the Athenians to place Theramenes at the head of
the delegation that must go to Sparta to make the formal peace with
Sparta and its allies.
At Sparta the Corinthians, Thebans, and many others urged the
destruction of Athens. Erianthus, the Theban commander at Aegospotami,
is said on this occasion to have proposed the enslavement of
the Athenians, the leveling of the city, and the conversion of Attica
mKrentz, Thirty, p, n. 8.
128
That is the view of Krentz (Thirty, ]6-41), whose interesting ideas about the
significance of the imminent death of Darius I have followed here. He also suggests
that Theramenes may have stayed with Lysander for so long not to make the Athenians
suuender but for precisely the opposite reason: to prevent them from surrendering in
hopes that Darius would die and change the situation. My own view is that the delay
was needed for the difficult negotiations and, perhaps, to allow time for the question
to be put to the oracle at Delphi and the response to arrive at Sparta.