19.1 Showdown at Lesbos

After staying four months in Athens, Alcibiades set sail with a fleet for the Aegean. He attacked the island of Andros, which had recently rebelled against Athens, winning a battle and beginning siege operations against the town. He then sailed on to the main Athenian base in Samos. The Spartans sent out Lysander as the admiral of their fleet, which he led to Ephesus on the Asian mainland opposite the island of Samos. He set his fleet in order and waited for the arrival in Sardis of a new Persian commander. The Persians had sent out a new leader with extraordinary powers, Prince Cyrus, son of the Great King Darius. He came with the title of Karanos or Viceroy of the maritime provinces of Asia Minor, Lydia, Greater Phrygia, and Cappadocia. Though only seventeen years old at the time of his appointment, he was aggressive and ambitious, and he planned to use his appointment as a springboard to greater things, as we shall see later. He would not follow the temporizing policy of the satrap Tissaphernes, playing off one side against another; that policy seemed to have given the Persians’ worst enemies, the Athenians, the advantage. He had a huge treasury of 500 talents at his disposal, and he intended to spend it to support the Spartans. <a href="https://medium.com/the-first-philosophers/19-1-showdown-at-lesbos-fbe93701f4fa">Learn More</a>