The Ionian War, also called the Ionian or Decelic War, was the last phase of the Peloponnesian War and receives this double name, due to the two main fronts where it took place:
Decelia , was a town near Athens, located about 21 km north of the city, from where the capital was incessantly attacked by the Spartans, with their king Agis II (427-400/399 BC) of the Eurypontidae dynasty, son of Archidamus II, the king who had invaded Attica in 428 BC243
The Anatolian coast of Ionia , where the defections and revolts against Athens took place.
The characters of the new war
The characters of this new period of struggle and the consequences it had on the contenders were also negative factors for Athens that joined the consequences of the disaster of the expedition to Sicily:The economic consequences (loss of resources) and politics.
To this was added that Sparta assumed the leadership lost by the Athenians , and did not hesitate to agree with Persia, who financed his companies and incited the Ionian cities to rebellion. The main Persian characters of this stage were Darius II (424-405 BC) and the satraps Tisafernes and Famabazo. Alcibiades reappeared in Greek politics.
The political crisis of Athens:the government of the four hundred (411 b.c.)
The popular discontent against the politicians of the radical democracy and the suspicion of the comfortable classes led to a political crisis that would end with the repeal of the democratic system, following legal mechanisms. In addition to suspending the existing magistracies and the payment of compensation for political functions, the Council of Four Hundred was instituted , which replaced the Boulé or Council of Five Hundred . Council that would have total authority, with 5 presidents or Proedros, who in turn elected the remaining members of the Council.
This situation of instability was aggravated by the uprising of the fleet established in Samos, which did not accept this transformation of the political regime, dismissing the oligarchs and choosing Strategus Alcibíades, a situation that finally led to the end of the oligarchic regime of the Four Hundred; the appearance of Theramenes, which prompted the hoplites to grant power to the Assembly of Five Thousand, whose first decision was to decree the return of Alcibiades to Athens .
ThelasteventsoftheIonianWar
The fight at the Hellespont:Athenian victories. Request for peace by Sparta.
Between 411 and 410 BC. Athens achieved three naval victories in the Hellespont:Cynosema, Abydos and Cyzicus . They are not well known because Thucydides' narrative ends with the battle of Cynosema, beginning Xenophon's Hellenics with the victory of Cyzicus (March 410).
In the following years (409 and 408 BC) the events favorable to Athens continued:
Trásilo recovered Thasos and some positions in Thrace. Alcibiades conquered Byzantium and Chalcedon. he being able to triumphantly return to Athens, being elected Strategist in the year 407-6 BC. and granting him extraordinary powers to direct the war in the Hellespont .
The Athenian defeat of Notion. (Ephesus). Meaning and consequences.
Between late 407 and early 406 B.C. Alcibiades' fleet led by his lieutenant Antiochus was defeated at the naval battle of Notion (or Ephesus).
This Athenian failure meant:
- The appearance of the Spartan Navarrese Lisandro , perhaps the most skillful and daring of the Lacedaemonian generals and one of the most brilliant Greek strategists during the Ionian War.
- The definitive Persian collaboration with Sparta. Persia sent along with its financial aid Darius II's own son, Cyrus. The good understanding of Lysander and Cyrus would cause the definitive failure of Athens.
- The political end of Alcibiades. that after the defeat of Notion he was forced to definitively leave the Greek political scene.
The Athenian victory of the Arginusae (406 B.C.)
In that same year (406 BC) the last Athenian naval victory took place, in the Arginusae Islands, off the island of Lesbos, on the coast of Asia Minor, where Thrasyllus with other Athenian strategists defeated the Spartan squad led by Calicrates.
But the meaning of the battle of the Arginusae acquired a social and political dimension above the military for the historian due to the effects caused in the Athenian people by the conviction of the victorious generals, accused of not helping the shipwrecked, alleging a danger of storm
This action would demonstrate the fatal functioning of radical democracy. The process, it seems, was provoked or at least directed by Theramenes.
The episode against the Navarrese in the battle of the Arginusae caused Athens to lose its best generals and main defenders of democratic ideals, in difficult and crucial moments.