Remains of the Temple of Athena in Assos, facing the Aegean Sea • ISTOCKPHOTO "It is a fact that I, Athenians, have never exercised any magistracy except that of member of the Council, [...] at the time when you wanted to judge the ten strategists en bloc, because they had not collected the men who had fallen overboard in naval combat; illegal procedure as a little later you all recognized. That day, I was the only one of the prytanes to oppose you to prevent anything being done illegally. At his trial in 399 BC. J.-C., this is how Socrates reminds the Athenians of the controversial episode of the condemnation of the victorious generals of the battle of Arginuses, maritime success of the year 406 BC. J.-C. Himself accused of not respecting the laws of the city, Socrates thus placed his accusers before their own contradictions. Like the trial of Socrates, the case of the Arginuses was a subtle intertwining of settling of political scores and religious grievances, placed under the seal of asebeia , impiety. Breaking the Spartan Blockade In the last phase of the Peloponnesian War, which opposed Athens and its Delian league to Sparta and its Peloponnesian league, the Athenians suffered several defeats. The Ionian War (413-404 BC) was notably marked by the naval battles of Notion and Mytilene, in 407-406 BC. J.-C., where the Spartans prevailed. Yet, by tradition, the Lacedaemonians were not a seafaring people; however, they ended up understanding that they would only defeat Athens, a great thalassocratic power, by challenging it on its own terrain:the sea. Negotiations between the Spartan general Lysander and the Persian prince Cyrus the Younger made it possible to finance the construction of a fleet and the recruitment of mercenaries, essential to make up for the chronic lack of soldiers. On the strength of their victories, the Spartans took the opportunity to establish a blockade of the island of Lesbos, after defeating the Athenian general Conon and his troops, then blocked in Mytilene. Conon sent a messenger to Athens, and in the summer of 406 BC. AD, the Assembly voted to send eight strategists and a fleet to rescue the general and break the blockade that was disrupting the wheat supply network of the city of Pallas-Athena. It was thus, according to Xenophon, no less than 110 Athenian ships, reinforced by 10 Samian ships and 30 allied ships, which left for Lesbos. Also read:The Peloponnesian War:a conflict with universal resonance The military and financial situation of the Athenians was very critical; also, they would have promised citizenship to foreigners and foreigners agreeing to enlist for the salvation of the city, as well as freedom to slaves solicited for the same purpose. The Roman historian Justin, centuries later, thus bitterly quipped about this "gathering of men" who were entrusted with the task of fighting for Athenian interests in the Aegean Sea. The financing of the military operation also took an unprecedented turn:according to Hellanicos of Lesbos, the Athenians had to melt down the golden statues of Nike, goddess of Victory, kept in the Parthenon, in order to mint coins and replenish the coffers of the city, drained by previous defeats. Corpses forgotten on the waves It was thus exceptional material and human resources that made it possible to constitute the fleet dispatched to rescue Conon and his men. Learning of the imminent arrival of the Athenian triremes, the Spartan fleet, led by Callicratidas, set out to meet them, while 50 ships remained behind, in order to maintain control of the island of Lesbos. The Spartans could also count on the reinforcement of the Boeotians, members of the Peloponnese league and led by General Thrasondas of Thebes. It was near the Arginuse Islands, at the south-eastern entrance to the island of Lesbos, that the confrontation took place:according to Diodorus of Sicily, it was "the strongest naval battle, of Greeks against Greeks, whose history would still have provided the example”. In total, close to 270 triremes and 50,000 rowers were mobilized in the confrontation. On the Athenian side, the contingents were positioned in two battle lines. This maneuver forced Callicratidas to divide his fleet into two groups in order to conduct the naval combat, in which he was killed. The Spartans then retreated and were pursued by the triremes and Athenian troops who, in their haste and determination, did not bother to attend to the castaways. However, after their victory, the Athenians decided to send a fleet to rescue the contingents who had fallen into the water and to recover the corpses of the drowned; but a storm prevented the accomplishment of both the rescue mission and the act of piety which should have made it possible to offer a burial to the deceased repatriated. The Athenian victory of the Arginuses certainly made it possible in the immediate future to lift the siege of Mytilene, but it was tarnished by the abandonment of the dead in the abyss of the Aegean Sea. Manipulated citizens Back in Athens, the strategists were then accused of asebeia , of impiety, in the context of a trial that quickly took on the appearance of a political settling of accounts between democratic and oligarchic factions. Among the actors of this judicial episode, we will retain the troubled role of Théramene. The latter, an assumed supporter of the oligarchy, had been one of the main figures of the government of the Four Hundred, which had dislodged the Athenian democrats in 411-410 BC. We find him trierarch during the battle of Arginuses:his role was therefore to finance the maintenance of a trireme for a year, as well as to ensure its command. When the strategists dispatched him to rescue sailors and fallen soldiers, he was unable to do so, held back by the storm. Théramene therefore feared to be incriminated himself on his return, as an actor in a battle very costly in human lives and stricken with the seal of sacrilege. The oligarch also feared to bear the brunt of revenge on the little democratic Athenian people, who remembered his political involvement in the government of the Four Hundred. In order to avoid a lawsuit and, at the same time, in order to eliminate some of his rivals, he succeeded in concentrating the feelings of the Athenians on the strategists. It was Théramene, an outspoken supporter of the oligarchy, who manipulated public opinion to condemn the victorious generals and avoid being put on trial himself. Sent by Athens to recover the corpses of drowned soldiers, he had indeed failed in his mission. Helped by his political companions, his "hetairiy", Théramene brought together a group of bereaved people, who passed themselves off as the relatives of the deceased left in the waves of the Arginuses:this macabre procession of men dressed in black and with shaved heads made strong impression when he landed in the middle of a citizens' assembly. Taking advantage of the excitement of the assembled people, Theramenes would then have pushed a certain Callixene to accuse the Athenian strategists in the middle of the session, who were thus condemned en bloc for the offense of impiety, by means of a public prosecution procedure called "eisangélie “, usually used in the context of attacks on state security. According to Xenophon, the Assembly was also struck by the speech of a survivor whose life was saved by clinging to a barrel of flour. His companions in misfortune would have ordered him, if he survived, to denounce the strategists, guilty of having abandoned so many patriots at sea. Socrates alone against all Finally, six Athenian generals were sentenced to death, including Pericles the Younger, illegitimate son of the great strategist Pericles and his concubine Aspasia. Two generals were condemned in absentia. Among the victims of this final decision, Thrasyllos and Diomedon were sincere democrats who did not share Theramenes' political interests. The outcome of the trial of the Arginuses thus resulted in part from the skilful manipulation of Athenian citizens by Theramenes. In the Constitution of the Athenians , attributed to the school of Aristotle, the episode is also commented on with these words:“The people were deceived by people who took advantage of their anger. » Ironically, among the few individuals who opposed the vote to condemn the strategists was Socrates. The latter was indeed then prytane, as he recalls in his own trial; his function was to represent, with the 49 other bouleutes (members of the Boulê), the permanence of power in the city, to monitor the debates in the Assembly and the Council and to ensure the counting of the votes. Socrates then rebelled against the irregularity of the procedure:indeed, according to Athenian law, it would have been necessary to judge the strategists one by one, and not as a whole, while instructing the file of each, a charge based on "thesmothetes (magistrates). Socrates, who was then prytane of the city, was the only one to protest against the irregularity of the legal procedure which condemned to death the victorious generals in Arginuses. There, no investigation or case by case:the trial of the generals of the Arginuses was formally illegal, and it therefore became, among the detractors of democracy, an example of the abuse of popular sovereignty, the very one that Théramenes had always castigated and which he nevertheless exploited for his own ends. The elimination of his political rivals continued in the years that followed, and it was not without chance that Theramenes reappeared in the bloody episode of the so-called tyranny of the Thirty, the second oligarchic government which settled in Athens in 404 BC. J.-C., the day after the final defeat of Aigos-Potamos, and which terrorized the population for months. But Theramenes met in his own faction an oligarch much more seasoned than him:Critias, who forced him to kill himself. Find out more • Théramene will not plead guilty. A politician engaged in the Athenian revolutions of the end of the V th century BC. AD, F. Hurni, Schwabe, 2010.• The Peloponnesian War, V.D. Hanson, Flammarion, 2008. Timeline 431 BC. AD Beginning of the Peloponnesian War, during which the Greek cities clashed in two camps:the League of Delos, led by Athens, and the League of the Peloponnese, led by Sparta.421-414 BC. AD After 10 years of conflict, Athens and Sparta sign the Peace of Nicias. Seven years later, Athens embarked on a campaign to conquer Sicily, a disaster that provoked the resumption of war.406 BC. AD The Athenians defeat Sparta's allied fleet in the Battle of the Arginuses, but spoil their success by condemning their victorious generals to death who failed to save their castaways.405 BC. AD Battle of Aigos-Potamos. The Spartan Lysander surprises the Athenian fleet on land and almost annihilates it. Without ships, Athens is besieged and surrenders to her enemies.404 BC. AD Sparta imposes on Athens the so-called government of the Thirty, which launches a bloody purge. A year later, the oligarchy was overthrown, and democracy was restored to the city. Socrates against the demagogues During the trial of the Arginuses, Socrates is prytane, one of the 50 magistrates of the Boulê (or Council), who take turns in organizing and chairing the meetings of the assembly of citizens. After a heated debate, it is decided to judge the generals collectively, rather than granting each of them, according to the law, a fair trial. All the prytanes accept this procedure for fear of the crowd, except Socrates. In his Apology for Socrates , which records his master's plea at his trial for impiety in 399 BC. J.-C., Plato quotes his words:“That day, I was, me, the only one of the prytanes to oppose me to prevent that nothing is made of illegal, and to vote against the proposal. And, while the political leaders threatened me with denunciation and physical seizure, which you were inviting them to do with loud cries, I felt that I had to take risks, by siding with the law and justice rather than siding, for fear of prison or death, with you who wanted to commit an unjust action. This attitude harmed Socrates during his own trial by confronting his judges with their contradictions. The art of arranging your ships Spartan commander Callicratidas leads his fleet of 140 ships offshore to intercept the Athenians. For the first time in their history, the Spartan crews are more experienced than those of the Athenians, commanded by Conon. However, Athens won the victory by using an unconventional naval combat strategy. The Athenians reinforce their wings with a double line of ships, while the center is protected by the island. The Spartans, on the other hand, arrange their ships in a single line. To avoid an envelopment maneuver, the Callicratidas fleet splits up to attack the enemy wings. The Athenian central section keeps in formation. After a fierce struggle, Callicratidas sinks with his ship. The Peloponnesian fleet on this flank panicked and left the battle and fled south. The Spartan ships still resist a little, but end up fleeing when they see that the Athenian ships are heading towards them, having defeated the right wing of their fleet. The Athenian fleet splits in two to pursue the Spartan ships and to rescue its own castaways. But both missions fail due to bad weather. An island finally found Ancient sources refer to Arginuses as a group of three islands. Two of them appear on current maps under their Turkish names:Garip and Kalem. But the third, Kane or Canae, on which was a port city of some renown in ancient times, has not been located. In 2015, a team of German archaeologists identified it as the current Kara Dag peninsula, near the Turkish town of Bademli, north of the other two islands, as indicated by the presence of alluvium in the center of the peninsula. which would have covered the arm of the sea separating the island from the mainland, perhaps due to an earthquake. Archaeologists have also discovered the remains of the ancient port of Kane.
