Conon was now placed at the head of the fleet ; but all his measures were cramped by unworthy col leagues, who were associated with him. Meanwhile the Lacedemonians, determining to make a great ef fort, had fitted out a large armament, and entrusted the command of it to Lysander, the most able and enterprising of their officers. Lysander immediately proceeded to lay siege to Lampsacus, which he took after an obstinate defence. The Athenian fleet ar rived too late to save it ; but being superior in num ber, it offered battle. The offer was declined by Lysander, who kept himself shut up in the harbour of Lampsacus, and assumed a studied appearance of alarm and consternation. The Athenians, after battle I had been thus declined for five successive days, retired and anchored in the river of .Egos Potamos, on the Thracian side of the Bosphorus. They now aban doned themselves to the utmost excess of exultation and security. They straggled on shore, threw aside t all restraint of discipline, and indulged in every kind of licentiousness. Thekmotions were carefully watch ed by Lysander, who al length conceiving the oppor tunity favourable, fell upon them suddenly with his whole force. They were so completely unprepared, as to be hardly in a condition to make even a show of resistance. The whole fleet of 160 sail, with the ex ception of nine ships, fell into the hands of the vic tors. Lysander then landed his army, and gained an easy victory over the detached and straggling bands of the Athenians. The few who escaped sought safety among the mountains in the interior of Thrace. Conon, after vain attempts to rally his countrymen, . found means to escape, with eight gallies, to Cyprus.
This blow was mortal to Athens; yet she still con tinued, for some time, to protract a languishing ex-, istence. Lysander did not dare at once to attack her almost impregnable walls and harbours. He content-, ed himself, for the present, with reducing or alienating those maritime states which she had so long held in subjection, particularly the rich and advantageous set tlements on the coast of Thrace. He at the same time,closely blockaded the city by sea and land, and, to increase the want of provisions, obliged the garri sons of the captured places to return into the city. Athens was soon reduced to extreme distress ; yet still, with a resolution worthy of her former ,great ness, she struggled against her fate. Her liberty, however, was assailed, not only by foreign but by in testine enemies. The party attached to the Lacede monian form of government, hoped, by the success of that people, to establish themselves in power. This party gained continually new strength, as the pro bable xra of their triumph approached. At length Theramenes, a new convert to this party, but whose former conduct had gained him the confidence of the people, procured their consent to the opening of a treaty with Sparta. The negotiation continued four months, and was concluded on terms the most dis graceful and ruinous to Athens. All the fortifica tions both of their city and harbours were to be de molished : they were to renounce all their foreign. possessions ; to receive back the banished aristocrats; to follow in war the standard of the Lacedemonians: and to become in every respect on a footing with the rest of their subject allies. These terms were re
ceived by the body of the people with the deepest consternation ; but their spirit was now broken by a long series of calamities ; the aristocratical party were clamorous ; and a gloomy and reluctant consent was' at length extorted. On the 16th of May, A. C. 404, in the 27th year after the commencement of the Pe loponnesian war, the Lacedemonians entered Athens. Even the victors could scarcely refrain from tears, when they beheld this final humiliation of a city, for merly so great in arms, which had once been the de liverer, and had so long reigned the arbitress, of Greece.
Sparta, according to the usual system of Grecian policy, did not reduce Athens to absolute subjection : She merely established in power the party in whose friendship she could confide. Thus the government remained in the hands of Athenians, though the La cedemonians took the precaution of placing a garrison in the citadel. It was moulded, however, into a sys tem of the most complete oligarchy. The authority was exclusively vested in 30 parsons, who, from the violence of their proceedings, and the eternal hatred of Athens to such a government, soon acquired the ap pellation of the Thirty Tyrants. At the head of them was Theramenes, already mentioned, and Critias, who was still more violent. They were inspired with the usual antipathy of Gieeks to the opposite faction, and exasperated by the remembrance of what they had suffered from them. At the same time, the extra ordinary strength of the popular spirit in Athens ex cited continual apprehensions, which could be quieted only by acts of severity. Their first proceedings were directed against the most obnoxious of the opposite party, whose punishment gave satisfaction to the peo ple in general. Emboldened by this success, and ur ged on by avarice and fear, they proceeded to exer cise a generalproscription against, the innocent and guilty. Every form of justice was by degrees tramp led upon ; all the citizens, except 3000 devoted ad-' herents, were deprived of their arms; while Thera menes, who attempted too late to stem this torrent of violence, was accused and put to death.
Amid every precaution which cruelty could devise, the tyrants still did not feel themselves secure. They dreaded the talents and address of Alcibiades ; and Lysander, by his interest at the Persian court, pro cured him to be put to death. The storm, however, came from a quarter which they least expected. Thrasybulus, who had already distinguished himself as a successful commander, was exiled, with many other citizens of distinction. This person, having col lected a few hundreds of other exiles, who had taken refuge at Thebes and its neighbourhood, seized upon Phyla, a small fortress on the confines of Attica and Beeotia. The tyrants were baffled in their first at tempt to expel him ; this success attracted numbers to his standard ; and he soon found himself sufficient ly in force to form the bold design of seizing on the Pirxus. In this attempt he succeeded : the tyrants, in endeavouring to dislodge him, were defeated with great slaughter, and took shelter in the citadel, while part fled even to Eleusis.