ABSTRACT
Alkibiades probably left Athens in October 407, shortly after escorting the procession to Eleusis.1 If so, he had spent several months at home, and although no doubt he had had plenty to do, the delay had given the Spartans and their allies time to regather their strength. Immediately after Kyzikos, at Pharnabazos’ urging and with his financial assistance, they had begun to build ships at Antandros (Xen. 1.1.24-6), and there had already been signs of a naval revival. Pasippidas had collected some ships at Chios, and Kratesippidas had added these to the twentyfive he had brought from the Peloponnese in 409 (Xen. 1.1.32; DS 13.65.3). Later, during the siege of Byzantion, as we saw, Klearchos had gone off to collect ships from the Hellespont, the Thraceward region and from Antandros (Xen. 1.3.17). There were also some at Rhodes, and possibly at Kos and Miletos (see below), and the thirty at Gytheion Alkibiades had gone to spy on before returning to Athens (Xen. 1.4.11). Thus, when Lysander, the new Spartan navarch, arrived in the eastern Aegean, probably in the spring of 407,2 he could already muster seventy triremes at Ephesos, after picking some up at Rhodes, and calling at Kos and Miletos (Xen. 1.5.21).
