410 BC · Sea of Marmara (Propontis) Theater
410 BC
After the catastrophe in Sicily, Athens rebuilt its fleet against all odds through desperate financial measures, including melting its gold victory statues. At Cyzicus, Alcibiades used a bold feint — luring the Spartan fleet out with a small squadron, then ambushing it with his full force emerging from fog — to destroy the entire Spartan fleet of 80 ships. Mindarus was killed in the fighting ashore. A captured Spartan dispatch conveyed the scale of the humiliation: 'The ships are gone. Mindarus is dead. The men are starving. We know not what to do.'
Commanders