464 Miscellanea / A. Kapellos / Mnemosyne 66 (2013) 464-472

Xenophon and the Execution of the Athenian Captives at Aegospotami

Xenophon tells us that after the naval battle at Aegospotami most of his fellow citizens were captured and executed and concludes the narrative of this episode by saying that Lysander repeated to Philocles one of the accusations of Sparta’s allies against Athens and then killed him (HG 2.1.30-2). Krentz seems to doubt the historicity of the slaughter, because Xenophon describes only Philocles’ death,1) while Wylie is also unwilling to believe it, since not only Xenophon but also the Attic orators do not say anything of any massacre in their references to Aegospotami or Lysander, but focus on the loss of the ships. The same scholar also points out that there is no reference in the historian’s account about any reaction in Athens after the slaughter.2) Accepting the opinion that we can trust Xenophon’s account of the slaughter of the Athenian captives,3) it is the purpose of this paper to argue that Xenophon mentions only the death of Philocles and does not give any details about the execution out of respect for his audience’s feelings, especially the Athenians,4) following the common strategy of the orators to avoid offending the sensibilities of their audiences. In this way it will become evident that the historian is fully aligned as author with his city’s sensitivities concerning its fate after the defeat of the Peloponnesian War and thus reliable.5) I shall begin my research by focusing on 2.4.5-8. Our author says that when Thrasybulus and his men defeated some of the troops of the Thirty near Phyle, the latter decided to take over Eleusis for themselves and use it as a refuge in case of necessity. There the tyrants held a military review of the Eleusinians, alleging that they wanted to know how numerous the latter were and how large an addi- tional garrison they would need, so they ordered everyone to register and then to go out through the postern gate towards the sea. On the shore, however, the Thirty had stationed the horsemen here and there, while their servants bound each man who came out. When all had been arrested, they ordered the cavalry com-

1) Krentz 1989, 180. 2) Wiley 1986, 138, 140. 3) See Strauss 1983, 24-35, especially 32-4, Bleckmann 1998, 572-80, Welwei 1999, 241. 4) Cf. Tuplin 1993, 166. 5) Thus, in my approach I accept Gray’s (1989, vii) opinion that the Hellenica must be under- stood as a literary work on its own terms, but I dissent from her view that Xenophon was not interested in the historical accuracy of his work (cf. Rhodes 1994, 167). All references are to the Hellenica. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2013 DOI: 10.1163/156852512X621394 Miscellanea / A. Kapellos / Mnemosyne 66 (2013) 464-472 465 mander Lysimachus to lead them away and hand them over to the Eleven to be executed. Comparing this incident with that of Aegospotami, it is noteworthy that although Xenophon describes how and where the Eleusinians were captured and names their executioners, he omits to mention the execution itself, although such a description would strengthen his picture of the tyrants’ violence. Consequently, Xenophon abstains from describing the end of two similar crimes, although he seems to have more knowledge about the killing of Eleusis. Nonetheless, the his- torian is not the only author who mentions this incident. One of Lysias’ clients also refers to the killing of the people of Eleusis and says that everybody knows about this calamity, but he does not report the way in which they were destroyed by the Thirty, since the recall of the information itself is painful to the jury and him too (13.44). The battle of Aegospotami is also mentioned in Lysias and it is noteworthy that its treatment resembles that of Xenophon. The orator in his Speeches 14 and 19 refers to the death of some Athenians,6) but does not say anything at all of any mas- sacre, while in 2.58 and 14.38 he is mainly concerned with the loss of the ships.7) In 2.54-60 Lysias refers to the creation of the Athenian empire through its domination of the sea, the destruction of the Athenian fleet at the Hellespont, the enslavement of the Greeks to despots after the defeat at Aegospotami and the moral duty of the living Greeks to lament the war dead. Since this is a funeral speech and the afore- mentioned passage is one of the few references in the surviving speeches of this genre to the navy of Athens,8) a reference to the massacre of the captured Athenian sailors of the Hellespont could be fitting, but it is missing. The speaker of Lysias 14 accuses Alcibiades of the betrayal of the fleet at Aegospotami, the deaths of those who were killed in the sea-fight and puts the blame on him for all Athens’ later misfortunes (14.39). Since the notorious man caused the death of the crews in the sea-fight, it is strange that this litigant does not include the information that Alcib- iades was also responsible for the massacre of the captives. Following this line of argument, I would like to draw the readers’ attention to Lysias’ Speech 12, where the logographer himself says that Lysander helped Pheidon and Eratosthenes to

6) See 14.39, 19.16. Wylie (1986, 138) wrongfully translates the latter passage as “Kritodemos of Alopeke was killed after the sea-fight” (my emphasis), since such an interpretation is not supported by the text. 7) Although Lys. 30.10 refers to the destruction of the fleet, this is a speech against Nicoma- chus, who is said to have transcribed laws which were related to religious ceremonial; so I cannot see how a reference to the slaughter of the captives would lead to the condemnation of this man. This is not the goal of the speech (cf. Todd 1996, 101-31), so, in my opinion, Wylie (1986, 138) is not right to connect this speech with the massacre. 8) See Loraux 1986, 212-3.