Battle of Abydos

During the Peloponnesian War, found at Abydos on the Hellespont two battles take place, the first naval battle of Abydos in 411 BC between Athens and Sparta, and two years later, towards the end of 409 BC, the land battle at Abydos between Athens and the Persian Empire. In both battles won by the Athenians.

Prehistory

After the defeat of Athens in Sicily Sparta went on the offensive by trying to make the subjects of the Athenian Empire rebelled. 412 BC the first to succeed in Chios and Miletus, where an alliance between Sparta and the Persian Empire came to be. After the battle of Eretria in 411 BC the island of Euboea stepped on the Spartan side. After this second success Sparta sought the decisive third blow to put the Hellespont to Athens cut off from its grain supplies from the Black Sea area and thus finally to its knees. For this purpose, in the summer of 411, all available ships in the city of Abydos were brought together at the small Asian shore of the Hellespont. Athens, however, had now also again assembled a fleet, with which it confronted the Peloponnesians to defend his possessions in the region.

So it was in the summer of 411 at the promontory Kynossema to a first naval battle of the Hellespont, which ended with a slight advantage for the Athenians. The Peloponnesians and their allies moved forward into the harbor of Abydos back, while the Athenians against the port of Sestos lay them on the European side. Both sides were waiting only for reinforcements. The generals of the Athenian Thrasybulus and Thrasyllos expected in particular the arrival of Alcibiades. The Spartan Sea Lord Mindaros called meanwhile brought a flotilla of Euboea, but never arrived, when it set in the autumn storm. The decision was therefore postponed.

Battle against Abydos

The opportunity presented itself when with 14 triremes broke in the autumn the strategist Dorieus from Rhodes to the Hellespont, he wanted to perform Mindaros. The Athenians went to meet him with twenty ships and threw him at Dardanus on land. From their ships from the Athenians sought to draw the enemy boats on the sea again, giving them only in one case succeeded because they were prevented by the inhabitants of the town.

The Spartan Mindaros Sea Lord had been watching the battle from the hill of Ilium, and returned on the quickest way to Abydos, where he gave the order to sail to pull the ships of Dorieus itself. The Athenians, whose army was at Madytos ( between Sestos and Kynossema ), they went to meet with their whole fleet, and so it was in transit between Abydos and Madytos to a great naval battle, which lasted from morning until evening.

As in the previous battle was the commander Thrasybulus on the right wing of the Athenians, while Thrasyllos commanded the left. In the Peloponnesians the Syracusans Hermokrates was first leaked to answer Dorieus down, so that the quota syrakussiche now fought on the left flank, while Mindaros was on the right wing. The Athenians had 74 ships and the Peloponnesians 84, not counting the ships of Dorieus.

The battle in the strait, with its strong flow required extreme skill on the part of the crew and helmsmen, which the Athenians gave an advantage over the inexperienced Peloponnesians. Nevertheless, both fleets kept a long time scale. The decision was only towards the evening, when the south of an Athenian flotilla of 18 or 20 ships under the command of Alcibiades showed up. In this sighting, the left wing of the Syracusans and Peloponnesians had to fall back to the coast at Abydos, where it came to a fight to the boats, in the well of the Persian satrap intervened Pharnabazos which spurred his horse into the water and his archers instructed to fire at the passing boats from the shore.

The battle ended with the withdrawal of the remaining Peloponnesian ships in the harbor of Abydos. In this last phase, the Athenians were all lost during the battle ships to recapture and to mobilize 30 enemy ships, which they dragged after Sestos.

Cyzicus and Ephesus

Sybota - Potidaia - Spartolus - Stratos - Naupaktos - Plataea - Olpai - Tanagra - Pylos - Sphacteria - Corinth - Megara - Delion - Amphipolis - Mantinea - Melos - Syracuse - Miletus - Syme - Eretria - Kynossema - Abydos - Cyzicus - Ephesus - Chalcedon - Byzantium - Andros - Notion - Mytilene - Arginusae - Aigospotamoi

The second naval battle in the strait was a clear success for Athens, but remained the Peloponnesian fleet a threat because the military pay of the Persian satraps enabled the equipment always new ships. The danger was averted until the following year with the Battle of Cyzicus (410 BC), in the Mindaros lost his life while Alcibiades the Peloponnesian fleet at sea and on land completely destroyed in a brilliant operation.

After it had restored his supremacy at sea, Athens undertook the following year a last attempt to recover the lost position in Ionia. The general Thrasyllos, entrusted with the company, but suffered in the Battle of Ephesus defeated by the Persian satrap Tissaphernes. He then withdrew his ships and warriors to the Hellespont, where he was united in Lampsacus with the forces of Alcibiades.

Country Battle of Abydos

Between the troops of Alcibiades and the Thrasyllos initially ruled no good agreement, as the undefeated soldiers of Alcibiades felt superior to the defeated remnants of Thrasyllos. However, in the winter of 409/ 08, the two generals undertook a joint attack on Abydos, the last remaining stronghold of the Peloponnesians on the Hellespont. Before the city turned them against a Persian army with many riders. The Persians under the command of Pharnabazos were defeated by the Athenians and persecuted by Alcibiades and his sub- commanders Menander until nightfall. The intake of Abydos was not successful, but led the joint victory for the restoration of good relations between the two parts of the army.

Follow

The offensive Athens on the Hellespont and the Bosphorus continued in the following year in which the conquest of Chalcedon and Byzantium managed to almost completely restore the previous position to the Straits. The only fortress whose reconquest failed, was calculated Abydos. The results were, however, only temporary, and after the deposition of Alcibiades in 405 BC they were finally zunichtegemacht at the Battle of Aigospotamoi on the Hellespont.