The Battle of Aegospotami

By 405 BCE Athens and Sparta had been fighting the Peloponnesian War for more than two decades, and Athens still depended on its fleet and the grain routes through the Hellespont. At Aegospotami the Spartan commander Lysander caught the Athenian navy in a vulnerable position and destroyed or captured almost the entire force. Corrigan reconstructs the strategic situation, the rival commanders’ choices and the sudden collapse of Athenian sea power.

The battle made the survival of Athens as an imperial power impossible. Without control of the sea, the city could be blockaded and forced to surrender the following year. Corrigan treats Aegospotami as a genuine historical turning point, linking a brief naval action to the end of the Athenian empire, the temporary supremacy of Sparta and the altered balance of power in the Greek world.