Astyochus

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Astyochus (* before 440 BC; † after 411 BC) was a Spartan admiral in the Peloponnesian War . He led 412/411 BC The Peloponnesian fleet in the first year after the Athenian defeat in Sicily . While his subordinates brought Ionia to the secession of Athens during this period , he himself showed little skill or initiative.

Sea Lord Sparta

Astyochus was born in the summer of 412 BC. Spartan sea lord ( Nauarch ) and was thus commander in chief of the Peloponnesian fleet newly established by his predecessor Melanchridas. The first difficulty the Spartans faced, however, was to pull together the new buildings commissioned in various cities around the Peloponnese . An Attic blockade at Speiraion caused further delays, so that Astyochus was only able to sail late with only four ships to Chios , which his subordinates Chalkideus and Alkibiades had meanwhile talked about the apostasy from Athens.

Setback in Lesbos

The Chier then tried to pull the island of Lesbos on their side, but their fleet was surprised by the arrival of 25 Attic ships under Diomedon and Leon . Astyochus therefore hurried to Methymna with eight ships , but came too late to do anything. Instead of leading the offensive on the Hellespont as planned, he invited the land troops back in and returned to Chios.

Falling out with Chios

After another failure in Klazomenai , Astyochus fell out early the following year with the leadership of the Chier, who rejected his plans to resume the offensive on Lesbos because of the previous failures. When his Spartan subordinate Pedaritos withheld the ships for the company, Astyochos finally gave up. Leaving Pedaritos behind with a small force, he drove to Miletus under threats against the Chians . There his subordinate Therimenes had assembled a fleet of 75 Peloponnesian, Ionian and Sicilian ships since the Battle of Miletus , whose command was transferred to the Commander-in-Chief. Since Therimenes left after the handover of command, the Syracuse Hermokrates and the Rhodian Dorieus remained with the fleet as squadrons .

Battle of Syme

In Miletus Astyochus received a cry for help from Pedaritos, who had been harassed by the Athenians in Chios, but the still bitter sea ruler first turned himself deaf and then preferred to drive south to obtain further reinforcements in Kaunos . On the way Astyochus met 20 Attic ships under the strategist Charminos, and the battle of Syme took place , which, despite the clear numerical superiority, ended with only slight advantages for the Spartans.

Intrigues over Alcibiades

Then Astyochus received the order from Sparta to kill the Athenian defector Alkibiades, who tried to thwart the alliance between Sparta and the Persian Empire . But he did not think about it at all and did nothing when the accused, warned of the danger, fled to the Persian satrap Tissaphernes in Lydia . When the Attic strategist Phrynichos from Samos also warned him of the machinations of Alcibiades, Astyochus even personally brought the letters to the universally rebuked in order to inform him of the intrigues against him. Thanks to this warning, too, Alkibiades succeeded in arranging his next break and returning to Athenian service, where he soon became Sparta's most dangerous opponent.

Mutiny in Miletus

Since the treaties concluded by Chalcidus and Therimenes with the Persian Empire met with criticism, Sparta negotiated a third improved alliance and subsidy treaty with Tissaphernes. The Peloponnesian fleet meanwhile protected the island of Rhodes , which had also defected from Athens.

As more and more complaints about the inconclusive warfare of the Astyochus from Chios and Miletus as well as especially from the allied Syracuse were loud, he decided in the war council to look for a decisive battle. To do this, he drove with the entire fleet to Samos , but despite several opportunities there was no battle with the Athenians gathered there.

In Sparta is now in accordance with the original plan, the war to the decided Hellespont and the Bosporus to wear, where the generals Klearchos and Helixos with the extraction of Byzantium actually took an important success.

Astyochus, on the other hand, remained inactive in Miletus, where a dangerous mutiny broke out shortly before the end of his office. When he repelled the dissatisfied people of the ship and raised his baton against the Rhodian squadron leader Dorieus , he had to take refuge in a temple from the anger of the soldiers and rowers.

Detachment

In the summer of 411 BC Astyochos was replaced by the new sea lord Mindaros . After his return home he had to answer in Sparta against the accusations of the Milesians and the Syracuse Hermocrates.

The "energetic warfare" of Astyochus had given Athens the necessary breathing space to bring its fleet back to eye level with the Peloponnesian and to drag the war on for another eight years.

The most important source for the life of Astyochus is Thucydides , VIII 20–85.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thucydides , VIII 20.
  2. ↑ Thucydides, VIII 23f.
  3. ↑ Thucydides, VIII 26 and 31-38.
  4. ↑ Thucydides, VIII 38-43.
  5. ↑ Thucydides, VIII 50f.
  6. ^ Thucydides, VIII 57-63.
  7. ↑ Thucydides, VIII 78f.
  8. ↑ Thucydides, VIII 80.
  9. ↑ Thucydides, VIII 83-85.
  10. ↑ Thucydides, VIII 80 and 83-85.
  11. ^ Franz Kiechle: Astyochos. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 1, Stuttgart 1964, column 669.
personal data
SURNAME Astyochus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spartan fleet leader
DATE OF BIRTH 5th century BC Chr.
PLACE OF BIRTH Sparta
DATE OF DEATH after 411 BC Chr.