Battle of Notium - Prelude

Prelude

In 407 BC, Lysander was appointed as navarch, commander of the Spartan fleet, replacing the deceased Mindarus. Gathering a fleet as he went, he sailed east across the Aegean from Sparta and eventually reached Ephesus, where he established his base, with 70 triremes, which he increased to 90 through shipbuilding efforts at Ephesus. In Ephesus, he established diplomatic relations with Cyrus, a Persian prince. Lysander built a personal friendship with Cyrus, and the prince agreed to provide funds out of his own purse to increase the pay of Spartan rowers to 4 obols a day from 3. With this increased funding, the Spartan fleet could attract experienced rowers from the Athenian fleet.

Alcibiades, needing to force a battle with Lysander, brought his fleet to Notium, where he could closely watch the Spartan fleet across the water. Merely sitting at Notium, however, failed to bring Lysander out to fight. Accordingly, Alcibiades sailed north with a few troopships to assist Thrasybulus in the siege of Phocaea. The bulk of the fleet, which remained behind him, was placed under the command of Alcibiades' kybernetes, or helmsman. A fleet of this size (80 ships remained at Notium after Alcibiades' departure) would traditionally have been commanded by several generals, or at the least by a trierarch; Alcibiades' unconventional decision has been widely criticized by both ancient and modern authors. Antiochus was given one simple order to govern his actions; "Do not attack Lysander's ships." For some reason, he chose not to obey this order, and attempted to implement a stratagem that he thought would give the Athenians a victory.