page_title: Alcibiades
section_title: Further military successes
hierarchical_section_title: Alcibiades / Recall to Athens / Further military successes
context_page_description: Alcibiades, son of Cleinias /ˌælsəˈbaɪədiz/ Ancient Greek: Ἀλκιβιάδης, romanized: Alkibiádēs, [alkibiádɛːs], from the deme of Scambonidae, was a prominent Athenian statesman, orator, and general. He was the last famous member of his mother's aristocratic family, the Alcmaeonidae, which fell from prominence after the Peloponnesian War. He played a major role in the second half of that conflict as a strategic advisor, military commander, and politician.
  During the course of the Peloponnesian War, Alcibiades changed his political allegiance several times. In his native Athens in the early 410s BC, he advocated an aggressive foreign policy and was a prominent proponent of the Sicilian Expedition, but he fled to Sparta after his political enemies brought charges of sacrilege against him. In Sparta, he served as a strategic adviser, proposing or supervising several major campaigns against Athens. In Sparta too, however, Alcibiades soon made powerful enemies and felt forced to defect to Persia. There he served as an adviser to the satrap Tissaphernes until his Athenian political allies brought about his recall.
context_section_description: After their victory, Alcibiades and Thrasybulus began the siege of Chalcedon in 409 BC with about 190 ships. Although unable to attain a decisive victory or induce the city to surrender, Alcibiades was able to win a small tactical land battle outside of the city gates and Theramenes concluded an agreement with the Chalcedonians. Afterwards they concluded a temporary alliance with Pharnabazus which secured some much needed immediate cash for the army, but despite this Alcibiades was still forced to depart in search for more booty to pay the soldiers and oarsmen of the fleet.
  In pursuit of these funds he traveled to the Thracian Chersonese and attacked Selymbria. He plotted with a pro-Athenian party within the city and offered the Selymbrians reasonable terms and imposed strict discipline to see that they were observed. He did their city no injury whatsoever, but merely took a sum of money from it, set a garrison in it and left. Epigraphical evidence indicates the Selymbrians surrendered hostages until the treaty was ratified in Athens. His performance is judged as skillful by historians, since it saved time, resources, and lives and still fully achieved his goal.
  From here Alcibiades joined in the siege of Byzantium along with Theramenes and Thrasyllus. A portion of the citizens of the city, demoralized and hungry, decided to surrender the city to Alcibiades for similar terms as the Selymbrians had received. On the designated night the defenders left their posts, and the Athenians attacked the Peloponnesian garrison in the city and their boats in the harbor. The portion of the citizenry that remained loyal to the Peloponnesians fought so savagely that Alcibiades issued a statement in the midst of the fighting which guaranteed their safety and this persuaded the remaining citizens to turn against the Peloponnesian garrison, which was nearly totally destroyed.
caption: Satellite image of the Thracian Chersonese (now known as the Gallipoli Peninsula) and surrounding area. Alcibiades traveled to the Chersonese in 408 BC and attacked the city of Selymbria on the north shore of the Propontis.
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