Battle of Aegospotami The naval Battle of Aegospotami took place in 405 BC and was the last major battle of the Peloponnesian War . In the battle , a Spartan fleet under Lysander completely destroyed the Athenian navy . This effectively ended the war , since Athens could not import grain or communicate with its empire without control of the sea . Prelude . Lysander ' s campaigns . In 405 BC , following the severe Spartan defeat at the Battle of Arginusae , Lysander , the commander who had been responsible for the first Spartan naval successes , was reinstated in command . Since the Spartan constitution prohibited any commander from holding the office of navarch more than once , he was appointed as a vice - admiral instead , with the clear understanding that this was a mere legal fiction . One of Lysander ' s advantages as a commander was his close relationship with the Persian prince Cyrus . Using this connection , he quickly raised the money to begin rebuilding the Spartan fleet . When Cyrus was recalled to Susa by his father Darius , he took the unorthodox step of appointing Lysander as satrap of Asia Minor . With the resources of this entire wealthy Persian province at his disposal , Lysander was able to quickly reconstitute his fleet . He then set off on a series of campaigns throughout the Aegean . He seized several Athenian - held cities , and attacked numerous islands . He was unable to move north to the Hellespont , however , because of the threat from the Athenian fleet at Samos . To divert the Athenians , Lysander struck westward . Approaching quite near to Athens itself , he attacked Aegina and Salamis , and even landed in Attica . The Athenian fleet set out in pursuit , but Lysander sailed around them , reached the Hellespont , and established a base at Abydos . From there , he seized the strategically important town of Lampsacus . From here , the way was open to enter the Bosporus and close down the trade routes from which Athens received the majority of her grain . If the Athenians were to avoid starvation , Lysander must be contained immediately . Athenian response . The Athenian fleet caught up with Lysander shortly after he had taken Lampsacus , and established a base at Sestos . However , perhaps because of the need to keep a close watch on Lysander , they set up camp on a beach much nearer to Lampsacus . The location was less than ideal because of the lack of a harbor and the difficulty of supplying the fleet , but proximity seems to have been the primary concern in the minds of the Athenian generals . Every day , the fleet sailed out to Lampsacus in battle formation , and waited outside the harbor ; when Lysander refused to emerge , they returned home . Alcibiades ' s involvement . At this time , the exiled Athenian leader Alcibiades was living in a castle near the Athenian camp . Coming down to the beach where the ships were gathered , he made several suggestions to the generals . First , he proposed relocating the fleet to the more secure base at Sestos . Second , he claimed that several Thracian kings had offered to provide him with an army . If the generals would offer him a share of the command , he claimed , he would use this army to assist the Athenians . The generals , however , declined this offer and rejected his advice , and Alcibiades returned home . The battle . Two accounts of the battle of Aegospotami exist . Diodorus Siculus relates that the Athenian general in command on the fifth day at Sestos , Philocles , sailed out with thirty ships , ordering the rest to follow him . Donald Kagan has argued that the Athenian strategy , if this account is accurate , must have been to draw the Peloponnesians into an attack on the small force so that the larger force following could surprise them . In the event , the small force was immediately defeated , and the remainder of the fleet was caught unprepared on the beach . Xenophon , in contrast , relates that the entire Athenian fleet came out as usual on the day of the battle , and Lysander remained in the harbor . When the Athenians returned to their camp , the sailors scattered to forage for food ; Lysander ' s fleet then sailed across from Abydos and captured most of the ships on the beach , with no sea fighting at all . Whichever account of the battle itself is accurate , the result is clear . The Athenian fleet was obliterated ; only nine ships escaped , led by the general Conon . Lysander captured nearly all of the remainder , along with some three or four thousand Athenian sailors . One of the escaped ships , the messenger ship Paralus , was dispatched to inform Athens of the disaster . The rest , with Conon , sought refuge with Evagoras , a friendly ruler in Cyprus . Aftermath . Lysander and his victorious fleet sailed back to Lampsacus . Citing a previous Athenian atrocity when the captured sailors of two ships were thrown overboard , Lysander and his allies slaughtered Philocles and 3 , 000 Athenian prisoners , sparing other Greek captives . Lysander ' s fleet then began moving slowly towards Athens , capturing cities along the way . The Athenians , with no fleet , were powerless to oppose him . Only at Samos did Lysander meet resistance ; the democratic government there , fiercely loyal to Athens , refused to give in , and Lysander left a besieging force behind him . Xenophon reports that when the news of the defeat reached Athens , Fearing the retribution that the victorious Spartans might take on them , the Athenians resolved to hold out from the siege , but their cause was hopeless . Without a fleet to import grain from the Black Sea , Athens was on the verge of starvation , and the city surrendered in March 404 BC . The walls of the city were demolished , and a pro - Spartan oligarchic government was established ( The so - called Thirty Tyrants ' regime ) . The Spartan victory at Aegospotami marked the end of 27 years of war , placing Sparta in a position of complete dominance throughout the Greek world and establishing a political order that would last for more than thirty years . Commemoration of the battle . The Spartans commemorated their victory with a dedication at Delphi of statues of the trierarchs who had fought in the battle . A verse inscription explained the circumstances :