Battle of Notium The Battle of Notium ( or Ephesus ) in 406 BC , was a Spartan naval victory in the Peloponnesian War . Prior to the battle , the Athenian commander , Alcibiades , left his helmsman , Antiochus , in command of the Athenian fleet , which was blockading the Spartan fleet in Ephesus . In violation of his orders , Antiochus attempted to draw the Spartans into battle by tempting them with a small decoy force . His strategy backfired , and the Spartans under Lysander scored a small but symbolically significant victory over the Athenian fleet . This victory resulted in the downfall of Alcibiades , and established Lysander as a commander who could defeat the Athenians at sea . 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 trireme s , 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 obol s 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 . The battle . Seeking to draw the Spartans out to fight , Antiochus sailed out towards Ephesus with 10 triremes . His plan was to draw the Peloponnesians out in pursuit of his small force , after which the rest of the Athenian force would ambush them . This plan was very similar to that which had produced the stunning Athenian victory at Cyzicus , but conditions at Notium were utterly different from those at that battle . In practice , Antiochus ' ship was sunk , and he was killed , by a sudden Spartan attack ; the remaining nine ships of the decoy force were then chased headlong back toward Notium , where the main Athenian force was caught unprepared by the sudden arrival of the whole Spartan fleet . In the ensuing fighting , 15 Athenian triremes were captured and seven more were sunk . The Spartans sailed back to Ephesus , having won an unexpected victory , while the Athenians returned to Notium to regroup . Aftermath . Upon receiving news of the battle , Alcibiades lifted the siege of Phocaea and returned south to reinforce the fleet at Notium ; this restored rough numerical parity between the two fleets . Further attempts to draw Lysander out into a battle proved unsuccessful , however , and the two fleets continued to watch each other across the water . The defeat at Notium caused the complete downfall of Alcibiades in Athenian politics . Restored to favor after the victory at Cyzicus , he had been placed in command with great expectations . When his unorthodox appointment of Antiochus led to a messy defeat , his political enemies saw their chance , and he was removed from office . Never again returning to Athens , he sailed north to land he owned in the Thracian Chersonese ; except for a brief appearance at Aegospotami , his involvement in the war was over . The commands of both fleets changed hands after Notium . Because of term limits on the position of navarch , Lysander was replaced by Callicratidas ; on the Athenian side , the fall of Alcibiades also brought down his friends Thrasybulus and Theramenes , and the overall command was given to Conon . Over the next year , the fleets clashed twice , first in a battle where , with twice as many ships as Conon , Callicratidas defeated the Athenians and trapped them in Mytilene ; an Athenian relief fleet then decisively defeated and killed Callicratidas at Arginusae . These Athenian victories proved useless , however , for in 405 BC Lysander returned to unofficial command and destroyed the Athenian fleet at Aegospotami , thus ending the Peloponnesian War with Sparta the victor . Notium , although not terribly significant in the number of ships won or lost by either side ( the gains made by the Spartan fleet were more than erased by their defeat at Arginusae ) , had the significant effect of launching the career of Lysander and ending that of Alcibiades . Lysander would go on to end the Athenian empire and contend for several years for control of the Spartan empire that replaced it ; Alcibiades , meanwhile , would be assassinated in 403 BC , having never returned to his native city . Donald Kagan , meanwhile , has suggested that the most important effect of the battle on the Athenian side was the removal from command of Thrasybulus , the talented commander who had helped plan all the Athenian naval victories of 411 and 410 BC . Notium , then , although not decisive in itself , had large political ramifications , and played a significant role in determining who would lead the forces of Athens and Sparta in the upcoming decisive battles of the war .