The Battle of Aegospotami

‘ A masterful storyteller and expert military historian, Gordon Corrigan recounts the bravado, betrayal and bloody final battle of the multi-generational war that tore the Greek world into two. A thrilling account of one of history’s most decisive encounters.’ Hareth Al Bustani, author of Nero and the Art of Tyranny

The Peloponnesian War was fought between two Mediterranean superpowers. Athens, the cradle of democracy, and the military oligarchy of Sparta. The conflict lasted for 27 years from 431 – 404 BC. It was the greatest upheaval of the ancient world and ended the ‘Glory that was Greece’.

Arguably, its outcome depended on one battle, at Aegospotami in the Dardanelles, where the two sides fielded equal numbers. The battle could have gone either way. It largely depended upon who would make the first mistake.

Athens erred first and her fleet was destroyed. Her domination of the Aegean and Mediterranean seas ended for ever. Unable to be supplied by the sea, Athens surrendered. With Athenian fledgling democracy abolished, her empire collapsed.

A fatally weakened Greece was easy prey to the invading Macedonians. Alexander of Macedon travelled east, until his empire too fractured, and Rome became the dominant force in the Mediterranean.

The result of all this is that we are the products of a Roman world, and not a Greek one. Perhaps if the Battle of Aegospotami had gone the other way, which it very easily might have done, then Greek democracy would have survived and flourished. Rome may have been just another Greek dominated settlement and the world might have developed in a contrasting manner.

The acclaimed military historian, Gordon Corrigan, paints a picture of the ancient world to explore a tipping point in the Peloponnesian War which subsequently altered European history.

Major Gordon Corrigan is a retired Gurkha officer, a member of the British Commission for Military History and Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society. Fluent in the Nepali language, he is now a freelance military historian and battlefield lecturer. He is a well-known figure on the History channel. He is also the author of Sepoys in the Trenches, Loos: 1915 and Wellington: A Military Life.