ss, and the crews
dispersing in search of food or amusement as soon as they reached the
shore. Lysander, meanwhile, fox-like, was on the watch. A scout-ship
followed the enemy daily. At length, on the fifth day, when the Athenian
ships had anchored, and the sailors had, as usual, dispersed, the
scout-ship hoisted a bright shield as a signal. In an instant the fleet
of Lysander, which was all ready, dashed out of its harbor, and rowed
with the utmost speed across the strait. The Athenian commanders,
perceiving too late their mistake, did their utmost to recall the
scattered crews, but in vain. The Spartan ships dashed in among those of
Athens, found some of them entirely deserted, others nearly so, and
wrought with such energy that of the whole fleet only twelve ships
escaped. Nearly all the men ashore were also taken, while this great
victory was won not only without the loss of a ship, but hardly of a
man. The prisoners, three or four thousand in number, in the cruel
manner of the time, were put to death.

This defeat, so disgraceful to the Athenian commanders, so complete and
thorough, was a death-blow to the dominion of Athens. That city was left
at the mercy of its foes. When news of the disaster reached the city,
such a night of wailing and woe, of fear and misery, came upon the
Athenians as few cities had ever before gone through. Their fleet gone,
all was gone. On it depended their food. Their land-supplies had long
been cut off. No corn-ships could now reach them from the Euxine Sea,
and few from other quarters. They might fight still, but the end was
sure. The victor at Salamis would soon be a prisoner within her own
walls.

Lysander was in no hurry to sail to Athens. That city could wait. He
employed himself in visiting the islands and cities in alliance with or
dependent upon Athens, and inducing them to ally themselves with Sparta.
The Athenian garrisons were sent home. Lysander shrewdly calculated that
the more men the walls of Athens held, the sooner must their food-supply
be exhausted and the end come. At length, in November of 405 B.C.,
Lysander sailed with his fleet to Piraeus and blockaded its harbor, while
the land army of the Peloponnesus marched into Attica and encamped at
the gates of Athens.

That great and proud city was now peopled with despair. The plague which
had desolated it twenty-five years before now threatened to be succeeded
by a still more fatal plague, that of famine. Yet pride and