Mytilenean revolt

Mytilenean Revolt

Date	428-7 BC
Location	Lesbos
Result	Athenian victory

Belligerents

Athens,
Methymna,
Tenedos

Mytilene and other cities on Lesbos, weakly supported by Sparta and the Peloponnesian League

Commanders and leaders

Paches

Salaethus,
Alcidas,
others

The suppression of the revolt in 427 BC was followed by a famous debate at Athens in which the assembly ordered the execution of the entire male population of Mytilene, but then reversed that order a day later.

The Mytilenean revolt was an incident in the Peloponnesian War in which the city of Mytilene attempted to unify the island of Lesbos under its control and revolt from the Athenian Empire. In 428 BC, the Mytilenean government planned a rebellion in concert with Sparta, Boeotia, and certain other cities on the island, and began preparing to revolt by fortifying the city and laying in supplies for a prolonged war. These preparations were interrupted by the Athenian fleet, which had been notified of the plot, and the Mytileneans sent representatives to Athens to discuss a settlement, but simultaneously dispatched a secret embassy to Sparta to request support.

The attempt to reach a settlement at Athens fell through, as the Athenians were unwilling to allow their loyal ally Methymna to be subjugated by the Mytileneans, and the Athenian fleet blockaded Mytilene by sea. Sparta, although it agreed to send support and prepared a fleet, was cowed by an Athenian show of force and took no action at this time. On Lesbos, meanwhile, the arrival of 1,000 Athenian hoplites allowed Athens to complete the investment of Mytilene by walling it in on land. Although Sparta finally dispatched a fleet in the summer of 427 BC, it advanced with such caution and so many delays that it arrived in the vicinity of Lesbos only in time to receive news of Mytilene's surrender.

In the wake of the Mytileneans' surrender, a heated debate took place at Athens over their fate. One faction, led by Cleon, advocated executing all of the men in the city and enslaving the women and children, while another faction (one spokesman was Diodotus) preferred more moderate treatment in which only men who had been identified as ringleaders would be executed. The Athenian assembly wavered; an order for mass execution was issued on the first day of debate but countermanded on the next. In the end, the city as a whole was spared, but 1,000 "ringleaders" (although this figure is viewed sceptically, and it is believed that due to a misreading by a scribe, the figure was actually closer to 30) were executed without trial.

The Mytilenean government (which was oligarchic) had considered revolting from Athens even before the Peloponnesian War broke out, but when they initially approached Sparta in the 430s BC, the Spartans would not promise to accept them into the Peloponnesian League. Without the necessary Spartan support that would have made revolt feasible, the Mytileneans' plan came to nothing. In 428, however, the Mytilenean leaders judged that the time was ripe for revolt, and both Boeotia and Sparta participated in planning the rebellion. The primary motivation for the rebellion was the Mytilenean's desire to gain control of all of Lesbos; Athens generally discouraged the creation of multi-city subunits of the empire, and would certainly not have permitted Lesbos to be unified. Moreover, Mytilene's privileged status as an independent state, commanding its own fleet, within the Athenian empire seems to have given its leaders both confidence in their chances of success and concern that, if they did not revolt, they might in the future be reduced to the same tributary status as the majority of Athens' allies. The Mytileneans, therefore, began strengthening their fortifications and sent for mercenaries and supplies from the Black Sea region. Before they had completed their preparations, however, their plans were betrayed to the Athenians by several of their enemies in the region, namely the Methymnians and Tenedians, and by a group of Mytilenean citizens who represented Athens' interests in that city (probably members of the democratic faction there).

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