Xenophon, an Athenian soldier who later wrote history, continues the Peloponnesian War — Athens against Sparta — where Thucydides stopped in 411 BC. This is Book 1 of his Hellenica. The fighting still runs through the Aegean and the Propontis, the Sea of Marmara off what is now Turkey. Both sides now look to Persian gold.

Alcibiades, the brilliant turncoat, takes Cyzicus on that sea and comes home to the Piraeus, Athens’ harbor, under purple. Then Arginusae: an Athenian victory, a storm, drowned sailors left unrescued, eight generals, and an assembly that tries them in one vote. Theramenes survives the wreck and helps sink the others. Callixenus proposes the illegal mass trial. Socrates, serving as prytanis, the day’s chairman of the council, will not put the motion. They put it anyway. Six are executed. Conon holds the last Athenian squadron. Lysander, the Spartan admiral who understands Persia, waits for a mistake. Athens has a second chance and spends it on the trial.