| “ | I will put an end to this war, Athenians. I will tear down your walls, shatter your fleet, and fill your pretty temples with shrieking widows. | ” |
| —Dialogue in The Fall of Athens | ||
Lysander is an infantry hero in Chronicles: Battle for Greece. He has a unique model. As a hero, he cannot be converted and can regenerate health.
Campaign appearances[]
Battle for Greece[]
He is a deuteragonist in the first three scenarios of the Spartan act in the Battle for Greece campaign, and the protagonist in the last three.
- I am Brasidas: Along with Brasidas, Lysander makes his way to the Peloponnesian town of Methone, which he defends against an Athenian siege.
- Pyres on the Coast: Alongside Brasidas, Lysander helps repel Athenian raiders from allied Periokoi towns along the coast of Messenia, as well as putting down Helot revolts instigated by the Athenians.
- Speeches and Spears: Alongside Brasidas, Lysander takes part in the Spartan conquest of Chalcidice, and subsequently the defeat of the Athenian army under Cleon at the Battle of Amphipolis.
- To the Wall!: Lysander leads the Spartan expeditionary force sent to aid Syracuse against the Athenians. He succeeds in breaking the Athenian blockades and siegeworks, thus relieving Syracuse and dealing a crushing blow to the Athenians.
- Blood and Gold: Lysander raids the towns of the Ionian League on behalf of Cyrus the Younger, son of Persian Emperor Darius, in order to pay for a fleet with which to take on the Athenians. Upon the completion, the new Spartan fleet under Lysander's command destroys the Athenian Navy off the coast of Ephesus.
- The Fall of Athens: Lysander leads the Spartans to final victory over Athens, taking the city either by conquest or by starvation.
History[]
Lysander was a Spartan general, navarch, and political leader during the Peloponnesian War in the 5th century BC. While some sources claim his mother was a helot or slave, his father claimed Heracleid ancestry, although it is known that he grew up in poverty. He was elected admiral in 408 BC, an annual office in Sparta during the Peloponnesian War, despite the lack of a sizeable navy. Setting out from the Peloponnese with thirty Triremes, he sailed to Rhodes, then along the Ionian coast, collecting more ships from Sparta's allies in the region, before making his base at Ephesus. In Ionia, Lysander entered into an alliance with Cyrus the Younger, son of Persian Emperor Darius II, who began funding Sparta's war effort against the Delian League, eager to weaken the preeminent Greek power in the Aegean at the time, and reassert Persian authority over Ionia. Lysander also befriended the local Greek oligarchs, promising to place them in power in their respective cities following Athens' defeat.
Following a symbolically important victory at Notium in 406 BC, Lysander grew to prominence in Spartan politics, supported by Cyrus and the Greek oligarchs, and held various positions of authority in Sparta over the course of the war. Sailing out from Ephesus to raid Athenian supply lines running from the Black Sea, he won a stunning upset victory against the Athenian navy at the Battle of Aegospotami in 405 BC. Now in control of the seas, Lysander set about cutting off Athens from its colonies and allies, leaving the city isolated and without supplies, thereby forcing them to surrender. In 404 BC, on the anniversary of the Battle of Salamis, he sailed into the Piraeus and burned the Athenian fleet, as well as ordering the dismantling of the city walls. He installed a pro-Spartan oligarchic regime known as the Thirty Tyrants, who would later be overthrown in 403 BC. Lysander became very rich from his victories against the Athenians and would remain influential in Spartan politics until his death in 395 BC, in battle against the Boeotian League.
Trivia[]
- There are no contemporary or recent sources mentioning Lysander's participation in military successes of Brasidas and the Athenian expedition to Sicily.
- Despite being depicted armed with a lance in the cutscenes, the unit itself wield a sword.
Gallery[]
