Lysander

Lysander , d. 395 BC, Spartan naval commander and statesman. Toward the end of the Peloponnesian War he was made admiral and built up the Spartan fleet so that it defeated (407 BC) the Athenians off Notium. Later he was responsible for the capture (405 BC) of the Athenian fleet at the mouth of the Aegospotamos and for the final submission (404 BC) of Athens to Sparta. He set up, in each of Athens' allied states, 10 oligarchs and, in Athens, the Thirty Tyrants. Sparta itself soon changed his severe system by modifying the oligarchies and by restoring Athenian democracy. Ambitious that Sparta should control all Greece and that he should be the leading power in Sparta, Lysander supported the succession of Agesilaus II as king, but the latter proved more able and independent than had been anticipated. When in 395 BC the Boeotians, with Thebes and Corinth at their head, made war upon Sparta, Lysander led an army against them, but he fell in battle at Haliartus.

Lysander, a character in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Lysander (died 395 BC) Spartan general. He commanded the Spartan fleet that defeated the Athenian navy in 405. Lysander captured Athens in 404, so bringing the Peloponnesian War to an end.