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Iphikrates as a Marine? - Printable Version

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Iphikrates as a Marine? - Akontist - 04-22-2019

I'm trying to remember the source for a story about Iphikrates from long before his rise to fame - as I recall the story, he served as a marine on an Athenian trireme and engaged in some act of bravery that attracted the attention of others or perhaps earned for himself the award for valor.  But I can't recall the source for the story and I may even have misremembered it all together.  Maybe it wasn't even Iphikrates?  If you know, please set me straight.

Thank you.


RE: Iphikrates as a Marine? - Iphicrates - 05-21-2019

J K Davies, Athenian Propertied Families, Oxford, 1971, pp. 249-250;
W. K. Pritchett, The Greek State at War, p. 118.
Plutarch, Moralia, 187.1

Really weird that he is remembered for rescuing - or it must be- capturing an enemy and not a friend


RE: Iphikrates as a Marine? - Iphicrates - 05-21-2019

Why would he carry an enemy onto his ship? Was he then able to claim the armour or a ransom?
Perhaps it was an enemy commander or hero. Maybe the enemy was wounded and on a sinking ship, there wasn’t time to take his armour off or Iphicrates own ship was in danger and had to move away quickly.
Does this echo some event in the Odessy/Illiad?
What did Persian marines wear? Pictures I've seen suggest scale armour on a padded vest.
Was the enemy an Ionian Greek or Spartan perhaps?
How would he carry a man in full armour – drag him or throw him over his shoulder?
How do you get on and off a trireme in battle while carrying a fully armoured man?


RE: Iphikrates as a Marine? - Iphicrates - 05-21-2019

Sorry my first attempt at a post failed. His first recorded military action was at sea, most likely in the sea battle of Knidos (394 BC). "Although wounded himself, he picked up one of the enemy alive, armour and all, and bore him to his own trireme."