Greek Generals

[Ioannis]

I think it would be useful to have a thread where we could post brief biographies of the most famous Greek generals.

[Ioannis]

The following has originally appeared in Sandler, S., (ed.), 2002. Ground Warfare: An International Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara: 265.

Epaminondas (c. 410–362 B.C.E.)
Theban statesman and general of the fourth century B.C.E. Epaminondas was born to a noble Theban family and during his early adult life participated in the liberation of Thebes from Spartan occupation. In 371, when the Spartans invaded Boeotia once again, Epaminondas commanded the Theban army. At the Battle of Leuktra he showed his tactical brilliance by massing his fighting elite on the left of the Theban battle line, and not on the right as usual, in a great block 50 deep and possibly 80 wide. The Spartans attempted to change their formation but with no success, as the Theban Hieros Lochos (Sacred Band) crushed the Spartan elite. The battle ended with the Spartan king Cleombrotus dead and Sparta’s supremacy in ruins. In its place, Epaminondas established the Theban hegemony, which was to last until 362.

In 370, Epaminondas led a massive invasion in Laconia. Although he failed to capture Sparta, he liberated Messenia and in 369 directed the foundation of Messene, its new capital. After a brief stay at Thebes, Epaminondas returned to the Peloponnese and attacked Corinth and its neighboring polis, leaving Sparta with no allies in the northeastern Peloponnese. However, due to subsequent diplomatic mistakes, Thebes gradually lost all its allies in the Peloponnese, giving the opportunity to Sparta to rise again.

Realizing that Thebes had lost control of the situation, Epaminondas led an army of about 30,000 men against a coalition of Spartan, Athenian, Elian, and Arcadian forces, numbering some 22,000 soldiers. The crucial battle was to be fought south of Mantinea in 362. The Theban army charged and cut through the Spartan line easily, but at the moment of triumph, Epaminondas fell. His death marked the beginning of the decline of the Theban hegemony.

Ioannis Georganas

See also:

Mantinea, Battle of

References and further reading:

Buckler, John. “Plutarch on Leuktra.â€

[Ioannis]

The following has originally appeared in Sandler, S., (ed.), 2002. Ground Warfare: An International Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara: 193.

Cimon (c. 510–451 B.C.E.)

Athenian statesman and general who played an active part in building up the Athenian Empire in the period following the Greco-Persian Wars.

Cimon was the son of Miltiades, the architect of the victory at the Battle of Marathon against the Persians in 490. His impressive performance in the victorious sea battle against the Persians at Salamis in 480 led to his election as strategos, one of Athens’s 10 annual generals. In 478 he helped Aristides to secure the transference of the leadership of the Greek forces from Sparta to Athens and he became the principal commander of the Athenian-led alliance known as the Delian League.

Cimon’s first task was to drive out the Spartan general Pausanias—who had been dismissed on suspicion of treason—from Byzantium. He then removed Eion in Thrace from Persian hands (476–475 B.C.E.) and soon after this he won the island of Skyros for Athenian settlers and returned to Athens the supposed remains of Theseus, Athens’s legendary hero.

Cimon’s greatest triumph took place in 466 when, as leader of an allied fleet of 200 ships, he crushed the much larger Persian fleet near the mouth of the River Eurymedon in Pamphylia and subsequently defeated the Persian king’s forces on land. He then returned to the Aegean and drove the remaining Persians out of the Thracian Chersonese. When the rich island of Thasos seceded from the Delian League, Cimon besieged it and forced it to surrender (463).

In 461, Cimon was ostracized. On his return to Athens, he worked for peace with Sparta. When peace was achieved in 451, he once again mounted a big naval expedition against Persia in order to recapture Cyprus. During the siege of the city of Kition, however, he died of sickness or a wound.

Ioannis Georganas

See also:

Marathon, Battle of

References and further reading:

Plutarch. Life of Kimon. Trans. A. Blamire. London: University of London, 1989.

[Ioannis]

Alcibiades (c.450–404 BCE)

Athenian statesman and general.

Alcibiades was born in Athens, in the deme of Skambonidai, to Kleinias and Deinomache of the Alkmaionidai family. He was a near relative of Pericles who after the death of Kleinias became his guardian.

He was a great admirer of Sokrates, although he was unable to follow his mentor’s teachings, as his ostentatious vanity, his amours and his impious revels indicate.

Alcibiades was involved with politics after the Peace of Nikias in 421 BCE. During the Peloponnesian War, he was responsible for persuading Athens to join an alliance against Sparta. When Sparta attacked Argos, Alcibiades led an Athenian force to help the Argives, but Athens and the allies were beaten at Mantinea (418 BCE).

Alcibiades was the chief promoter of the Sicilian campaign and was one of the three commanders, along with Nikias and Lamachos, of the Athenian forces (415 BCE). When they arrived at Sicily, he proposed an attempt to win allies rather than attacking the hostile cities of Selinus and Syracuse at once. In the meantime, Alcibiades had been summoned home to stand trial for the mutilation of the statues of Hermes, a crime of which he was almost certainly innocent. Instead of that, he fled to Sparta, where he persuaded King Agis I to send general Gylippos to assist the Syracusans, and at the same time to fortify Dekeleia outside Athens. His advice to the Spartans sealed the fate of the Athenian forces at Sicily, resulting to one of the worst defeats in Athens’ history.

Alcibiades later fell into trouble with the Spartans, and in 413 BCE he fled to the protection of the Persian satrap Tissaphernes. After the oligarchy of the Four Hundred fell in Athens (411 BCE), he was recalled at the request of Thrasyboulos. The people of Athens welcomed Alcibiades home, fully restored his rights, returned his property, and revoked the curse that had been placed upon him. Athens had a short era of greatness as Alcibiades commanded brilliantly the Athenian fleet in the Aegean and in 410 BCE won a victory over the Peloponnesian fleet off Cyzicus, and later recovered Chalkedon and Byzantium. However, Lysander, the new Spartan commander, defeated the Athenian fleet at Notium in c.406 BCE, so Alcibiades was exiled. He went to a house he owned on the Thracian Chersonesos. There, in 405 BCE, he attempted to warn the Athenian fleet at Aigospotami against a surprise attack by the Spartans, but his advice was ignored. In 404 BCE at the request of Lysander, the Persian satrap Pharnabazus had Alcibiades murdered.

References

Plutarch, Alcibiades (translated by John Dryden)
Available at: [url:3sibg591]http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~vandersp/Courses/texts/plutarch/plutalci.html[/url]

[Anonymous]

Thanks for those, Ioanne, I found them very useful.

[Ioannis]

You're most welcome!