- Hegesandridas
Hegesandridas [according to
Xenophon ] or Agesandridas [according toThucydides ] {Gr. polytonic|Ἡγησανδρίδας or polytonic|Ἀγησανδρίδας), son of a "Hegesander" or "Agesander", perhaps the same who is mentioned as a member of the lastSparta nembassy sent toAthens before thePeloponnesian War , [Thucydides , i. 139] was himself a Spartan general in that war.Citation | last = Clough | first = Arthur Hugh | author-link = Arthur Hugh Clough | contribution = Agesandridas | editor-last = Smith | editor-first = William | title =Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology | volume = 2 | pages = 367 | publisher =Little, Brown and Company | place = Boston | year = 1867 | contribution-url = http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/1475.html ] In411 BC he was placed in command of a fleet of 42 ships destined to further a revolt inEuboea . News of their being seen offLas ofLaconia came to Athens at the time when the the Four Hundred were building their fort ofEëtioneia on a promontory commandingPiraeus , and the coincidence was used byTheramenes in evidence of their treasonable intentions. Further intelligence that the same fleet had sailed over fromMegara toSalamis coincided again with the riot in Piraeus, and was held to be certain proof of the allegation of Theramenes. [cite book | last = Grote | first = George | authorlink = George Grote | coauthors = | title = Greece: II. Grecian History to the Reign of Peisistratus at Athens | publisher = P.F. Collier | date = 1899 | location = New York | pages = 71-74 | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=R5YOAAAAYAAJ | doi = | id = | isbn = ]Thucydides thinks it possible that the movement was really made in concert with the Athenianoligarch s, but far more probable that Hegesandridas was merely prompted by an indefinite hope of profiting by the existing dissensions. His ulterior design was soon seen to beEuboea ; the fleet doubledSunium , and finally came to harbor atOropos in September of411 BC . A great alarm went up on behalf of the threatened island of Euboea, and a fleet was hastily manned, which amounted to thirty-six galleys, and theBattle of Eretria was begun. [cite book | last = Grote | first = George | authorlink = George Grote | coauthors = | title = A History of Greece: From the Earliest Period to the Close of the Generation | publisher = John Murray | date = 1872 | location = London | pages = 294-301 | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=AasTAAAAYAAJ | doi = | id = | isbn = ] But the new crews were inexperienced and poorly equipped; a stratagem of theEretria ns kept the soldiers at a distance, at the very moment when, in obedience to a signal from the town, the Spartan admiral moved to attack. [cite book | last = Kagan | first = Donald | authorlink = Donald Kagan | coauthors = | title = The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition | publisher =Cornell University Press | date = 1981 | location = Ithaca | pages = 198-201, 225-227, 231, 283 | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=DNNCnTmLbPYC | doi = | id = | isbn = 0-8014-9940-2] He obtained an easy victory: the Athenians lost 22 ships, and all of Euboea, exceptOreus ,revolt ed. Extreme consternation seized the city. Athens,Thucydides adds, had now once again to thank their enemy's tardiness. Had the victors attacked Piraeus, either the city would have fallen victim to its distractions, or by the recall of the fleet from Asia, every thing exceptAttica been placed in their hands. [Thucydides , viii. 91, 94—96]Hegesandridas was content with his previous success. However, after the Spartan defeat at
Cynossema , Hegesandridas was ordered to reinforce theHellespont ine fleet under the Spartan admiralMindarus . Fifty of Hegesandridas' ships (partly Euboean) were dispatched, and all were lost in a storm off Athos; so relatesEphorus . [Diodorus Siculus , xii. 41]On the news of this disaster, Hegesandridas appears to have sailed with what ships he could gather to the
Hellespont . Here, at any rate, we find him at the opening ofXenophon 's "Hellenica"; and here he defeated a small squadron recently come from Athens underThymochares , his opponent at Eretria. [Xenophon , "Hellenica" i. 1. § 1] He is mentioned once again as commander on the Thracian coast in408 BC . [Xenophon , "Hellenica" i. 3. §17]References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.