Battle of Embata

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Embata
partof=Social War (357-355 BC)


caption=
date=Autumn 356 BC
place=Chios, Greece
result=Chian victory
combatant1=Athenians
combatant2=Chians
commander1=Chares of Athens, Iphicrates, and Timotheos
commander2=
strength1=120 naval vessels
strength2=100 galleys
casualties1=
casualties2=

The Battle of Embata was a naval battle fought in 356 BC between the Chians and the Athenians led by Chares.

Battle

The Athenians possessed a fleet of 120 naval vessels while the Chians possessed 100 galleys. This specific naval battle was fought within the straits between the island of Chios and the Anatolian mainland. The arrival of stormy weather compelled Chares's collaborators, Iphicrates and Timotheos (or Timoleon), to declare that the military expedition was too dangerous. Ultimately, Iphicrates and Timotheos abandoned Chares and the overall expedition. Chares, left with only one-third of his fleet, attacked the Chians and suffered defeat with heavy losses. [Harbottle, p. 85. "Embata (Social War). Fought B.C. 356, when an Athenian fleet of 120 sail, under Chares, designed to attack the Chians, with 100 galleys, in the straits between Chios and the mainland. The day providing stormy, however, his colleagues Iphicrates and Timoleon declined the enterprise as too hazardous, and Chares attacking alone, with a third of the fleet, was defeated with heavy loss."]

Aftermath

On a more specific note, Iphicrates and Timotheos both commanded a supplementary force of 60 naval vessels and joined up with Chares's fleet in the summer of 356 BC. After Chares suffered defeat in the autumn expedition, he ultimately established a lawsuit against both Timotheos and Iphicrates. [Mossé, p. 41. "Early that summer a supplementary fleet of sixty ships commanded by Timotheos and Iphikrates came to join Chares' fleet, and the famous battle of Embata took place off Chios in the autumn of 356, following which Chares, who had joined battle alone and been defeated, brought a lawsuit against Iphikrates and Timotheos. The war lasted one year longer, and was notable essentially for the operations undertaken by Chares in Asia."] Timotheos faced impeachment in the aftermath of the lawsuit, which led to his ruination. As a result, Isocrates developed a personal hatred for Chares since Timotheos was one of his closest pupils. [Flower, p. 128. [Footnote] "Isocrates had a very personal reason for hating Chares, in that Chares had ruined Timotheus, the pupil dearest to Isocrates, by impeaching him after the battle of Embata in 356 BC."]

References

ources

*Harbottle, Thomas Benfield. "Dictionary of Battles from the Earliest Date to the Present Time". S. Sonnenschein & Co., Ltd., 1904 (Original from Harvard University).
*Mossé, Claude (translated by Jean Stewart). "Athens in Decline, 404-86 B.C." Routledge, 1973. ISBN 0710076495
*Flower, Michael Attyah. "Theopompus of Chios: History and Rhetoric in the Fourth Century BC". Oxford University Press, 1997. ISBN 0198152434