Timotheus (general)
Encyclopedia
Timotheus was a Greek
statesman and general who sought to revive Athenian imperial ambitions by making Athens
dominant in a second Athenian Empire. He was the son of the Athenian general, Conon
. Isocrates
considered that Timotheus was superior to the other commanders of his time and showed all the requisites and abilities of a good general.
" in the wars between Athens (in alliance with Thebes
), and Sparta
. At this time, Athens' ambition was to revive the Delian League
and to regain command of the sea. In 375 BC, Timotheus was sent with a fleet to sail round Peloponnesus by way of a demonstration of Athens' power against Sparta
. He persuaded Cephallenia to side with Athens and secured the friendship of the Acarnania
ns and Molossians
. In 373 BC Timotheus was appointed to the command of a fleet for the relief of Corcyra
, then beleaguered by the Spartans. But his ships were not fully manned, and to increase their manpower he cruised in the Aegean
. The delay upset the Athenians, who brought him to trial; but, thanks to the intervention of his allies --Jason
, tyrant of Pherae
, and Alcetas
of Epirus, King of the Molossians, both of whom went to Athens to plead his cause--he was acquitted. In way of support, Amyntas
, King of Macedon, sent timber to Timeotheus' house in the Piraeus. Upon his acquittal, he went to sea with his fleet and captured Corcyra and then defeated the Spartans at sea off Alyzia (Acarnania). However, with little money to his name--for he had used his own funds to build up the Athenian fleet -- he left Athens and took service with the king of Persia
as a mercenary.
of Phrygia
. But, finding that the satrap was in open revolt against Persia, Timotheus, in line with his instructions, abstained from helping him and rather used his army against Samos
, then occupied by a Persian garrison, and took it after a ten months' siege (366 BC-365 BC). He then took Sestus
, Crithote
, Torone
, Potidaea
, Methone
, Pydna
and many other cities; but two attempts to capture Amphipolis
failed.
, the son of the banker Pasion
, for the return of money lent by his father. The speech for the plaintiff is still extant, and is attributed to Demosthenes
. It is interesting as it describes the manner in which Timotheus had exhausted the large fortune inherited from his father and the straits to which he was reduced by his sacrifices in the public cause.
and expelled the Thebans in three days. In the course of the Social War
Timotheus was dispatched with Iphicrates
, Menestheus, son of Iphicrates, and Chares
to put down the revolt. The hostile fleets sighted each other in the Hellespont
; but a gale was blowing, and Iphicrates and Timotheus decided not to engage. Chares, disregarding the advice of his colleagues, lost many ships.
, where he died soon afterwards. The Athenians later showed their sorrow over the treatment of Timotheus by forgiving the greater part of the fine that had passed onto his son Conon to pay. Timotheus was buried in the Ceramicus
and statues were erected to his memory in the Agora
and the Acropolis
.
sums up much of the negative perception of Timotheus' generalship. Note that the Athenian general Timotheus was reckoned to be fortunate. People said fortune was responsible, and Timotheus had no part in it. They ridiculed him on the stage, and painters portrayed him asleep, with Tykhe (Fortune) hovering above his head and pulling the cities into her net. This commentary is balanced by the credible picture of a skilled and cautious general, magnaminious victor and low-key diplomat presented by Isocrates
.
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
statesman and general who sought to revive Athenian imperial ambitions by making Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
dominant in a second Athenian Empire. He was the son of the Athenian general, Conon
Conon
Conon was an Athenian general at the end of the Peloponnesian War, who presided over the crucial Athenian naval defeat at Battle of Aegospotami; later he contributed significantly to the restoration of the political and military power.-Defeat at Aegospotami:Conon had been sent out following the...
. Isocrates
Isocrates
Isocrates , an ancient Greek rhetorician, was one of the ten Attic orators. In his time, he was probably the most influential rhetorician in Greece and made many contributions to rhetoric and education through his teaching and written works....
considered that Timotheus was superior to the other commanders of his time and showed all the requisites and abilities of a good general.
Strategos
From 378 BC to 356 BC, Timotheus frequently held command as "strategosStrategos
Strategos, plural strategoi, is used in Greek to mean "general". In the Hellenistic and Byzantine Empires the term was also used to describe a military governor...
" in the wars between Athens (in alliance with Thebes
Thebes, Greece
Thebes is a city in Greece, situated to the north of the Cithaeron range, which divides Boeotia from Attica, and on the southern edge of the Boeotian plain. It played an important role in Greek myth, as the site of the stories of Cadmus, Oedipus, Dionysus and others...
), and Sparta
Sparta
Sparta or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c...
. At this time, Athens' ambition was to revive the Delian League
Delian League
The Delian League, founded in circa 477 BC, was an association of Greek city-states, members numbering between 150 to 173, under the leadership of Athens, whose purpose was to continue fighting the Persian Empire after the Greek victory in the Battle of Plataea at the end of the Greco–Persian Wars...
and to regain command of the sea. In 375 BC, Timotheus was sent with a fleet to sail round Peloponnesus by way of a demonstration of Athens' power against Sparta
Sparta
Sparta or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c...
. He persuaded Cephallenia to side with Athens and secured the friendship of the Acarnania
Acarnania
Acarnania is a region of west-central Greece that lies along the Ionian Sea, west of Aetolia, with the Achelous River for a boundary, and north of the gulf of Calydon, which is the entrance to the Gulf of Corinth. Today it forms the western part of the prefecture of Aetolia-Acarnania. The capital...
ns and Molossians
Molossians
The Molossians were an ancient Greek tribe that inhabited the region of Epirus since the Mycenaean era. On their northeast frontier they had the Chaonians and to their southern frontier the kingdom of the Thesprotians, to their north were the Illyrians. The Molossians were part of the League of...
. In 373 BC Timotheus was appointed to the command of a fleet for the relief of Corcyra
Corfu
Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the edge of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The island is part of the Corfu regional unit, and is administered as a single municipality. The...
, then beleaguered by the Spartans. But his ships were not fully manned, and to increase their manpower he cruised in the Aegean
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
. The delay upset the Athenians, who brought him to trial; but, thanks to the intervention of his allies --Jason
Jason of Pherae
Jason of Pherae was the ruler of Thessaly during the period just before Philip II of Macedon came to power. He had succeeded his father Lycophron I of Pherae as tyrant of Pherae and was appointed tagus, or king, of Thessaly in the 370s BC and soon extended his control to much of the surrounding...
, tyrant of Pherae
Pherae
Pherae was an ancient Greek town in southeastern Thessaly. It bordered Lake Boebeïs. In mythology, it was the home of King Admetus, whose wife, Alcestis, Heracles went into Hades to rescue. In history, it was more famous as the home of the fourth-century B.C...
, and Alcetas
Alcetas
Alcetas , the brother of Perdiccas and son of Orontes from Orestis, is first mentioned as one of Alexander the Great's generals in his Indian expedition...
of Epirus, King of the Molossians, both of whom went to Athens to plead his cause--he was acquitted. In way of support, Amyntas
Amyntas III of Macedon
Amyntas III son of Arrhidaeus and father of Philip II, was king of Macedon in 393 BC, and again from 392 to 370 BC. He was also a paternal grandfather of Alexander the Great....
, King of Macedon, sent timber to Timeotheus' house in the Piraeus. Upon his acquittal, he went to sea with his fleet and captured Corcyra and then defeated the Spartans at sea off Alyzia (Acarnania). However, with little money to his name--for he had used his own funds to build up the Athenian fleet -- he left Athens and took service with the king of Persia
Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire , sometimes known as First Persian Empire and/or Persian Empire, was founded in the 6th century BCE by Cyrus the Great who overthrew the Median confederation...
as a mercenary.
Asia Minor
Having returned to Athens, in 366 BC he was sent to support Ariobarzanes, satrapSatrap
Satrap was the name given to the governors of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as the Sassanid Empire and the Hellenistic empires....
of Phrygia
Phrygia
In antiquity, Phrygia was a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now modern-day Turkey. The Phrygians initially lived in the southern Balkans; according to Herodotus, under the name of Bryges , changing it to Phruges after their final migration to Anatolia, via the...
. But, finding that the satrap was in open revolt against Persia, Timotheus, in line with his instructions, abstained from helping him and rather used his army against Samos
Samos Island
Samos is a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of Asia Minor, from which it is separated by the -wide Mycale Strait. It is also a separate regional unit of the North Aegean region, and the only municipality of the regional...
, then occupied by a Persian garrison, and took it after a ten months' siege (366 BC-365 BC). He then took Sestus
Sestos
200px|200px|thumb|The Ancient Map of Gallipoli PeninsulaSestos was an ancient Greek town of the Thracian Chersonese, the modern Gallipoli peninsula in European Turkey. Situated on the Hellespont opposite Abydos, it was the home of Hero in the legend of Hero and Leander, where according to legend...
, Crithote
Crithote
Crithote is a genus of moths of the Noctuidae family.-Species:* Crithote horripides Walker, 1864* Crithote pannicula Swinhoe, 1904-References:* *...
, Torone
Toroni
Toroni is an ancient Greek city and a former municipality in the southwest edge of Sithonia peninsula in Chalkidiki, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Sithonia, of which it is a municipal unit.-History:...
, Potidaea
Potidaea
Potidaea was a colony founded by the Corinthians around 600 BC in the narrowest point of the peninsula of Pallene, the westernmost of three peninsulas at the southern end of Chalcidice in northern Greece....
, Methone
Methoni, Pieria
Methoni is a village and a former municipality in Pieria regional unit, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Pydna-Kolindros, of which it is a municipal unit...
, Pydna
Pydna
Pydna was a Greek city in ancient Macedon, the most important in Pieria. Modern Pydna is a small town and a former municipality in the northeastern part of Pieria regional unit, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Pydna-Kolindros, of which it is a...
and many other cities; but two attempts to capture Amphipolis
Amphipolis
Amphipolis was an ancient Greek city in the region once inhabited by the Edoni people in the present-day region of Central Macedonia. It was built on a raised plateau overlooking the east bank of the river Strymon where it emerged from Lake Cercinitis, about 3 m. from the Aegean Sea. Founded in...
failed.
Court case
An action was brought against him by ApollodorusPasion
Pasion was an ancient Greek slave from the 4th century BC. He was owned by the bankers Antisthenes and Archestratus, located at Piraeus, the harbor five miles out of Athens. During his slavery, he quickly rose to chief clerk in charge of a money-changing table at the port , and proved so valuable...
, the son of the banker Pasion
Pasion
Pasion was an ancient Greek slave from the 4th century BC. He was owned by the bankers Antisthenes and Archestratus, located at Piraeus, the harbor five miles out of Athens. During his slavery, he quickly rose to chief clerk in charge of a money-changing table at the port , and proved so valuable...
, for the return of money lent by his father. The speech for the plaintiff is still extant, and is attributed to Demosthenes
Demosthenes
Demosthenes was a prominent Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual prowess and provide an insight into the politics and culture of ancient Greece during the 4th century BC. Demosthenes learned rhetoric by...
. It is interesting as it describes the manner in which Timotheus had exhausted the large fortune inherited from his father and the straits to which he was reduced by his sacrifices in the public cause.
The Social War
In 358 BC or 357 BC, an Athenian force, in response to a spirited appeal from Timotheus, crossed over to EuboeaEuboea
Euboea is the second largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. The narrow Euripus Strait separates it from Boeotia in mainland Greece. In general outline it is a long and narrow, seahorse-shaped island; it is about long, and varies in breadth from to...
and expelled the Thebans in three days. In the course of the Social War
Social War (357-355 BC)
The Social War, also known as the War of the Allies, was fought from 357 BC to 355 BC between Athens with its Second Athenian Empire and between the allies of Chios, Rhodes, and Cos as well as the independent Byzantion.-Origins:...
Timotheus was dispatched with Iphicrates
Iphicrates
Iphicrates was an Athenian general, the son of a shoemaker, who flourished in the earlier half of the 4th century BC....
, Menestheus, son of Iphicrates, and Chares
Chares
Chares is the name of three prominent ancient Greeks:*Chares of Athens - a 4th century BC general;*Chares of Mytilene - a historian who lived at the court of Alexander III of Macedon;*Chares of Lindos - a sculptor who created the Colossus of Rhodes...
to put down the revolt. The hostile fleets sighted each other in the Hellespont
Dardanelles
The Dardanelles , formerly known as the Hellespont, is a narrow strait in northwestern Turkey connecting the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara. It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with its counterpart the Bosphorus. It is located at approximately...
; but a gale was blowing, and Iphicrates and Timotheus decided not to engage. Chares, disregarding the advice of his colleagues, lost many ships.
Final years
In his dispatches after the battle, Chares complained so bitterly about Iphicrates and Timotheus that the Athenians put them on their trial. The accusers were Chares and Aristophon. Iphicrates, who had fewer enemies than Timotheus, was acquitted; but Timotheus, who had always been disliked for his perceived arrogance, was condemned to pay a very heavy fine. Being unable to pay, he withdrew to ChalcisChalcis
Chalcis or Chalkida , the chief town of the island of Euboea in Greece, is situated on the strait of the Evripos at its narrowest point. The name is preserved from antiquity and is derived from the Greek χαλκός , though there is no trace of any mines in the area...
, where he died soon afterwards. The Athenians later showed their sorrow over the treatment of Timotheus by forgiving the greater part of the fine that had passed onto his son Conon to pay. Timotheus was buried in the Ceramicus
Kerameikon
Kerameikos is an area of Athens, Greece, located to the northwest of the Acropolis, which includes an extensive area both within and outside the ancient city walls, on both sides of the Dipylon Gate and by the banks of the Eridanos River...
and statues were erected to his memory in the Agora
Ancient Agora of Athens
The Ancient Agora of Athens is the best-known example of an ancient Greek agora, located to the northwest of the Acropolis and is bounded on the south by the hill of the Areopagus and on the west by the hill known as the Colonus Agoraeus.-History:The agora in Athens had private housing, until it...
and the Acropolis
Acropolis, Athens
Acropolis is a neighborhood of Athens, near the ancient monument of Acropolis, along the Dionysios Areopagitis, courier road. This neighborhood has a significant number of tourists all year round. It is the site of the Museum of Acropolis, opened in 2009....
.
Reputation
Timotheus inspired much jelousy among his rivals, his reputation somewhat tarnished by the record of his final years. Claudius AelianusClaudius Aelianus
Claudius Aelianus , often seen as just Aelian, born at Praeneste, was a Roman author and teacher of rhetoric who flourished under Septimius Severus and probably outlived Elagabalus, who died in 222...
sums up much of the negative perception of Timotheus' generalship. Note that the Athenian general Timotheus was reckoned to be fortunate. People said fortune was responsible, and Timotheus had no part in it. They ridiculed him on the stage, and painters portrayed him asleep, with Tykhe (Fortune) hovering above his head and pulling the cities into her net. This commentary is balanced by the credible picture of a skilled and cautious general, magnaminious victor and low-key diplomat presented by Isocrates
Isocrates
Isocrates , an ancient Greek rhetorician, was one of the ten Attic orators. In his time, he was probably the most influential rhetorician in Greece and made many contributions to rhetoric and education through his teaching and written works....
.
Sources
- See Life by Cornelius NeposCornelius NeposCornelius Nepos was a Roman biographer. He was born at Hostilia, a village in Cisalpine Gaul not far from Verona. His Gallic origin is attested by Ausonius, and Pliny the Elder calls him Padi accola...
; Diodorus SiculusDiodorus SiculusDiodorus Siculus was a Greek historian who flourished between 60 and 30 BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily . With one exception, antiquity affords no further information about Diodorus' life and doings beyond what is to be found in his own work, Bibliotheca...
xv., xvi.; IsocratesIsocratesIsocrates , an ancient Greek rhetorician, was one of the ten Attic orators. In his time, he was probably the most influential rhetorician in Greece and made many contributions to rhetoric and education through his teaching and written works....
, De permutatione; Pseudo-Demosthenes, Adversus Timotheum; C. Rehdantz, Vitae Iphicratis, Chabriae, Timothei (1845); and especially Holm, History of Greece (English translation, Volume III.).