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BRASIDAS (d.422 B.C.)

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 433 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BRASIDAS (d.422 B.C.) , a Spartan officer during the first See also:decade of the Peloponnesian See also:War. He was the son of Tellis and Argileonis, and won his first laurels by the See also:relief of Methone, which was besieged by the Athenians (431 B.C.). During the following See also:year he seems to have been See also:eponymous See also:ephor (Xen. See also:Hell. ii. 3, lo), and in 429 he was sent out as one of the three commissioners (oig43ovXoi) to advise the See also:admiral Cnemus. As trierarch he distinguished himself in the See also:assault on the Athenian position at See also:Pylos, during which he was severely wounded (Thuc. iv. II. 12). In the next year, while Brasidas mustered a force at See also:Corinth for a See also:campaign in See also:Thrace, he frustrated an Athenian attack on See also:Megara (Thuc. iv. 70-73), and immediately afterwards marched through See also:Thessaly at the See also:head of 700 See also:helots and l000 Peloponnesian mercenaries to join the Macedonian See also:king See also:Perdiccas. Refusing to be made a See also:tool for the furtherance of Perdiccas's ambitions, Brasidas set about the accomplishment of his See also:main See also:object, and, partly by the rapidity and boldness of his movements, partly by his See also:personal See also:charm and the moderation of his demands, succeeded during the course of the See also:winter in winning over the important cities of See also:Acanthus, Stagirus, See also:Amphipolis and Torone as well as a number of See also:minor towns. An attack on Eion was foiled by the arrival of See also:Thucydides, the historian, at the head of an Athenian See also:squadron.

In the See also:

spring of 423 a truce was concluded between See also:Athens and See also:Sparta, but its operation was at once imperilled by Brasidas's refusal to give up Scione, which, the Athenian partisans declared, revolted two days after the truce began, and by his occupation of See also:Mende shortly afterwards. An Athenian See also:fleet under See also:Nicias and Nicostratus recovered Mende and blockaded Scione, which See also:fell two years later (421 B.c.). Meanwhile Brasidas joined Perdiccas in a campaign against Arrhabaeus, king of the Lyncesti, who was severely defeated. On the approach of a See also:body of Illyri.ans, who, though summoned by Perdiccas, unexpectedly declared for Arrhabaeus, the Macedonians fled, and Brasidas's force was rescued from a See also:critical position only by his coolness and ability. This brought to a head the See also:quarrel between Brasidas and Perdiccas, who promptly concluded a treaty with Athens, of which some fragments have survived (I.G. i. 42). In See also:April 422 the truce with Sparta expired, and in the same summer See also:Cleon was despatched to Thrace, where he stormed Torone and Galepsus and prepared for an attack on Amphipolis. But a carelessly conducted See also:reconnaissance gave Brasidas the opportunity for a vigorous and successful sally. The Athenian See also:army was routed with a loss of 600 men and Cleon was slain. On the Spartan See also:side only seven men are said to have fallen, but amongst them was Brasidas. He was buried at Amphipolis with impressive pomp, and for the future was regarded as the founder (oiiaori7s) of the See also:city and honoured with yearly See also:games and sacrifices (Thuc. iv. 78-v.

II). At Sparta a See also:

cenotaph was erected in his memory near the tombs of See also:Pausanias and See also:Leonidas, and yearly speeches were made and games celebrated in their See also:honour, in which only Spartiates could compete (Paus. iii. 14). Brasidas See also:united in himself the personal courage characteristic of Sparta with those virtues in which the typical Spartan was most signally lacking. He was See also:quick in forming his plans and carried them out without delay or hesitation. With an oratorical See also:power rare amongst the Lacedaemonians he combined a conciliatory manner which everywhere won See also:friends for himself and for Sparta (Thuc. iv. 81). See in particular Thucydides, ii.-v.; what Diodorus xii. adds is mainly oratorical elaboration or pure invention. A See also:fuller See also:account will be found in the histories of See also:Greece (e.g. those of See also:Grote, Beloch, Busolt, See also:Meyer) and in G. Schimmelpfeng, De Brasidae Spartani See also:rebus gestis atque ingenio (See also:Marburg, 1857).

End of Article: BRASIDAS (d.422 B.C.)

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