[472] I follow chiefly the account given of these transactions
by Diodorus, meagre and unsatisfactory as it is (xvi. 21). Nepos
(Timotheus, c. 3) differs from Diodorus on several points. He
states that both Samos and the Hellespont had revolted from
Athens; and that the locality in which Chares made his attack,
contrary to the judgment of his two colleagues, was near
Samos—not in the Hellespont. He affirms farther that Menestheus,
son of Iphikrates, was named as colleague of Chares; and that
Iphikrates and Timotheus were appointed as advisers of Menestheus.
As to the last assertion—that Timotheus only served as adviser to
his junior relative and not as a general formally named—this is
not probable in itself; nor seemingly consistent with Isokrates
(Or. xv. De Permutat. s. 137), who represents Timotheus as
afterwards passing through the usual trial of accountability.
Nor can Nepos be correct in saying that Samos had now revolted:
for we find it still in possession of Athens after the Social
War, and we know that a fresh batch of Athenian Kleruchs were
afterwards sent there.
On the other hand, I think Nepos is probably right in his
assertion, that the Hellespont now revolted (“descierat
Hellespontus”). This is a fact in itself noway improbable, and
helping us to understand how it happened that Chares conquered
Sestos afterwards in 353 B. C. (Diodor. xvi. 34), and that the
Athenians are said to have _then_ recovered the Chersonesus from
Kersobleptes.
Polyænus (iii. 9, 29) has a story representing the reluctance of
Iphikrates to fight, as having been manifested near Embata; a
locality not agreeing either with Nepos or with Diodorus. Embata
was on the continent of Asia, in the territory of Erythræ.
See respecting the relations of Athens with Sestos, my last
preceding volume, Vol. X. Ch. lxxx. p. 380 note.
Our evidence respecting this period is so very defective, that
nothing like certainty is attainable.
The three joint admirals were thus placed not merely in opposition,
but in bitter conflict, among themselves. At the trial of
accountability, undergone by all of them not long afterwards at
Athens, Chares stood forward as the formal accuser of his two
colleagues, who in their turn also accused him. He was seconded
in his attack by Aristophon, one of the most practised orators of
the day. Both of them charged Iphikrates and Timotheus with having
received bribes from the Chians and Rhodians,[473] and betrayed their
trust; by deserting Chares at the critical moment when it had been
determined beforehand to fight, and when an important success might
have been gained.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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