Leon (general)

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Leon ( Greek Λεών Leṓn ; * around 460 BC; † 406 BC) was a politician and general in classical Athens at the time of the Peloponnesian War (431 BC - 404 BC). He was close to the Democratic Party.

The historian Thucydides first mentions him in 421 BC. BC, where he was one of the Athenian politicians who conjured up the so-called Nicias Peace concluded between Athens and Sparta , as well as the military alliance concluded between the two Greek states in this context.

412 BC Leon was sent with ten ships to reinforce the eastern Aegean Sea , where a violent revolutionary overthrow had taken place on the island of Samos off the coast of Asia Minor with Athenian support. 200 aristocrats and rich people were murdered by the people of the island , another 400 were driven into exile and their property and houses were expropriated. The popular rule established on the island from then on remained a loyal ally of Athens.

Together with his colleague Diomedon , who had 15 ships, Leon intervened when the city of Mytilene on the neighboring island of Lesbos fell away from the Athenians. Both admirals achieved a spectacular coup when they managed to turn their fleet into the port of Mytilene unexpectedly at full speed and overpower the ships from Chios (an island allied with Sparta ) lying there . After breaking the resistance in battle on land, they were able to regain possession of the renegade city for Athens.

In the following years Leon and Diomedon waged a sea war from Lesbos against the island and the city of Chios, which they besieged. In the winter of 412/411 BC Leon and Diomedon were appointed successors of the recalled generals Phrynichos and Skironides . They were now waging war with their fleet against the island of Rhodes and the Spartans lying there.

As of 411 BC When the oligarchical assembly of the four hundred had taken power in Athens , the army in Samos remained a refuge of democratic resistance against the new regime. Therefore, when an aristocratic clique wanted to take power in Samos, it met resistance from the Athenian soldiers and their democratically minded leaders, including Leon and Diomedon. In cooperation with Thrasybulus and Thrasyllos they succeeded in preventing an oligarchical overthrow on Samos. (Thucydides. VIII, 73f.).

407 BC As Xenophon (Hellenika I 5,16) reports , Leon was one of the ten Athenian generals who were chosen to replace the commander-in-chief Alcibiades , who had fallen out of favor with the people after a lost naval battle .

Together with his fellow military officers Konon and Erasinides , Leon had to fight in 406 BC. Flee from the overwhelming Spartan fleet under Kallikratidas in the port of the city of Mytilene on Lesbos. In a sea battle at the entrance to the port of Mytilene, the Athenians lost 30 of their 70 ships and were now besieged there by the Spartan fleet. In order to bring reinforcements from Athens, it was decided that two ships should break through the Spartan siege barrier in front of the port of Mytilene and try to get to Athens. Apparently - Xenophon is silent on the details - it was decided that the general Konon would stay in Mytilene, while his colleagues Erasinides and Leon should try to escape in different directions (out to sea and towards Hellespont ) with one ship each .

One must assume that Leon commanded the one of the two ships that fled towards the open sea. While his colleague Erasinides managed to escape in the direction of Hellespont, Leon's ship was caught by the Spartans after a chase, defeated in battle and dragged back. Leon probably died in the process.

In the subsequent naval battle of the Arginus in the same year, the Athenians won. Leon is no longer mentioned by Xenophon among the generals who took part in this battle, instead Lysias is mentioned as the general, who was probably chosen to replace him. Leon's companions in fate Diomedon and Erasinides and his successor Lysias successfully commanded parts of the Athenian fleet in this battle and thus contributed to the victory of the Athenians. However, the victorious Athenian generals were indicted, convicted and executed at the subsequent Arginusian trial in Athens, a fate that Leon was spared by his previous death.

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  • Xenophon: Hellenika . Book I. 5. § 16 and ibid. Chap. 6, § 16; 6. Section 30; 7. § 2.
  • Diodor: Libraries . Book XIII. 74, 101.