Strombichides

Strombichides ( Greek  Στρομβιχίδης ), son of Diotimos, was an admiral and politician of the city of Athens at the time of the Peloponnesian War (431 BC - 404 BC). He died in 404 BC. In mature manhood, so it could be around 450 BC. Have been born in BC.

As the historian Thucydides reports, he was born in 412 BC. Was appointed commander of a fleet of eight ships that were dispatched from Athens to the coast of Asia Minor in response to news of a revolt on the allied island of Chios . When he arrived in Samos , he took a Sami trireme into his association and then sailed to Teos , a town on the mainland near Chios, to get an idea of ​​the extent of the uprising. When a numerically outnumbered Spartan fleet soon appeared nearby, he was forced to evacuate Samos, whereupon the rebellion openly broke out in Teos as well.

Strombichides then blocked a Chier fleet in Miletus . It is not clear whether he also took part in the following Battle of Miletus , as he may have been relieved and returned to Athens. Later that year he is mentioned again as one of the three commanders who were sent to reinforce 35 ships of the Athenian fleet stationed in Samos, bringing the total number of ships there to 104. This naval power was now divided, with the greater part remaining in Samos in order to secure naval supremacy and wage war against Miletus, while Strombichides and two other commanders with 35 ships were sent to Chios. On their voyage they lost three ships in a storm, but with the remaining ships they reached Lesbos . There they began the preparations for a siege of Chios. After crossing over to the island, they set up a fortified base called the Delphinion, and from there they put pressure on the Chians.

411 BC The cities of Abydos and Lampsakos on the Hellespont rebelled and Strombichides had to advance with 24 ships from Chios. He succeeded in suppressing the revolt in Lampsakos, but was unable to persuade Abydos to return to the alliance with Athens, neither with good words nor with force. So he crossed over to Sestos and set up a garrison there to get the entire Hellespont under his control. From there he was soon called in to aid the Athenians on Samos, who were previously unable to withstand the Spartan forces under Astyochus .

The rhetor Lysias describes Strombichides in his speech "Against Nicomachus " as a "noble citizen" and reports that he was one of those friends of democracy who reacted with indignation to the peace conditions that had been agreed in 404 BC. After negotiations, the oligarchic politician Theramenes and his delegation brought to Athens from Sparta. Since Strombichides stood in the way of the oligarchic clique in Athens and their plans for overthrowing, he was charged with other prominent representatives of the Democratic Party on the basis of accusations by the informer Agoratos of "conspiracy against peace" and thrown in prison. Completely responsible for this was u. a. the town clerk Nikomachus, who systematically falsified legal texts and thereby made it possible for the people's assembly to vote on judgments among the thirty tyrants (404 BC - 403 BC). During this period, Strombichides was executed (following a sham process controlled by the Thirty Tyrants).

swell

• Lysias: Speech " Against Agoratos ", pp. 130-133.
• Thucydides: " History of the Peloponnesian War ". (Book VIII. 15, 16, 17, 30, 34, 38, 40, 55, 60, 61, 62, 79)
• Xenophon: " Hellenika ". Book VI. 3. § 2.

literature

• Herbert Heftner: The oligarchic overthrow of the year 411 BC And the rule of the four hundred in Athens. Source studies and historical research. Publishing house Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2001.