While Philip was consolidating his grip in Macedonia and making it a formidable power, the major states in Greece were steadily weakening. Sparta never recovered from the loss at Leuctra in 371, and after the Battle of Mantinea in 362 its king, Agesilaus, who had spent nearly four decades fighting to maintain Sparta’s position, left Sparta and took service as a mercenary in the army of Tachos, the ruler of Egypt (Diod. XV 92-93) which had been in rebellion against the Persians for close on four decades (Diod. XIV 35 and 79). The Boeotian League, meanwhile, without the military genius of Epaminondas proved incapable of meeting the challenge which the Phocian War (see below) posed. The Athenians for their part had come off second best in their initial confrontation with Philip and were soon enough occupied by a major revolt among their allies, the so-called Social War. Byzantium, Chios, Cos, and Rhodes all revolted from the Second Athenian League, probably early in the year 356 (see Box 18.1). Mausolus, the Persian satrap of Caria, helped the rebels. The Athenians sent the generals Chabrias and Chares to Chios to besiege the city. However, the Chians broke the siege and defeated the Athenian infantry under Chares as well as the Athenian ships under Chabrias in the harbor; Chabrias himself fell in the fighting (Diod. XVI 7). For the moment, the rebels had free rein. With a fleet of a hundred ships they raided the Athenian islands of Imbros and Lemnos and actually besieged Samos. They apparently carried out other attacks on members of the Second Athenian League, but Diodorus gives no details. The Athenians managed to outfit sixty ships in addition to the sixty which had survived the engagement at Chios and sent them all against Byzantium. At this the rebels broke off the siege of Samos (Diod. XVI 21). The Athenian fleet then left the Propontis and sailed southwards
Towards Samos. However, just as a battle was being joined in the sound between Chios and the mainland, a major storm blew up (Nepos, Timoth. 3; Poly. III 9,29; on Diod. XVI 21, see Box 18.1). One Athenian general, Chares, wished to continue with the engagement, but his fellow commanders, Timotheus and Iphicrates, outvoted him. A furious Chares accused them of treason, and the Athenian assembly did indeed vote to remove them from office (probably in the winter of 356 to 355) (Diod. XVI 21).
World History
