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Dercylidas was a Spartan commander during the
5th and 4th century. For his cunning and inventiveness, he was nicknamed
Sisyphus. In 411 he was appointed harmost at Abydos. In 399, he was advised by
Antisthenes of Sparta that his command would be prolonged for another year at
least. From 399 to 397, Dercylidas superseded Thibron and led the Spartans
through Thrace to the west coast of Asia, where he plundered Bithynia and
Eolia. After allying himself with Tissaphernes and
Meidias, Dercylidas attacked
Pharnabazus. In 396,
King Agesilaus sent
Dercylidas from Amphipolis to the Hellespont. In 394 Dercylidas was himself
succeeded by King Agesilaus as supreme commander of the Spartan fleet.
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Deryclidas (fl.411-394) was a Spartan general best known for his
campaigns against the Persians during the Persian-Spartan War (400-387).
Dercylidas first appears in the spring of 411, during the Great
Peloponnesian
War, when he was sent to the Hellespont to try and stir up revolts against
Athenian authority. He was able to stir up revolts in Abydos and Lampsacus, on
the Asian side of the Dardanelles, although the Athenian commander
Strombichides was
quickly able to retake Lampsacus. Dercylidas served as harmost of Abydos while
Lysander was in command of
the Spartan war effort. During this period he was humiliated by the Persian
satrap Pharnabazus,
having had to stand guard duty with his shield as a result of a report from the
satrap. He next appears in 399, during the Persian-Spartan War. The first
Spartan commander in Asia Minor,
Thibron, was considered too
lax, and he was replaced by Dercylidas. His first act was to arrange a truce
with the satrap Tissaphernes so that he
could concentrate his efforts against the hated Pharnabazus. In his first
campaign in Aeolis he is said to have captured nine cities in eight days, and
taken the treasure of Queen Mania, a recently murdered satrap of Dardanus. At
the end of the campaigning season of 399 he arranged a truce with Pharnabazus
and spent the winter of 399-398 campaigning in Bithynia. In the spring of 398
he moved to Lampsacus, where he met commissioners from Sparta who confirmed him
in his post for another year, and commented on the superior discipline of the
army under his command compared to that of Thibron. The commissioners also
informed him that the Greek communities of the Thracian Chersonese (Gallipoli)
were asking for aid against the Thracians. Dercylidas crossed over to the
Chersonese and built a wall across the peninsula to protect its inhabitants
against raids. He then crossed back into Asia and besieged Atarneus, then held
by a group of Chian exiles. In 397 the Ionian Greeks sent ambassadors to Sparta
asking for help against Tissaphernes and suggesting that a Spartan attack on
his lands in Caria might convince the satrap to acknowledge the independence of
the Ionian Greeks. Dercylidas was ordered to carry out this invasion and led
his troops against Tissaphernes. This triggered a rare period of cooperation
between the satraps. The Spartans found themselves facing the combined forces
of Tissaphernes (recently appointed overall commander in the area) and
Pharnabazus, but no battle took place. Tissaphernes had been at Cunaxa, and had
no interest in attacking a strong force of hoplites in a good defensive
position. Instead peace talks began, although neither side appears to have been
interested in making any confessions. Dercylidas demanded that the Persians
should leave the Greek cities of Asia Minor alone, while the Persians demanded
that the Spartans should withdraw their troops and their governors from the
area. Both sides then agreed to put these terms to their home governments.
During this brief truce news reached Sparta of a Persian plan to prepare a
fleet of 300 triremes in Phoenicia. In response Agesilaus II was sent to Asia Minor at the head of a
sizable army. Dercylidas remained in Asia long enough to act as one of three
commissions during Agesilaus's brief truce with Tissaphernes. He served under
Agesilaus for a brief period after this, and took part in an successful ambush
of Mysians who had attempted to attack his column in some narrow valleys. He
then returned to Sparta. In 394 he was sent to bring the news of the fighting
around Corinth and the inconclusive Spartan victory at the battle of
Nemea to Agesilaus
(Corinthian War). He
caught up with the king at Amphipolis during his march back into Greece from
Asia Minor. Dercylidas then agreed to carry the same news to Sparta's allies in
the area. Shortly afterwards the Spartan fleet was destroyed at Cnidus, and many of
Sparta's allies in Asia Minor and the Hellespont area changed sides. One of the
few exceptions was Abydos, where Dercylidas was able to maintain Spartan
control. Dercylidas was said to have been rough but cunning, unmarried, and
very happy to be away from Sparta.
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