Lamachus

Family: Athenian · Role: commander · First appears: Book 4 · Chapter 14 · Part 1

In Book 4, Lamachus sailed with ten ships into the Pontus alongside Demodocus and Aristides. Not long after, a sudden flood swept down the river Calex and destroyed his ships at anchor.

Early in the spring of the following summer, the Athenians appointed Lamachus, son of Xenophanes, to command their expedition to Sicily with Alcibiades and Nicias. At Rhegium, the Rhegians refused to take sides, and the generals learned that Egesta could provide only thirty talents. The expedition was received at Naxos but refused entry to Catana; at Syracuse, the Athenians proclaimed that they had come to restore the Leontines and invited them to leave the city.

At Epipolae, Lamachus came from the Athenian left to aid the right wing, crossed a ditch, and was killed with five or six of his men. The Athenians later returned Lamachus and the others who had fallen with him to the Syracusans under truce.