Iphicrates

Family: Athenians · Role: commander of the peltasts · First appears: Book 4, section 5, part 2/2

At Corinth, Callias drew up the heavy infantry while Iphicrates and his peltasts attacked the returning Lacedaemonian division. At Lechaeum, the attack destroyed the division, with about 250 men killed; subsequently, Iphicrates captured the Lacedaemonian garrisons at Sidus, Crommyon, and Oenoe. In 389–388 BC, he sprang an ambush against Anaxibius’s column on the plain of Cremaste, and later blockaded Nicolochus and his fleet at Abydos with Diotimus.

In 373 BC, the Athenians deposed Timotheus and appointed Iphicrates in his stead. At Cephallenia he learned of Mnasippus’s death and rested his troops, then reduced the island’s towns and sailed to Corcyra. There he captured the Syracusan crews and ships; Melanippus the Rhodian escaped, while Iphicrates kept Crinippus under guard and released the other crews on ransom terms, accepting the Corcyraeans as sureties. He then crossed into Acarnania to aid friendly states. In 372 BC, he sailed back to Cephallenia with a fleet of about ninety ships and exacted money, sometimes voluntarily and sometimes by force.

Iphicrates advised bringing Callistratus and Chabrias in as colleagues. In 371 BC, Callistratus obtained furlough from him to seek peace or money for the fleet. After the peace, the Athenians recalled Iphicrates and his fleet and forced him to restore what had been captured after the undertaking at Lacedaemon.