Phrynichus

Family: Four Hundred · Role: leader · First appears: Book 8 · Chapter 25 · Part 2

At Miletus, Phrynichus secretly informed Astyochus of Alcibiades’s intrigue, saying Alcibiades was harming their cause, and offered Astyochus an opportunity to destroy the Athenian force at Samos. When Alcibiades learned of this, he accused Phrynichus to the authorities at Samos and demanded his execution. Meanwhile, Phrynichus warned the army of an impending attack and urged it to fortify Samos; “Samos was thus fortified sooner than it would otherwise have been.”

Phrynichus was later dismissed from command alongside Scironides, after Pisander accused him of betraying Iasus and Amorges; Diomedon and Leon replaced them. When the Four Hundred took power at Athens, Phrynichus was among those involved in the oligarchic enterprise. Though afraid of Alcibiades, he proved “by far the staunchest of them all” when danger had to be faced.

As the Four Hundred sought peace with Lacedaemon, Phrynichus was sent with Antiphon and other envoys to negotiate on almost any tolerable terms. After returning from the embassy, he was stabbed in the marketplace by one of the Peripoli and died.