Chabrias

Chabrias the Athenian. He too was reckoned among the foremost leaders and accomplished many things worthy of memory. But of these, one shines out most — his invention in the battle which he fought at Thebes, when he had come to the aid of the Boeotians. For in that engagement he baffled the supreme commander Agesilaus, who was confident of victory, the mercenary bands having already been routed by him, in this way: he forbade the rest of the phalanx to give ground, and taught them, with knee braced and shield set firm, with spear thrust forward, to receive the charge of the enemy. Agesilaus, observing this novelty, did not dare to advance, and by the trumpet recalled his men who were already charging. This was so celebrated by report throughout all Greece that Chabrias wished a statue of himself to be made in that attitude, which was set up for him publicly by the Athenians in the market-place. From this it came about that afterwards athletes and other artists, in setting up their statues, adopted those attitudes in which they had won their victories.

Chabrias, moreover, conducted many wars in Europe, while he was a leader of the Athenians; in Egypt he waged war of his own accord: for, having set out to aid Nectanebis, he established him in his kingdom. He did the same in Cyprus, but there he was given publicly by the Athenians as a helper to Evagoras, nor did he depart thence before he had subdued the whole island by war: by which deed the Athenians won great glory. Meanwhile war was kindled between the Egyptians and the Persians. The Athenians had an alliance with Artaxerxes, the Lacedaemonians with the Egyptians, from whom their king Agesilaus was taking great booty. Observing this, Chabrias, since in nothing he would yield to Agesilaus, of his own accord set out to aid the Egyptians and was put in command of the Egyptian fleet, while Agesilaus commanded the land forces.

Then the king's Persian officers sent envoys to Athens to complain that Chabrias was waging war against the king together with the Egyptians. The Athenians set a fixed day for Chabrias, and threatened that, unless he returned home before it, they would condemn him to death. At this message he returned to Athens, nor did he tarry there longer than was necessary. For he was not gladly before the eyes of his fellow-citizens, because he both lived sumptuously and indulged himself too freely to be able to escape the envy of the crowd. For this is a common fault of great and free states, that envy is the companion of glory, and they gladly disparage those whom they see standing too high, nor do the poor look with an even mind upon another's wealth. And so Chabrias, so far as he was permitted, was away most of the time. Nor indeed was he alone in being gladly absent from Athens, but nearly all the leading men did the same, thinking themselves to be removed from envy in proportion as they withdrew from the sight of their countrymen. And so Conon lived mostly in Cyprus, Iphicrates in Thrace, Timotheus at Lesbos, Chares at Sigeum — Chares indeed unlike these in both his deeds and his character, yet at Athens both honoured and powerful.

But Chabrias perished in the war of the allies in this manner. The Athenians were besieging Chios. Chabrias was in the fleet as a private man, but in authority he surpassed all who were in office, and the soldiers looked up to him more than to those who were in command. This very thing hastened his death. For while he was eager to be the first to enter the harbour and bade the helmsman steer the ship thither, he became the cause of his own ruin: for when he had penetrated within, the rest did not follow. By this, surrounded by an onset of the enemy, while he was fighting most bravely, his ship, struck by a ram, began to sink. From this, although he could have fled, had he flung himself into the sea — for the fleet of the Athenians was near at hand, to take up those swimming — he preferred to perish rather than to throw away his arms and abandon the ship in which he had sailed. This the rest were unwilling to do, who by swimming came to safety. But he, thinking an honourable death better than a base life, fighting hand to hand, was slain by the weapons of the enemy.