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The battle of Idomene in 426 was a second victory in three days won by
Demosthenes against the
Ambraciots in the north-west of Greece in the
Peloponnesian War.
In the autumn of 426 a combined Ambraciot and Peloponnesian army had attempted
to capture the city of
Amphilochian
Argos at the south-eastern end of the Gulf of Ambracia. This army had
suffered a costly defeat at
Olpae, just to the
north of Amphilochian Argos. In the aftermath of this victory the Athenian
commander Demosthenes discovered that reinforcements were moving south from the
city of Ambracia. He dispatched an advance party up the coast to block them.
One of these parties camped on the higher of the two hills of Idomene. On the
day after the battle of Olpae the Ambraciot reinforcements also reached
Idomene, and camped on the lower of the two hills. That evening Demosthenes led
his men (mostly Acarnanians and Amphilochians with a small number of Messenians
and Athenians) on a night march. At dawn on the morning of the second day after
the battle his force launched a surprise attack on the Ambraciot camp. The
Messenians were put at the front of the allied army and were instructed to
speak in the Doric dialect (the same dialect as spoken by the Ambraciots). The
trick apparently worked, for the Ambraciots were caught entirely by surprise.
Large numbers of them were killed in their camp, and many of the rest as they
attempted to escape through the unfamiliar mountains. The Ambraciots lost
around 1,000 men in this disaster, and Thucydides described the two defeats as
the most costly to be suffered by any Greek city in such a short period of
time. Despite suffering these crushing defeats Ambracia was not occupied by the
victorious allies, apparently because the Acarnanians and Amphilochians didn't
entirely trust the Athenians to be good neighbours. Instead a peace treaty was
agreed between the Acarnanians, Amphilochians and Ambraciots, in which they
agreed to support each other against any invasions as long as the Athenians or
Peloponnesians were not involved.
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