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The battle of Tanagra in 426 was a minor Athenian victory won close to
the city of Tanagra in Boeotia. Tanagra was located close to the border between
Attica and Boeotia, and had been the site of a battle during the
First
Peloponnesian War. This second battle of Tanagra came at the end of an
otherwise unsuccessful Athenian naval expedition during the Great Peloponnesian
War. A fleet of sixty ships carrying 2,000 hoplites and commanded by Nicias,
son of Niceratus, was sent to attack the island of Melos, to the south-east of
Athens. Regions of Ancient Greece Regions of Ancient Greece Melos had never
been part of the Athenian Empire, and had no intention of joining now. The
Athenian troops landed on the island and laid the country waste, but the
Melians refused to come to terms. The Athenian fleet then sailed back to the
north-west, around the northern coast of Attica, and landing at Oropus, at the
northern edge of Attica. The Athenians then marched to the area of Tanagra,
where they met up with the main army from Athens, responding to a prearranged
signal. This army was commanded by Hipponicus son of Callias and Eurymedon son
of Thucles. The combined Athenian army spent one day devastating the
countryside around Tanagra, presumably in the hope that this would bring on a
battle. If this was the plan then it was successful. On the following day an
army came out of Tanagra, most made up of local troops, but with a contingent
from Thebes. The two sides clashed somewhere near the city, and the Athenians
were victorious. They erected a trophy to commemorate the victory, and the army
then split up. The contingent from Athens returned to the city, while the fleet
moved north-west along the coast to devastate Locris before also returning to
Athens.
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