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Hegesandridas or Agesandridas was a son of
a "Hegesander" or "Agesander", perhaps the same who is
mentioned as a member of the last Spartan embassy sent to Athens before the
Peloponnesian War, was himself a Spartan general in that war. In 411 he was
placed in command of a fleet of 42 ships destined to further a revolt in
Euboea. News of their being seen off Las of Laconia came to Athens at the time
when the Four Hundred were building their fort of Eëtioneia on a
promontory commanding Piraeus, and the coincidence was used by
Theramenes in evidence
of their treasonable intentions. Further intelligence that the same fleet had
sailed over from Megara to Salamis coincided again with the riot in Piraeus,
and was held to be certain proof of the allegation of Theramenes. Thucydides
thinks it possible that the movement was really made in concert with the
Athenian oligarchs, but far more probable that Hegesandridas was merely
prompted by an indefinite hope of profiting by the existing dissensions. His
ulterior design was soon seen to be Euboea; the fleet doubled Sunium, and
finally came to harbor at Oropos in September of 411. A great alarm went up on
behalf of the threatened island of Euboea, and a fleet was hastily manned,
which amounted to thirty-six galleys, and the Battle of Eretria was begun. But
the new crews were inexperienced and poorly equipped; a stratagem of the
Eretrians kept the soldiers at a distance, at the very moment when, in
obedience to a signal from the town, the Spartan admiral moved to attack. He
obtained an easy victory: the Athenians lost 22 ships, and all of Euboea,
except Oreus, revolted. Extreme consternation seized the city. Athens,
Thucydides adds, had now once again to thank their enemy's tardiness. Had the
victors attacked Piraeus, either the city would have fallen victim to its
distractions, or by the recall of the fleet from Asia, everything except Attica
would have been placed in their hands. Hegesandridas was content with his
previous success. However, after the Spartan defeat at
Cynossema,
Hegesandridas was ordered to reinforce the Hellespontine fleet under the
Spartan admiral Mindarus.
Fifty of Hegesandridas' ships (partly Euboean) were dispatched, and all were
lost in a storm off Athos; so relates Ephorus. On the news of this disaster,
Hegesandridas appears to have sailed with what ships he could gather to the
Hellespont. Here, at any rate, we find him at the opening of Xenophon's
Hellenica; and here he defeated a small squadron recently come from Athens
under Thymochares, his opponent at Eretria. He is mentioned once again as
commander on the Thracian coast in 408.
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