Charitimides

Charitimides (Ancient Greek: Χαριτιμίδης) (died 455 BCE) was an Athenian admiral of the 5th century BCE. At the time of the Wars of the Delian League, a continuing conflict between the Athenian-led Delian League of Greek city-states and the Achaemenid Empire, he was sent in 460 BCE to Egypt in command of a fleet of triremes (some authors say 40 ships, others 200 ships) to support Inaros II, a Libyan ruler who was leading a revolt against the Achaemenid rule over the country.[1][2] His fleet had been operating on the coasts of Cyprus, from where he was diverted to Egypt.[3]

The fleet of Charitimides was initially part of the Cyprus expedition led by Cimon.
Main actions of the Egyptian campaign of the Wars of the Delian League, to which Charitimides participated.

Charitimides led his fleet against the Achaemenids in the Nile river, and defeated a fleet of 50 Phoenician ships.[4][5] It was the last great naval encounter between the Greeks and the Achaemenids.[5][6] Of the 50 Phoenician ships, he managed to destroy 30, and capture the remaining 20 that faced him in that battle.[6]

When the Achaemenids returned with a large army under Megabyzus, they lifted the siege of Memphis where the remaining Persian garrison had been blockaded, and then besieged the Egyptians and their Greek allies in the Siege of Prosopitis in 455 BCE.[3] Charitimides perished in the battle against the Persians at Prosoptis.[6]

Other famous Greek generals who fought for the Egyptians are Chabrias and Agesilaus.[7]

See also

References
  1. Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War. Richard Crawley (trans.). 1.104. Retrieved 10 September 2010.
  2. Diodorus Siculus (1946). Library of History. 4. C. H. Oldfather (trans.). Loeb Classical Library. 11.71.3-6. ISBN 978-0-674-99413-3. Retrieved 10 September 2010.
  3. Vasunia, Phiroze; Vasunia, Reader in Classics and School Director of Research at Reading University Phiroze (2001). The Gift of the Nile: Hellenizing Egypt from Aeschylus to Alexander. University of California Press. p. 26. ISBN 9780520228207.
  4. G. (Gaston), Maspero (1900). The Passing of the Empires: 850 B.C. to 330 B.C. D. Appleton & Company. p. 731.
  5. Corby, Gary (2016). The Singer from Memphis. Soho Press. pp. 289–290. ISBN 9781616956691.
  6. Fornara, Charles W.; Badian, E.; Sherk, Robert K. (1983). Archaic Times to the End of the Peloponnesian War. Cambridge University Press. p. 74. ISBN 9780521299466.
  7. Vasunia, Phiroze (2001). The Gift of the Nile: Hellenizing Egypt from Aeschylus to Alexander. University of California Press. p. 27. ISBN 9780520228207.
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