Timophanes was an

Ancient Corinth Corinth ( ; ; ; ) was a city-state (''polis'') on the Isthmus of Corinth, the narrow stretch of land that joins the Peloponnese peninsula to the mainland of Greece, roughly halfway between Ancient Athens, Athens and Sparta. The modern city ...

ian and brother of the renowned

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

statesman and general

Timoleon Timoleon ( Greek: Τιμολέων), son of Timodemus, of Corinth (–337 BC) was a Greek statesman and general. As a brilliant general, a champion of Greece against Carthage, and a fighter against despotism, he is closely connected with the h ...

Background

During the 360s BC, the

city-state A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world throughout history, including cities such as Rome, ...

Corinth Corinth ( ; , ) is a municipality in Corinthia in Greece. The successor to the ancient Corinth, ancient city of Corinth, it is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese (region), Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Sin ...

found herself in an unfamiliar and radically changing world. In the forty plus years since the end of the

Peloponesian War The Second Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), often called simply the Peloponnesian War (), was an ancient Greek war fought between Athens and Sparta and their respective allies for the hegemony of the Greek world. The war remained undecided ...

, the political power houses of the eastern

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

had changed fairly drastically. The city-states of

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

Sparta Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...

and Thebes had each contended to become the political and military leaders of Hellas. This, in conjunction with interference from the

Achaemenid Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian peoples, Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, i ...

in the form of the so-called King's Peace, dictated by

Artaxerxes II Arses (; 445 – 359/8 BC), known by his regnal name Artaxerxes II ( ; ), was King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire from 405/4 BC to 358 BC. He was the son and successor of Darius II () and his mother was Parysatis. Soon after his accession, Ar ...

, and the rise of Jason of Pherae had created an unprecedented complex political environment on the Greek peninsula. To the end of protecting her own interests, Corinth, a '' demokratia'', gave Timophanes a force of four hundred

mercenaries A mercenary is a private individual who joins an War, armed conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any other official military. Mercenaries fight for money or other forms of payment rath ...

. He was given the command because of his popularity among his fellow citizens who perceived him as brave due to his military exploits. Corinth expected that Timophanes and the soldiers would serve as a deterrent to the city's many rivals in the

Peloponnese The Peloponnese ( ), Peloponnesus ( ; , ) or Morea (; ) is a peninsula and geographic region in Southern Greece, and the southernmost region of the Balkans. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth land bridg ...

and

Attica Attica (, ''Attikḗ'' (Ancient Greek) or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the entire Athens metropolitan area, which consists of the city of Athens, the capital city, capital of Greece and the core cit ...

, with

being named by

Xenophon Xenophon of Athens (; ; 355/354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian. At the age of 30, he was elected as one of the leaders of the retreating Ancient Greek mercenaries, Greek mercenaries, the Ten Thousand, who had been ...

as a particular threat.

Assassination

However, Timophanes was, as noted by

Diodorus Siculus Diodorus Siculus or Diodorus of Sicily (; 1st century BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek historian from Sicily. He is known for writing the monumental Universal history (genre), universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty ...

a man "of outstanding wealth" and used this to turn the mercenaries towards their previous employers. Diodorus relates how Timophanes would walk about the Corinthian market with “a band of ruffians” aiming towards installing himself as tyrant. He would go as far as putting to death a “great number of leading citizens”. He was publicly assassinated by his brother Timoleon with the assistance of Aeschylus, Timophanes' brother-in-law and the diviner Satyrus. According to

Plutarch Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...

, Timoleon did not commit the deed himself but led the assassins into his brother's house with the pretext of desiring a meeting.

References

4th-century BC Greek people Late Classical Greece Ancient Greek tyrants Ancient Corinthians Year of birth unknown 360s BC deaths {{AncientGreece-bio-stub