Chabrias' Peltasts
Corollary to this explanation of Chabrias' status in 378 and to the date of his recall as established above, is the observation that when he led at Eleutherai the preceding winter (Xenophon Hell. 5.4.14), he was a commander of mercenaries, not of Athenian citizen troops. It has been popular to suppose otherwise, namely, that he had already been elected
(Krause 1914, 16; Cloché 1919, 230; Beloch 1923, 229-30; Parke 1933, 62) and that the
he commanded were mostly, if not exclusively, Athenians (Parke 1933, 76, accepted by Pritchett 1974, 104-5, and Ober 1985a, 94 and note 22). Reasons for rejecting the assumption that Chabrias was already an elected general have just been given. Best (1969, 93-96) has already argued against Parke, on other grounds, that Chabrias' peltasts were more likely foreign mercenaries than Athenian recruits or, as Parke suggests, volunteers.
To all of these arguments we may add the observation that Chabrias, on this occasion, was clearly among the Athenians who were supporting the Theban uprising and offering resistance to Spartan forces, both those in the Kadmeia and those led by Kleombrotos. Xenophon (Hell . 5.4.9 and 19) specifies that two (unnamed) Athenian
led the Athenians in their support of the Thebans and were later held accountable, and condemned, for their actions. That Chabrias did not share their fate implies that he did not share their authority at this moment.
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In other words, he was not yet an elected
and he did not have the authority to lead either an Athenian citizen levy or a force of Athenian volunteers (however they might have been constituted) such as the generals are supposed to have led.
If Chabrias did not have the authority to lead citizen forces raised for this occasion, then his troops must have been, as Best argues, mercenaries. Athenians (like Chabrias himself) could and did serve as mercenaries and were certainly included in Chabrias' corps at this time (candidates include Nikias, an in-law of Aischines, named by Demosthenes 19.287; Nikostratos and Chariades of Isaios 4.7, 18, 26, 29; Astyphilos of Araphen of Isaios 9.14—all probably officers). It is highly likely, moreover, that some or all of the
taken by Chabrias along with his peltasts to Cyprus in 388 (Xenophon
Hell . 5.1.10) remained in his service—as mercenaries—in Egypt and returned with him now to Athens.
Chabrias' peltasts are another matter, however. There is some likelihood that many of the eight hundred peltasts taken by Chabrias from Corinth to Cyprus in 388 returned with him from Egypt in 379. These were foreign troops, the
of Aristophanes
Wealth 173. Parke (1933, 56), followed by Best (1969, 92), points to Chabrias' prior service in Hellespontine Thrace as the likely origin of both his qualifications as a commander of peltasts and of the peltasts themselves (cf. Parke 1933, 51). On the other hand, not all Athenian peltasts were recruited overseas. Lysias 19.21 describes preparations at Athens for the ill-fated mission to Euagoras that preceded that of Chabrias (cf. Xenophon
Hell . 4.8.24), which included the hiring and arming of a peltast force. In all likelihood, these men were hired on the spot in Peiraieus, where a mixed crowd of foreigners and Athenians was ready to serve for hire as sailors or as soldiers (cf. Xenophon
Hell . 1.2.1, 2.4.25, 4.8.34; Demosthenes 50.7, 10-16).
Diodoros 15.29.1 states that the mercenaries led by Chabrias in Egypt included "many Greeks." Out of this mixed lot there must have been a fair number of Athenians, both hoplites and peltasts, who would have been strongly motivated to return home, in paid service, with their commander. Ignorant of their total number, we are likewise ignorant of the proportion of these mercenaries that was Athenian. But, for present purposes, this issue really does not matter. They were seasoned mercenaries, not a citizen levy. That Xenophon describes the peltasts led by Chabrias in 379/8 as
is surely an acceptable description of "peltasts hired by the Athenians," just as
means "the cavalry commanded by the Lakedaimonians," (Xenophon
Hell . 6.4.13), which Xenophon acknowledges was made up mostly of allies and men hired for service (
Hell . 6.4.9-11,
Hipparch . 9.4).
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