Clearchus

• A Spartan captain, Front. Strat. 4, 1.—
• II A tyrant of Heraclea Pontica, Just. 16, 4 sq.—
• III A philosopher of Soli, Gell. 4, 11.

(Κλέαρχος), a Spartan, son of Ramphias. In the congress which the Spartans held at Corinth, in B. C. 412, it was determined to employ him as commander in the Hellespont after Chios and Lesbos should be gained from the Athenians ; and in the same year the eleven commissioners, who were sent out from Sparta to take cognizance of the conduct of Astyochus, were entrusted with the discretionary power of despatching a force to the Hellespont under Clearchus. (Thuc. 8.8, 39.) In B. C. 410, he was present at the battle of Cyzicus under Mindarus, who appointed him to lead that part of the force which was specially opposed to Thrasybulus. (Diod. 13.51; Xen. Hell. 1.1.16, &c.; Plut. Alc. 28.) In the same year, on the proposal of Agis, he was sent to Chalcedon and Byzantium, with the latter of which states he had a connexion of hospitality, to endeavour to cut off the Athenian supplies of corn in that quarter, and he accordingly fixed his residence at Byzantium as harmost. When the town was besieged by the Athenians, B. C. 408, Clearchus reserved all the provisions, when they became scarce, for the Lacedaemonian soldiers; and the consequent sufferings of the inhabitants, as well as the general tyranny of his rule, led some parties within the place to surrender it to the enemy, and served afterwards to justify them even in the eyes of Spartan judges when they were brought to trial for the alleged treachery. At the time of the surrender, Clearchus had crossed over to Asia to obtain money from Pharnabazus and to collect a force sufficient to raise the siege. He was afterwards tried for the loss of the town, and fined. (Xen. Hell. 1.1.35, 3.15, &c.; Diod. 13.67; Plut. Alc. 31; Polyaen. 1.47, 2.2.) In B. C. 406 he was present at the battle of Arginusae, and was named by Callicratidas as the man most fit to act as commander, should he himself be slain. (Diod. 13.98.) On the conclusion of the Peloponnesian war, Clearchus, to whom peace was ever irksome, persuaded the Spartans to send him as general to Thrace, to protect the Greeks in that quarter against the Thracians. But by the time he had reached the isthmus, the ephors repented their selection of him, and sent an order for his recall. He proceeded however to the Hellespont in spite of it, and was consequently condemned to death by the authorities at home. At Byzantium, where he took up his residence, he behaved with great cruelty, and, having put to death many of the chief citizens and seized their property, he raised a body of mercenaries with the money, and made himself master of the place. The Spartans, according to Diodorus, having remonstrated with him to no purpose, sent a force against him under Panthoides; and Clearchus, thinking it no longer safe to remain in Byzantium, withdrew to Selymbria. Here he was defeated and besieged, but effected his escape by night, and passing over to Asia, proceeded to the court of Cyrus. The prince, whose object was to collect, without exciting suspicion, as many troops as possible for his intended expedition against his brother, supplied Clearchus with a large sum of money, with which he levied mercenaries, and employed them, till Cyrus should need their services, in protecting the Greeks of the Thracian Chersonesus against the neighbouring barbarians. Plutarch says,--a statement not very easy to be reconciled with the sentence of death which had been passed against him,--that he received also an order from Sparta to promote in all points the objects of Cyrus. When the prince had set out on his expedition, Clearchus joined him at Celaenae in Phrygia with a body of 2000 men in all, being, according to Xenophon (Xen. Anab. 3.1.10), the only Greek who was aware of the prince's real object. When the actual intention of Cyrus began to be suspected, the Greeks refused to march further, and Clearchus, attempting to force his own troops to proceed, narrowly escaped stoning at their hands. Professing then to come into their wishes, and keeping up a show of variance between himself and Cyrus, he gradually led, not his own forces only, but the rest of his countrymen as well, to perceive the difficulties of their position should they desert the service of the prince, and thus ultimately induced them to advance. When Orontes was brought to trial for his treason, Clearchus was the only Greek admitted into the number of judges, and he was the first to advise sentence of death against the accused. At the battle of Cunaxa, B. C. 401, he commanded the right wing of the Greeks, which rested on the Euphrates; from this position he thought it unsafe to withdraw, as such a step would have exposed him to the risk of being surrounded; and he therefore neglected the directions of Cyrus, who had desired him to charge with all his force the enemy's centre. Plutarch blames him exceedingly for such an excess of caution, and attributes to it the loss of the battle. When the Greeks began their retreat, Clearchus was tacitly recognized as their commander-in-chief, and in this capacity he exhibited his usual qualities of prudence and energy, as well as great strictness in the preservation of discipline. At length, however, being desirous of coming to a better understanding with Tissaphernes, and allaying the suspicions which existed between him and the Greeks in spite of their solemn treaty, Clearchus sought an interview with the satrap, the result of which was an agreement to punish the parties on both sides who had labored to excite their mutual jealousy; and Tissaphernes promised that, if Clearchus would bring his chief officers to him, he would point out those who had instilled suspicion into him against their countrymen. Clearchus fell into the snare, and induced four of the generals and twenty of the lochagi to accompany him to the interview. The generals were admitted and arrested, while the other officers, who had remained without, were massacred. Clearchus and his colleagues were sent to the court of Artaxerxes, and, notwithstanding the efforts of the queen-mother, Parysatis, in their favour, were all beheaded, with the exception of Menon, who perished by a more lingering death. In this account Xenophon and Ctesias in the main agree; but from the latter Plutarch reports besides several apocryphal stories. One of these is, that, while the bodies of the other generals were torn by dogs and birds, a violent wind raised over that of Clearchus a tomb of sand, round which, in a miraculously short space of time, an overshadowing grove of palm-trees arose; so that the king repented much when he knew that he had slain a favourite of the gods. (Xen. Anab. 1.1.9, 2.9, 3. §§ 1-21, 5. §§ 11-17, 6. §§ 1-11, 8. §§ 4-13, 2.1-6.15; Diod. 14.12, 22_26; Plut. Art. 8, 18.) [E.E]

(Κλέαρχος), a citizen of Heracleia on the Euxine, was recalled from exile by the nobles to aid them in quelling the seditious temper and demands of the people. According to Justin, he made an agreement with Mithridates I. of Pontus to betray the city to him on condition of holding it under him as governor. But, perceiving apparently that he might make himself master of it without the aid of Mithridates, he not only broke his agreement with the latter, but seized his person, and compelled him to pay a large sum for his release. Having deserted the oligarchical side, he came forward as the man of the people, obtained from them the command of a body of mercenaries, and, having got rid of the nobles by murder and banishment, raised himself to the tyranny. He used his power as badly, and with as much cruelty as he had gained it, while, with the very frenzy of arrogance, he assumed publicly the attributes of Zeus, and gave the name of Κεραυνός to one of his sons. He lived in constant fear of assassination, against which he guarded in the strictest way. But, in spite of his precautions, he was murdered by Chion and Leon in B. C. 353, after a reigns of twelve years. He is said to have been a pupil both of Plato and of Isocrates, the latter of whom asserts that, while he was with him, he was one of the gentlest and most benevolent of men. (Diod. 15.81, 16.36; Just. 16.4, 5; Polyaen. 2.30; Memn. apud Phot. Bibl. 224; Plut. de Alex. Fort. 2.5, ad Princ. inerud. 4; Theopomp. apud Athen. iii. p. 85; Isocr. Ep. ad Timoth. p. 423, ad fin.; Suid. s. v. Κλέαρχος; Wesseling, ad Diod. ll. cc. ; Perizon. ad Ael. V. H. 9.13.) [E.E]

(Κλέαρχος), of Soli, one of Aristotle's pupils, was the author of a number of works, none of which are extant, on a very great variety of subjects. he seems to have been the same person whom Athenaeus (i. p. 4a.) calls τρεχέδειπνος, or the diner out. Works

A list of his principal writings is subjoined, all the references which may be found in Vossius (dc Hist. Graec. pp. 83, 84, ed. Westermann) being omitted for the sake of brevity:-- 1. Βίοι

Βίοι, a biographical work, extending to at least eight books. (See Athen. 12.548d.) 2. A commentary on Plato's "Timaeus." (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. iii. p. 95.) 3. Πλάτωνος ἐγκώμιον

Πλάτωνος ἐγκώμιον (D. L. 3.2.) 4. Περὶ τῶν ἐν τῇ Πλάτωνος Πολιτείᾳ μαθηματικῶς εἰρημένων

Περὶ τῶν ἐν τῇ Πλάτωνος Πολιτείᾳ μαθηματικῶς εἰρημένων. 5. Γεργίθιος

Γεργίθιος, a treatise on flattery, so called, according to Athenaeus (vi. p. 255), from Gergithius, one of Alexander's courtiers. 6. Περὶ παιδείας

Περὶ παιδείας. (D. L. 1.9; Athen. 15.697e.) 7. Περὶ φιλίας

Περὶ φιλίας. 8. Παροιμίαι

Παροιμίαι. 9. Πεπὶ γρίφων

Πεπὶ γρίφων, on riddles. 10. Ἐρωτικά

Ἐρωτικά, probably historical, a collection of lovestories, not unmixed with the discussion of some very odd questions on the subject (e. g. Athen. 12.553f.). 11. Περὶ γραφῶν

Περὶ γραφῶν, on paintings. (Athen. 14.648f.) 12. Περιγραφαί

Περιγραφαί? The reading in Athenaeus (vii. ad init.) is doubtful ; see Dalechamp and Casaubon, ad loc. 13. Περὶ νάρκησς

Περὶ νάρκησς, on the Torpedo. 14. Περὶ τῶν ἐνύδρων

Περὶ τῶν ἐνύδρων, on water-animals. 15. Περὶ Δινῶν

Περὶ Δινῶν, on sand-wastes. 16. Περὶ σκελετῶν

Περὶ σκελετῶν, an anatomical work. (Casaub. ad Athen. ix. p. 399.) 17. Περὶ ὕπνου

Περὶ ὕπνου, the genuineness of which, however, has been called in question. (Fabr. Bibl. Graec. iii. p. 481.) This is the work to which Clement of Alexandria refers (Strom. 1.15) for the account of the philosophical Jew, with whom Aristotle was said to have held much communication, and therein, by his own confession, to have gained more than he imparted. On Military Tactics

It has been doubted also whether the work on military tactics referred to by Aelianus Tacticus (ch. 1) should be ascribed to the present Clearchus or to the tyrant of Heracleia. Further Information

See Voss. l.c. ; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. iii. p. 481. [E.E]

(Κλέαρχος), an Athenian comic poet of the new comedy, whose time is unknown. Fragments are preserved from his Κιθαρῳδός (Athen. 10.426a., xiv. p. 623c.), Κορινθίοι (xiv. p. 613b.), Πάνδροσος (xiv. p. 642b.), and from a play, the title of which is unknown. (i. p. 28e.; Eustath. ad Odyss. p. 1623, 47; Meineke, Com. Graec. i. p. 490, iv. pp. 562, 849.) [P.S]

a sculptor in bronze at Rhegium, is important as the teacher of the celebrated Pythagoras, who flourished at the time of Myron and Polycletus. Clearchus was the pupil of the Corinthian Eucheir, and belongs probably to the 72nd and following Olympiads. The whole pedigree of the school to which he is to be ascribed is given by Pausanias. (6.4.2. Comp. Heyne, Opusc. Acad. v. p. 371.) [L.U]

(Κλέαρχος). A Spartan, who distinguished himself in several important commands during the latter part of the Peloponnesian War, and at the close of it persuaded the Spartans to send him as a general to Thrace, to protect the Greeks in that quarter against the Thracians. But having been recalled by the ephors, and refusing to obey their orders, he was condemned to death. He thereupon crossed over to Cyrus, collected for him a large force of Greek mercenaries, and marched with him into Upper Asia, in B.C. 401, in order to dethrone his brother Artaxerxes, being the only Greek who was aware of the prince's real object. After the battle of Cunaxa and the death of Cyrus, Clearchus and the other Greek generals were made prisoners by the treachery of Tissaphernes, and were put to death. See Xenophon's Anabasis, bks. i. and ii.

• sculptor: Paus. 3.17.6
• pupil of Euchirus: Paus. 6.4.4