Ancient Spartan generals

Spartan general and regent (died c. 477 BC)

Brasidas (, died 422 BC) was a Spartan general and statesman and is considered to be the most distinguished Spartan commander of the first decade of the Peloponnesian War. He died during the Second Battle of Amphipolis while winning one of his most spectacular victories. thumb|Silver ossuary and gold crown of Brasidas in the Archaeological Museum of Amphipolis.

king of Sparta

Antiquity-era Spartan general

Gylippus (; was a Spartan general (strategos) of the 5th century BC; he was the son of Cleandridas, who was the adviser of King Pleistoanax and had been expelled from Sparta for accepting Athenian bribes in 446 BC and fled to Thurii, a pan-Hellenic colony then being founded in the instep of Italy with Athenian help and participation. His mother may have been a helot, which meant he was not a true Spartiate but a mothax, a man of inferior status. Despite this, from an early childhood he was trained for war in the traditional Spartan fashion and on reaching maturity had been elected to a militar

Spartan general

Mindarus () was a Spartan navarch who commanded the Peloponnesian fleet in 411 and 410 BC, during the Peloponnesian War. After successfully shifting the focus of the war to the Hellespont, he suffered a series of defeats. In the third and final defeat, he was killed, and the entire Peloponnesian fleet was either captured or destroyed.

Phoebidas () was a Spartan general who, in 382 BC, seized the Theban acropolis, thus giving Sparta control over Thebes. As punishment for his unauthorized action, Phoebidas was relieved of command. Nevertheless, the Spartans continued to hold Thebes. The Spartan king Agesilaus argued against punishing Phoebidas, on the grounds that his actions had benefitted Sparta, arguing that that was the only standard by which he should be judged.

Dercylidas (Greek: Δερκυλίδας) was a Spartan commander during the late 5th and early 4th century BCE. He was nicknamed Sisyphus for his cunning and inventiveness.

thumb|upright=1.5|The Attack on the Piraeus by Teleutias circa 389 BC. Teleutias () was the brother of the Spartan king Agesilaus II, and a Spartan naval commander in the Corinthian War. He first saw action in the campaign to regain control of the Corinthian Gulf after the Spartan naval disaster at Cnidus in 394 BC, and was later active in the Spartan campaign against Argos in 391 BC. (It appears likely that Teleutias was navarch in 392/1 BC.) Later that year, he was dispatched to the Aegean to take command of a Spartan fleet harassing Rhodes. Once in command, he attacked and seized a small At

Cleandridas or Cleandrides (Greek: Κλεανδρίδας or Κλεανδρίδης) was a Spartan general of the 5th century BCE, who advised the young Agiad king Pleistoanax during the early part of the latter's reign. According to Plutarch, both Cleandrides and Pleistoanax were banished from Sparta (most likely between the years 446 and 444 BC), for allegedly accepting a bribe from the Athenian leader Pericles to call off their planned attack on the Athenian region Attica. Although Pleistoanax was later recalled to Sparta, Cleandrides had a death sentence imposed upon him in his absence (Plutarch, Life of Pericl

late 5th-century BC Spartan general

Sphodrias () (d. 371 BC) was a Spartan general during the Spartan Hegemony over Greece. As governor of Thespiai in 378 BC, he made an unsuccessful attack against Athens without any order from Sparta. He was put on trial for this act, but unexpectedly acquitted, thanks to the support of the two Spartan kings, Cleombrotus I and Agesilaus II. This acquittal greatly upset Athens which rapidly concluded an alliance with Thebes against Sparta as a result.

Spartan commander during the Corinthian War

Diphridas was a Spartan general in the Corinthian War. In 391 BC, he was placed in command of Spartan forces in Asia Minor, whose previous commander, Thibron, had been killed in an ambush. Diphridas continued his predecessor's policy of launching plundering raids into the territory of Persian satrap in the region, Struthas. These raids were highly successful; Diphridas at one point captured Struthas's son-in-law, and with the plunder he took he was able to hire mercenaries to enlarge his force.

Euryanax (Ancient Greek: Εὐρυάναξ, Euryánax') "eury" meaning wandering, and "anax" meaning king in Dorian, was a son of the Spartan prince Dorieus of the Agiad dynasty, as well as a joint-commander with Pausanias at the Battle of Plataea.

Spartan admiral during the Corinthian War

redirectConspiracy of Cinadon

Mnasippus of Sparta () was appointed to the command of the armament which was sent to Corcyra, in 373 BC, to recover the island from the Athenians. Having landed there, he ravaged the country, and, blockading the city by sea and land, reduced the Corcyraeans to the greatest extremities. Imagining, however, that success was now within his grasp, he dismissed some of his mercenaries and kept the pay of the rest in arrear. It would appear, too, that discipline was less strictly preserved among his men than heretofore, for we read that the several posts of the besiegers were now imperfectly guarde

Gylis (also transcribed Gyllis or Gylus) was a Spartan polemarch under Agesilaus II at the Battle of Coronea in 394 BC in the Corinthian War.