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The Battle of the Eurymedon was a double battle, taking place both on water and land, between the Delian League of Athens and her Allies, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I. It took place in either 469 or 466 BC, in the vicinity of the mouth of the Eurymedon River (now the Köprüçay) in Pamphylia, Asia Minor. It forms part of the Wars of the Delian League, itself part of the larger Greco-Persian Wars. The Delian League had been formed between Athens and many of the city-states of the Aegean to continue the war with Persia, which had begun with the first and second Persian invasions of Greece (492–490 and 480–479 BC, respectively). In the aftermath of the Battles of Plataea and Mycale, which had ended the second invasion, the Greek Allies had taken the offensive, besieging the cities of Sestos and Byzantium. The Delian League then took over responsibility for the war, and continued to attack Persian bases in the Aegean throughout the next decade. In either 469 or 466 BC, the Persians began assembling a large army and navy for a major offensive against the Greeks. Gathering near the Eurymedon, it is possible that the expedition aimed to move up the coast of Asia Minor, capturing each city in turn. This would bring the Asiatic Greek regions back under Persian control, and give the Persians naval bases from which to launch further expeditions into the Aegean. Hearing of the Persian preparations, the Athenian general Cimon took 200 triremes and sailed to Phaselis in Pamphylia, which eventually agreed to join the Delian League. This effectively blocked the Persian strategy at its first objective. Cimon then moved to pre-emptively attack the Persian forces near the Eurymedon. Sailing into the mouth of the river, Cimon quickly routed the Persian fleet gathered there. Most of the Persian fleet made land-fall, and the sailors fled to the shelter of the Persian army. Cimon then landed the Greek marines and proceeded to attack the Persian army, which was also routed. The Greeks captured the Persian camp, taking many prisoners, and were able to destroy 200 beached Persian triremes. This stunning double victory seems to have greatly demoralised the Persians, and prevented any further Persian campaigning in the Aegean until at least 451 BC. However, the Delian League do not appear to have pressed home their advantage, probably because of other events in the Greek world that required their attention. ==Sources & Chronology== Unfortunately, the military history of Greece between the end of the second Persian invasion of Greece and the Peloponnesian War (479–431 BC) is poorly attested by surviving ancient sources. This period, sometimes referred to as the ''pentekontaetia'' by ancient scholars, was a period of relative peace and prosperity within Greece.〔Finley, p. 16.〕〔Kagan, p. 77.〕 The richest source for the period, and also the most contemporary with it, is Thucydides's ''History of the Peloponnesian War'', which is generally considered by modern historians to be a reliable primary account.〔Sealey, p. 264.〕〔Fine, p. 336.〕〔Finley, pp. 29–30.〕 Thucydides only mentions this period in a digression on the growth of Athenian power in the run up to the Peloponnesian War, and the account is brief, probably selective and lacks any dates.〔*>Sealey, pp. 248–250〕〔Fine, p. 343.〕 Nevertheless, Thucydides's account can be, and is used by historians to draw up a skeleton chronology for the period, on to which details from archaeological records and other writers can be superimposed.〔*/> Much extra detail for the period is provided by Plutarch, in his biographies of Aristides and especially Cimon. Plutarch was writing some 600 years after the events in question, and is therefore very much a secondary source, but he often explicitly names his sources, which allows some degree of verification of his statements.〔e.g. (Themistocles 25 ) has a direct reference to Thucydides (I, 137 )〕 In his biographies, he explicitly draws on many ancient histories that have not survived, and thus often preserves details of the period that Thucydides's brief account omits. The final major extant source for the period is the universal history (''Bibliotheca historica'') of the 1st century BC Sicilian, Diodorus Siculus. Much of Diodorus's writing concerning this period seems to be derived from the much earlier Greek historian Ephorus, who also wrote a universal history.〔Fine, p. 360.〕 However, from what little we know of Ephorus, historians are generally disparaging towards his history.〔 Diodorus, who has often been dismissed by modern historians,〔Green, p. ''xxiv''.〕 is therefore not a particularly good source for this period. Indeed, one of his translators, Oldfather, says of Diodorus's account of the Eurymedon campaign that "...the three preceding chapters reveal Diodorus in the worst light...".〔Oldfather, note to Diodorus (XI, 62 )〕 There is also a reasonable body of archaeological evidence for the period, of which inscriptions detailing probable tribute lists of the Delian League are particularly important.〔〔Fine, pp. 357–358.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of the Eurymedon」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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