Chares of Athens Chares ( , lived in the 4th century BC ) and was an Athenian general , who for a number of years was a key commander of Athenian forces . First campaigns . Chares , an Athenian general , is first mentioned in historical records in 367 BC , when he was sent to the aid of the city of Phlius . The city was hard pressed by the Arcadians and Argives , assisted by the Theban commander at Sicyon . His forces were successful in relieving the city . ( It was during this campaign that Aeschines , the orator , first distinguished himself . ) After this successful action , Chares was recalled to take the command against Oropus ; and the recovery of their harbour by the Sicyonians from the Spartan garrison , immediately on his departure , shows how important his presence had been for the support of the Spartan cause in the north of the Peloponnese . In 361 BC , Chares was appointed to succeed the Athenian admiral Leosthenes , following the Leosthenes ' defeat by Alexander of Pherae . Sailing to Corcyra , he supported the city ' s oligarchic party . With Chares ' support , the oligarchs gained control but with much bloodshed . However , his action not only created hostility amongst Corcyra ' s democratic parties but he failed to maintain good relations with the oligarchs . As a result , the island was later lost to the Athenians when the Social War broke out . In 358 BC Chares was sent to Thrace as general with full power . He was able to force Charidemus to ratify the treaty which he had made with Athenodorus . In the following year , with the start of the Social War , he was appointed one of Athen ' s generals . In the second campaign of the War in 356 BC , following the death of Chabrias , he had joint command of the Athenian forces with Iphicrates and Timotheus . According to Diodorus , when , because of a bad storm , his colleagues refused to fight the enemy despite Chares eagerness to do so , Chares reported their failings to Athens , and they were recalled and subsequently brought to trial . In contrast to Diodorus , Cornelius Nepos considered that Chares did attack the enemy in spite of the weather , but was defeated . Then , in order to protect himself , he accused his colleagues of not supporting him . In the subsequent prosecution he was aided by Aristophon . Being now left in the sole command , and needing funds , which he was unwilling to seek from Athens , with the support of his mercenary troops , he responded by entering into the service of Artabazus , the rebellious satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia . The Athenians at first approved of this action , but afterwards ordered him to drop his connection with Artabazus following complaints from the Persian king Artaxerxes III Ochus . In this regard , it is probable that the threat from Artaxerxes III to support the confederates against Athens hastened the termination of the Social War . The quick end to the war was supported by Eubulus and Isocrates , by opposed by Chares and his party . In 353 BC , Chares was sent against Sestus , which , along with Cardia , had been unwilling to submit to Athens notwithstanding the ceding of the Thracian Chersonese to Athens in 357 BC . He took the town , massacred the men , and sold the women and children for slaves . Wars against the Macedonians . In the Olynthian War ( 349 BC ) , he was appointed general of the mercenaries sent from Athens to the aid of Olynthus ; but he seems to have achieved very little . His command was then passed to Charidemus , who in the ensuing year , 348 BC , was himself replaced as commander by Chares . In this campaign he gained some slight success on one occasion over King Philip II of Macedon ' s mercenaries , and celebrated it by a feast given to the Athenians with a portion of the money which had been sacrilegiously taken from Delphi , and some of which had found its way into his hands . On his " euthyne " ( the public scrutiny to which every public officer was submitted after having discharged his duties ) he was impeached by Cephisodotus , who complained , that " he was endeavouring to give his account after having got the people tight by the throat " . In 346 BC he was in command of Athenian forces again , this time in Thrace . When the Macedonian king , Philip , was preparing to march against Cersobleptes , complaints arrived at Athens from the Chersonese that Chares had withdrawn and was nowhere to be found . Athens was obliged to send a squadron in search of him with the extraordinary message , that " the Athenians were surprised that , while Philip was marching against the Chersonese , they did not know where their general and his forces were . " It is likely that he had been engaged in some private expedition seeking plunder . In the same year , and before the departure of the second embassy from Athens to Macedonia to discuss peace , a dispatch arrived from Chares discussing the hopeless condition of the affairs of Cersobleptes . After this , there are no historical records about Chares for several years , during which he probably resided at Sigeion , which , according to Theopompus , was his favourite residence . But in a speech by Demosthenes delivered in 341 BC , Chares is spoken of as possessing much influence at that time in the Athenian councils . Therefore , it is possible that Chares may have been one of those who authorized and defended the proceedings of Diopeithes against king Philip in Thrace . In 340 BC , he was appointed to the command of the force which was sent to aid Byzantium against Philip ; but he was distrusted by the Byzantines , and they refused to receive him . Chares was ineffective against the Macedonians — his only exploits it is said were against the allies of Athens , whom he appears to plundered unscrupulously . He was accordingly superseded by Phocion , who was very successful . In 338 BC , Chares was sent to aid Amphissa against Philip , who was defeated by Philip together with the Theban general , Proxenus . Of this defeat , which is mentioned by Aeschines , Demosthenes in his reply says nothing , but speaks of two battles in which the Athenians were victorious . In the same year , Chares was one of the commanders of the Athenian forces at the Battle of Chaeronea . Despite the disastrous result , Chares escaped censure , or at least prosecution , though Lysicles , one of his colleagues , was tried and condemned to death . Chares is mentioned by Arrian among the Athenian orators and generals whom Alexander required to be surrendered to him in 335 BC , although Demades persuaded Alexander not to press the demand against any but Charidemus . Plutarch , however , omits the name of Chares in his list . When Alexander invaded Asia Minor in 334 BC , Chares was living at Sigeion , and he is mentioned again by Arrian as one of those who came to meet the king and pay their respects to him on his way to Troy . After this Chares was a mercenary commander for Darius Codomannus at Mytilene , which had been captured in 333 BC by Pharnabazus and Autophradates , but which Chares was compelled to surrender in the ensuing year . After this event , no further information is available about Chares , but it is likely that he ended his days at Sigeion . Appraisal . As a general , Chares has been charged with rashness , especially in the needless exposure of his own person ; this said he appears to have been , during the greater portion of his career , the best commander that Athens had . In politics , we see him connected throughout with Demosthenes . Morally he must have been an incubus on any party to which he attached himself , notwithstanding the assistance he might sometimes render it through the orators whom he is said to have kept constantly in pay . His alleged profligacy , which was measureless , he unblushingly avowed and gloried in , openly ridiculing the austere Phocion . His bad faith passed into a proverb ; and his rapacity was extraordinary , even amidst the system then prevailing , when the citizens of Athens would neither fight their own battles nor pay the men who fought them , and her commanders had to support their mercenaries as best they could . His triumphal career under the banners of the republic may be seen as a symptom of the decline of Athens ' values and power .