A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Ἀναξίβιος), was the Spartan admiral stationed at Byzantium, to whom the Cyrean Greeks, on their arrival at Trapezus on the Euxine, sent Cheirisophus, one of their generals, at his own proposal, to obtain a sufficient number of ships to transport them to Europe. (B. C. 400. Xen. Anab. 5.1.4.) Whhen however Cheirisophus met them again at Sinope, he brought back nothing from Anaxibius but civil words and a promise of employment and pay as soon as they came out of the Euxine. (Anab. 6.1.16.) On their arrival at Chrysopolis, on the Asiatic shore of the Bosporus, Anaxibius, being bribed by Pharnabazus with great promises to withdraw them from his satrapy, again engaged to furnish them with pay, and brought them over to Byzantium. Here he attempted to get rid of them, and to send them forward on their march without fulfilling his agreement. A tumult ensued, in which Anaxibius was compelled to fly for refuge to the Acropolis, and which was quelled only by the remonstrances of Xenophon. (Anab. 7.1.1-32.) Soon after this the Greeks left the town under the command of the adventurer Coeratades, and Anaxibius forthwith issued a proclamation, subsequently acted on by Aristarchus the Harmost, that all Cyrean soldiers found in Byzantium should be sold for slaves. (Anab. 7.1.36, 2.6.) Being however soon after superseded in the command, and finding himself neglected by Pharnabazus, he attempted to revenge himself by persuading Xenophon to lead the army to invade the country of the satrap; but the enterprise was stopped by the prohibition and threats of Aristarchus. (Anab. 7.2.5-14.) In the year 389, Anaxibius was sent out from Sparta to supersede Dercyllidas in the command at Abydus, and to check the rising fortunes of Athens in the Hellespont. Here he met at first with some successes, till at length Iphicrates, who had been sent against him by the Athenians, contrived to intercept him on his return from Antandrus, which had promised to revolt to him, and of which he had gone to take possession. Anaxibius, coming suddenly on the Athenian ambuscade, and foreseeing the certainty of his own defeat, desired his men to save themselves by flight. His own duty, he said, required him to die there; and, with a small body of comrades, he remained on the spot, fighting till he fell, B. C. 388. (Xen. Hell. 4.8.32-39.)

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