A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Smith, William

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. William Smith, LLD, ed. 1890

(Δημοφῶν).

1. One of the two generals sent from Athens by a decree of the people, according to Diodorus, to aid the Thebans who were in arms for the recovery of the Cadmeia. (Diod. 15.26; Wesseling, ad loc.) This account is in some measure confirmed by Deinarchus (c. Dem. p. 95), who mentions a decree introduced by Cephalus to the above effect. Xenophon, however, says that the two Athenian generals on the frontier acted on their own responsibility in aiding the democratic Thebans, and that the Athenians soon after, through fear of Sparta, put one of them to death, while the other, who fled before his trial, was banished. (Xen. Hell. 5.4. §§ 9, 10, 19 Plut. Pel. 14.)