A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Τιμασίων), a citizen of Dardanus in the Troad, appears to have been a soldier of fortune, and served in Asia under CLEARCHUS and DERCYLLIDAS. He was exiled from his native city,--at what period we do not know,--and was one of those who entered the service of Cyrus the Younger. In the retreat of the 10,000, after the treacherous arrest of the five generals by Tissaphernes, Timasion was chosen commander in the room of Clearchus, and he and Xenophon, as the youngest of the new leaders, were appointed to command the rear-guard. When the Cyreans had reached Cotyora, and were waiting there for the transports which the Sinopian envoys had promised them, Timasion and Thorax, a Boeotian, took advantage of the report of Xenophon's project for the establishment of a Greek colony on the Euxine, to represent to some merchants of Sinope and Heracleia that the only way to prevent it was to furnish pay as well as ships to the army. The two cities in question, on this being reported to them, not only engaged to do what was desired, but even bribed Timasion to persuade the Greeks to accept the terms, and to sail away home. Afterwards, however, when they knew that Xenophon had abandoned his project, they would not fulfil their promise of paying the soldiers, and Timasion accordingly and the other generals, who had been involved in the same intrigues with him, and had ventured to hold out to the men brilliant prospects of abundant funds, tried to persuade Xenophon to resume his design. He refused, however, to bring the question at all before the army, and they then attempted to gain over the officers of their respective divisions, but a report of what they were about spread among the troops, and their indignant opposition defeated the plan. When the Cyreans separated into three divisions at Heracleia, Timasion continued with the one under Xenophon, and when it was advancing to rescue the Arcadians from the Bithynians, whose country they had attempted to plunder, and who had hemmed them round on a hill where they had taken refuge, he was sent forward with the cavalry to reconnoitre; and shortly after we find him again commanding the cavalry in the battle in which the Greeks defeated the forces of Pharnabazus and the Bithynians. On the discovery of the inability of COERATADAS to perform the promises by which he had induced the Cyreans to elect him as their leader, while the army was lying without the walls of Byzantium, Timasion, in opposition to the other generals, wished to cross over again to Asia, in the hope of returning to his native city with the treasures which we find he had collected in his expeditions. He entered with the rest of the army into the service of Seuthes [SEUTHES, No. 2], and took part in the hard winter campaign which reestablished the Thracian prince in his kingdom ; and when the disputes arose about the pay, which Seuthes wished to evade, and Heracleides, the instigator of the prince, endeavoured to cause disunion among the generals, Timasion positively refused to act apart from Xenophon. He, no doubt, crossed over to Asia with the army, when it entered into the Spartan service; and perhaps he then took an early opportunity to return home to Dardanus. (Xen. Anab. 3.1.47, 2.37, 5.6. §§ 19-37, 6.1.32, 3. §§ 14, 22, 5.28, 7.1.40, 2. §§ 1, 2, 3. §§ 18, 46, 5. §§ 4, 10.)

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