(), an Athenian, son of Diotimus, was
appointed to command the eight ships which the Athenians sent to the coast of Asia, on the
news of the revolt of Chios, in B. C. 412. On his arrival at Samos
he added a Samian trireme to his squadron, and sailed to Teos to check the spirit of rebellion
there. But soon after he was compelled to flee to Samos from a superior Peloponnesian fleet,
under Chalcideus and Alcibiades, and Teos forthwith revolted. Not long after this
Strombichides seems to have returned to Athens, and later in the same year he was one of three
commanders who were sent to the Athenians at Samos with a reinforcement of thirty-five ships,
which increased their whole force to 104. This they now divided, retaining the greater part of
it at Samos to command the sea, and to carry on the war against Miletus, while Strombichides
and two others were despatched to Chios with thirty triremes. On their way they lost three of
their vessels in a storm; but with the rest they proceeded to Lesbos, and made preparations
for the siege of Chios, to which island they then crossed over, fortified a strong post named
Delphinium, and reduced the Chians for a time to great extremities. In B.
C. 411, on the revolt of Abydos and Lampsacus, Strombichides sailed from Chios with
twenty-four ships, and recovered Lampsacus, but was unable either to persuade or
compel Abydos to return to its allegiance; and accordingly he crossed over to Sestos, and
there established a garrison to command the whole of the Hellespont. Hence he was soon after
summoned to reinforce the Athenians at Samos, who were unable, before his arrival, to make
head against the superior force of the Peloponnesians under Astyochus. In Lysias we read that
Strombichides was one of those friends of democracy, who expressed their indignation at the
terms of peace with which Theramenes and his fellow-ambassadors returned to Athens from
Lacedaemon in B. C. 404. Having thus rendered himself obnoxious to
the oligarchs, he was involved with the other prominent men of his party in the accusation
brought against them by Agoratus before the council, of a conspiracy to oppose the peace. They
were all accordingly thrown into prison, and not long after were put to death with the mockery
of a trial under the government of the Thirty (Thuc. 8.15, 16, 17, 30,
34, 38, 40, 55, 60, 61, 62, 79;
Lys. c. Agor. pp. 130-133). We may perhaps identify the subject of the
present article with the father of Autocles. (Xen. Hell.
6.3.2.)