2. A Lacedaemonian, was a confidential officer of Harpalus, the Macedonian satrap of Babylon
under Alexander the Great. According to one account it was Thimbron who murdered Harpalus in
Crete, in HARPALUS, No. 1.] He
then possessed himself of his late master's treasures, fleet, and army, and, ostensibly
espousing the cause of some Cyrenaean exiles, sailed to Cyrene with the intention of
subjugating it. He defeated the Cyrenaeans in a battle, obtained possession of their harbour,
Apollonia, together with the treasures he found there, and compelled them to capitulate on
condition of paying him 500 talents, and supplying him with half of their warchariots for his
expeditions. This agreement, however, they were soon induced to repudiate by Mnasicles, one of
Thimbron's officers, who had deserted his standard, and gone over to the enemy. Under the able
direction of Mnasicles, the Cyrenaeans recovered Apollonia, and, though Thimbron was aided by
the Barcaeans and Hesperians, and succeeded in taking the town of Teucheira, yet, on the
whole, his fortunes declined, and he met besides with a severe disaster in the loss of a great
number of his men, who were slain or captured by the enemy, and in the almost total
destruction of his fleet by a storm. Not discouraged, however, he collected reinforcements
from the Peloponnesus, defeated the Cyrenaeans (who were now aided by the Libyans and
Carthaginians), and closely besieged Cyrene. Pressed by scarcity, the citizens quarrelled
among themselves, and the chiefs of the Plot. cod. 92;