Aristeus

Aristeus, son of Adeimantus (Ἀδείμαντος; Adeímantos), was a Corinthian general who commanded the expedition to Potidaea in 432 BC. After the Athenians broke a truce established with Corinthians at Sybota, his primary goal was to defend Potidaea from an Athenian attack. He defended the Corinthian colony from Athens during the Battle of Potidaea in 432 BC, until he was left with no option but to leave the colony with the Chalcidians. In 430 BC he traveled to Thrace with Spartan envoys where they were discovered by Athenians, brought to Athens by Athenian ambassadors, and killed without trial. After his death, Athens seized Potidaea in 430/429 BC during the Peloponnesian War. The Battles of Sybota and Potidaea are two main catalysts for the Peloponnesian War.

Involvement in The Battle of Potidaea

In 432 BC, Aristeus was appointed as commander of the Corinthian aid corps for the relief of their colony, Potidaea, that just seceded from Athens. He was able to recruit Corinthian volunteers and mercenaries from the rest of the Peloponnesus to fight alongside him due to his large domestic popularity and long-standing alliance with Potidaea. At the time, after the Battle of Sybota, in which the Corinthians fought a combined force of Athenians and Corcyraeans in 433 BC, Corinth was furious with the Athenians for fighting alongside Corcyraeans during a time of treaty. The Athenians became aware of this and, worried that Potidaea would revolt against Athens, immediately sought to win over Corinth. Forty days after the revolt in Potidaea, Aristeus, along with the sixteen hundred hoplites and four-hundred light troops that he assembled, arrived in Thrace. Shortly thereafter, Aristeus and his men encamped at Olynthus, where they prepared for the Battle of Potidaea.

Meanwhile, Athens, informed that Aristeus and his troops were on their way to defend Potidaea, sent two-thousand hoplites along with forty ships to prepare to fight for Potidaea. Under the command of Callias, the Athenian general, and four of his colleagues, the Athenian troops first traveled to Macedonia, where they besieged Pydna. It was at this time that Athens, realizing the revolt in Potidaea and Aristeus' intention to defend it, forced Perdiccas, the Macedonian king, to return to his alliance with them and march on Potidaea. With the alliance with Perdiccas formalized, Athens withdrew their troops from Macedonia via Beroea and Strepsa and marched on Potidaea with three-thousand hoplites, six-hundred Macedonian horsemen and seventy ships that followed closely along the coast. After three days of advancing on Potidaea in short marches, the Athenian forces encamped at Gigonus.

In their preparation for the Athenian attack at Potidaea, the allied Potidaeans and Peloponnesians encamped at Olynthus and chose Aristeus as general of all the infantry. Perdiccas, who had deputed Iolaus as his general, left the alliance with Athens, returned to that of the Potidaeans and was made commander of the allied cavalry. Aristeus' next move was to keep his infantrymen on the isthmus to await the Athenian attack; at the same time, the Chalcidians and the other allies waited outside the isthmus, while the two-hundred cavalry from Perdiccas stayed in Olynthus to attack the Athenian rear in case of an attack on Aristeus' infantry on the isthmus. By doing this, Aristeus developed a plan that placed the Athenian advance between two allied forces on the isthmus and at Olynthus. Knowing that Aristeus' infantry posed a threat to the Athenian advance, Callias and his colleagues sent away the Macedonian horsemen and a group of allies to Olynthus, while the rest of the Athenians left their camp at Gigonus and marched on Potidaea.

Shortly after the Athenians arrived at the isthmus, both sides of the troops engaged with each other. Aristeus' infantry, consisted of Corinthians and other chosen men, routed the Athenian advance and pursued them for a considerable distance. Meanwhile, the remaining army of Potidaeans and Peloponnesians met a different fate; they were routed by the Athenians and were forced to take refuge in fortifications. When he returned from pursuing the Athenians, Aristeus realized the defeat of the rest of the army and was left to choose whether to go to Olynthus or to Potidaea. Once his men were assembled, Aristeus led them along the breakwater and crossed the sea under treacherous conditions. Upon making landfall, Aristeus saw that most of his men had made it safely ashore, although some had perished.

Seeing this occur from across the sea and realizing the battle signals were raised, Potidaean allies from Olynthus began to advance to provide aid. Meanwhile, the Macedonian horsemen countered the troops aiding the Potidaeans and a stalemate occurred. Predicting an Athenian victory, the Potidaeans retreated back within their walls, while the Macedonians, having seen the battle signals taken down, retreated to the Athenians, leaving no cavalry on either side. When the battle concluded, the Athenians set up a trophy and, under truce, returned the dead to the Potidaeans. While Aristeus' infantry successfully pursued the Athenians attacking them, the Athenian attack on the remaining Potidaeans and Peloponnesians left three-hundred casualties. The Athenians, on the other hand, lost one hundred and fifty men along with their general, Callias.

Other Involvement in Potidaea

After the battle at Potidaea had ended, Athenians built and controlled a wall on the side of the isthmus, consolidating their forces on the isthmus and leaving the Pallene side unmanned. Under the command of Phormio, sixteen hundred hoplites were sent from Athens for reinforcement. Upon their arrival at Pallene, a new Athenian headquarters was constructed at Aphytis, and across many short marches, Phormio's troops annihilated the Potidaeans. Athenian ships were deployed around the peninsula, thus giving Athens control of Potidaea by land and sea. Aristeus recognized that the peninsula was unsalvageable and instructed the remaining troops, except for five-hundred of them, to sail away. Aristeus' attempted to convince his troops to let him stay on the isthmus but he was not successful and after evading Athenian ships, he sailed away with them. Although the conflict was all but finished, Aristeus remained with the Chalcidians and successfully ambushed Athenians near Aphytis. Additionally, in an attempt to buy mercenaries to fight for him, he was in communication with the Peloponnesus, though Phormio ended the siege of Potidaea by sending his sixteen-hundred hoplites to destroy Chalcidice and Bottica. When the siege of Potidaea commenced in 432 BC and peace was declared, Athenians and Peloponnesians continued to debate their claim to Potidaea, though their conflict on the isthmus would be a precursor to the Peloponnesian War.

Death

In the summer of 430BC, Aristeus, along with a group of Spartans including Aneristus, Nicolaus and Protodamus, Timagoras from Tegea and Pollis from Argos, traveled to Thrace to meet Sitalces, the son of the former Thracian king, Teres I, in an attempt to persuade the king to supply funds and betray his alliance to Athens. In particular, they wanted Sitalces' assistance to march yet again on Potidaea, which was occupied by Athenian forces, and to join them in the war against Athens. Athenian ambassadors happened to be with Sitalces at the time, and they convinced his son, Sadocus, to seize Aristeus and the other individuals as they traveled through Thrace to the vessel in which they were to cross the Hellespont. It followed that Aristeus and the other individuals were handed over to Athenian ambassadors and brought to Athens. When they arrived back in Athens, the Athenians were aware that Aristeus commanded the Corinthians and others at Potidaea and refused to give them a trial, afraid that if he escaped, Aristeus would cause them to suffer again. Aristeus and the other envoys were killed immediately and cast into a pit, a familiar mode of death that the Spartans themselves were known for in the Peloponnesian War. Following his death in the summer of 430BC, Potidaea was seized by Athens during the Peloponnesian War.