BRASIDAS (d. 422 B.c.), a Spartan officer during the Archi damian War, the first decade of the Peloponnesian War (q.v.). He was the son of Tellis and Argileonis, and won his first laurels by the relief of Methone which was besieged by the Athenians (431 B.c.). During the following year he seems to have been eponymous ephor (Xen. Hell., ii. 3, Io), and in 429 he was sent out as one of the three commissioners to advise the admiral Cnemus. As trier arch he was wounded in the assault on the Athenian position at Pylos (Thuc. iv. 11, 12).
In the next year, while Brasidas mustered a force at Corinth for a campaign in Thrace, he frustrated an Athenian attack on Megara (Thuc. iv. 70-73) . Immediately afterwards he marched through Thessaly with a force of helots and mercenaries, and, refusing to join the Macedonian king Perdiccas in a private war, set about breaking up the Athenian empire in the North. During the winter he won over to alliance with Sparta the cities of Acan thus and Stagirus, and, most important of all, the Athenian colony of Amphipolis. An attack on Eion was foiled by the arrival of Thucydides, the historian, at the head of an Athenian squadron. In the spring of 423 a truce was concluded between Athens and Sparta, but Brasidas refused to give up Scione, which, the Athe nians declared, revolted two days after the truce began, and occu pied Mende shortly afterwards. Therefore fighting still continued in Thrace. An Athenian fleet recovered Mende and blockaded Scione, which fell two years later (421 B.c.). Meanwhile Brasidas joined Perdiccas in a campaign against the Lyncesti, which was at first successful, but ended in a quarrel between Brasidas and Per diccas, who promptly concluded a treaty with Athens (C.I.G. i. 42).
In April 422 the truce with Sparta expired, and Cleon was sent to recover Thrace. By the skilful generalship of Brasidas the Athenian army was routed at Amphipolis and Cleon was slain, but the Spartan general also fell. He was buried at Amphipolis and the sacrifices which had formerly been offered to the Athenian founder were transferred to him (Thuc. iv. 78—v. 11). Brasidas and Cleon had been leaders of the war-party, and their deaths enabled Athens and Sparta to conclude the Peace of Nicias B.O.
Brasidas was the only commander of genius whom the Spartans produced during the Archidamian War. His charm and eloquence, qualities unusual in a Spartan, and his diplomatic treatment of the cities caused the allies of Athens to regard Sparta more favourably and paved the way for widespread revolt after the disaster in Sicily. See in particular Thucydides, ii.—v.; what Diodorus xii. adds is mainly oratorical elaboration. A fuller account is given in the histories of Greece (e.g., those of Grote, Beloch, Busolt, Meyer and Bury).