CHABRIAS (4th century B.C.), Athenian general. In 388 B.C. he defeated the Spartans at Aegina and commanded the fleet sent to assist Evagoras, king of Cyprus, against the Persians. In 378, when Athens joined Thebes against Sparta, he defeated Agesilaus near Thebes. On this occasion he invented a manoeuvre, which consisted in receiving a charge on the left knee, with shields resting on the ground and spears pointed against the enemy. In 376 he defeated the Spartan fleet off Naxos, but, when he might have destroyed the enemy, remembering Arginusae (q.v.), he de layed to pick up his dead. Later, when the Athenians joined the Spartans, he repulsed Epaminondas before Corinth. In 366, to gether with Callistratus, he was accused of treachery in advising the surrender of Oropus to the Thebans. He was acquitted, and soon after he accepted a command under Tachos, king of Egypt, who had revolted against Persia. On the outbreak of the Social War (357) he joined Chares in the command of the Athenian fleet. He lost his life in an attack on the island of Chios, prob ably in the same year.
See Cornelius Nepos, Chabrias; Xenophon, Hellenica, v. 1-4 ; Diod. Sic. xv. ; Cambridge Ancient History, vol. vi. (1927) chapters iii., vi. and viii. (with useful bibliography) . See also DELIAN LEAGUE.