CHARES, Athenian general, is first heard of in 366 B.C. as assisting the Phliasians against Argos and Sicyon. In 361 he helped the oligarchs at Corcyra to expel the democrats. In 357 he was appointed to the command in the Social War, together with Chabrias, after whose death before Chios he was associated with Iphicrates and Timotheus (for the naval battle in the Hellespont, see TIMOTHEUS). Chares, having successfully thrown the blame for the defeat on his colleagues, was left sole commander, but receiving no supplies from Athens, joined the revolted satrap Artabazus. A complaint from the Persian king led to the conclu sion of peace (355) between Athens and her revolted allies, and the recall of Chares. In 349, he was sent to the assistance of Olynthus (q.v.) against Philip II. of Macedon, but effected noth ing. In 340 he was appointed to the command of a force sent to aid Byzantium against Philip, but the inhabitants, remembering his former plunderings and extortions, refused to receive him. In he was defeated by Philip at Amphissa, and was one of the commanders at the disastrous battle of Chaeroneia (q.v.). After the conquest of Thebes by Alexander (335), Chares is said to have been one of the Athenian orators and generals whose sur render was demanded. Two years later he was living at Sigeum, Arrian (Anabasis, i. 12). In 332 he entered the service of Darius. He is last heard of at Taenarum, and is supposed to have died at Sigeum. Chares was not lacking in personal courage, and was among the best Athenian generals of his time. At the best, how ever, he was "hardly more than an ordinary leader of mercenaries" (A. Holm).
See Diod. Sic. xv. 75, 95, xvi. 7, 21, 22, 85-88 ; Plutarch, Phocion, 54; Theopompus, ap. Athenaeum, xii. p. 532; A. Holm, History of Greece (Eng. trans., 1896), vol. iii.; Cambridge Ancient History, vol. vi. (1927), chapters viii. and ix. (with useful bibliography).