DEMOSTHENES (d. 413 B.c.), Athenian general, first ap pears in history in 426 B.C. In this year Demosthenes and Procles were in command of 3o ships on a cruise round the Peloponnese. The attack was first made on Leucas, but this was abandoned for a campaign against the Aetolians, which was the first step in a projected advance through central Greece to Phocis and Boeotia. The Ozolian Locrians, who knew the country, failed him, but he advanced without them. The result was the collapse of his hop lites, on ground completely unsuited to them, and a severe defeat, in which he lost 120 of the 30o Athenians with him. At this point Eurylochus arrived from Sparta to help the Aetolians and attack Naupactus. Demosthenes applied for help to the Acar nanians, and saved Naupactus. Eurylochus then slipped past the Acarnanians, who were opposed to him, and joined the Ambraciots, who had invaded Amphilochian Argos, at Olpae. Demosthenes arrived with 20 ships and defeated the joint forces at Olpae. He then made a compact with Menedaeus to allow the Spartans to withdraw, and wiped out the remainder of the Ambraciots at Aedomenes. The result of this campaign was the complete de struction of the Corinthian sphere of influence in north-west Greece, and Demosthenes, having redeemed his early failure, could now return to Athens. In 425 he went with Eurymedon and Sophocles on an expedition towards Sicily. He was delayed at Pylos, which was fortified by the soldiers to beguile their idleness, and Demosthenes stayed there with five ships and suc cessfully defended it against attacks from Sparta and Corcyra. The arrival of an Athenian fleet turned the besicgers into the besieged; the Spartans were blockaded in Sphacterium, and their cventual defeat and capture was really the work of Demosthenes, though Cleon had nominally superseded him. The feature of these operations was the successful use of light infantry, a lesson which Demosthenes had learned from his early campaigns, but which no other commander during the war seems to have grasped. The year 424 saw him engaged in the abortive attack on Megara and the equally unsuccessful invasion of Boeotia, which resulted in the battle of Delium. In 413 he was sent with Eurymedon to reinforce Nicias before Syracuse. As soon as he arrived he conducted a night attack on Epipolae. When this failed he advised immediate re treat, but was overruled by Nicias. When at last the retreat be gan, the division under Demosthenes fell behind, was cornered in an orchard and surrendered. Demosthenes was put to death. We know practically nothing of his political views, but Aristophanes (Eq. 242) suggests that he was leader of the party opposed to Cleon.