Expert: Maria - 12/22/2007

Question
Hello,
could you tell me please  some information about the Tanagra Battle in the Peloponnesian War?
Thanks in advance.
Sincerely,
Nancy


Answer
Hello Nancy,

The Battle of Tanagra which  took place in 426 BC north of Athens in Boeotia, not far from Thebes, during the Peloponnesian War (431 BC–404 BC), after the death of Pericles (429 BC), ended with Athenian victory.
We know that the Athenians under Nicias marched towards Tanagra, where they were joined by the main Athenian army that came from Athens under Hipponicus and Eurymedon.
They depredated the countryside, the next day defeated  the allied Tanagran and Theban army, and then returned to Athens, without however taking possession of the Boeotian region.
(See Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, book III, chapter 91).

Best,
Maria
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The primary source for the Peloponnesian War (to 411) is the Greek historian Thucydides(460–400? BC), while  Xenophon's Hellenica is an inferior sequel (from 411 to 362 BC).