Phi'locles
（
Φιλοκλῆς) historical.
1. An Athenian, who, together with Adeimantus, was joined with Conon in the command of the fleet on the deposition of the generals who had conquered at Arginusae (B. C. 406). Philocles was the author of the proposal for the mutilation of all the prisoners who should be taken in the sea-fight which the Athenians contemplated; but it seems doubtful whether the decree in question was passed in an assembly at Athens, or in one held at Aegospotami before the battle; also whether it determined on the amputation of the right thumb, according to Plutarch, or the right hand, as Xenophon tells us.
The same spirit of cruelty was exhibited by Philocales on the capture of a Corinthian and Andrian trireme, the crews of which he ordered to be thrown down a precipice.
In retribution for these deeds he was slain at Lampsacus by Lysander, into whose hands he had fallen at the battle of Aegospotami in B. C. 405 (
Xen. Hell. 1.7.1,
2.1. §§ 30-32;
Diod. 13.104-
106;
Plut. Lys. 9,
13; comp. Cic.
de Off. 3.1; Ael.
V. II. 2.9; Thirlwall's
Greece, vol. iv. pp. 148, &c.)
