Olympiodo'rus
3. An Athenian general and statesman of considerable ability. VWhen Cassander made his attempt upon Athens in B. C. 298, Olympiodorus sailed to Aetolia, and induced the Aetolians to send assistance to Athens; and Cassander was compelled to withdraw his forces. Shortly afterwards, when Elatea, which had been conquered by Cassander, revolted from him, it was mainly through Olympiodorus that it was enabled to hold olt against his troops. Subsequently, in B. C. 2883, when Demetrius was stripped of his kingdom by Lysimachus and Pyrrhus, a small number of the Athenians, with Olympiodorus at their head, resolved to rid the city of the Macedonian garrison which Demetrius had posted in Athens in the foxtress of the Museum after his conquest of the city, and which still remained faithful to him. The Athenians readily joined Olympiodorus and his confederates, and the Museum was carried by storm. Peiraeus and Munychia were also recovered, and Olympiodorus, at the head of a small body of troops which he raised at Eleusis, put to flight a body of troops in the service of Demetrius, who were ravaging the plain. Demetrius invested Athens, but was compelled by the approach of Pyrrhus to raise the siege, and shortly afterwards crossed over into Asia Minor.
It was probably this Olympiodorus who was archon eponymus in B. C. 294.
There was a statue of him on the Acropolis. (
Paus. 1.25.2,
1.29.13,
10.18.7,
10.34.3.)
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C.P.M]
