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Dorieus

Dorieus (died 395 BC) was a Rhodian pankratiast athlete and naval commander during the Peloponnesian War.

Biography[]

Dorieus was born in Ialysos, Rhodes, the son of the famed pankratiast Diagoras of Rhodes, the brother of Kallipateira, and the uncle of Peisirrhodos. He came from a family of distinguished Olympic pankratiasts, but Dorieus surpassed his family's successes and won the pankration at Olympia in three successive games, as well as winning eight Isthmian Games, seven Nemean Games, and four Pythian Games. His name became synonymous with athletic success, but, in 428 BC, he was bested in the final round of the pankration by the Spartan champion Kassandra, who had taken the place of the late Testikles; because women were technically banned from the Olympics, however, the records wrote down Dorieus as the winner, even as Kassandra had been crowned an Olympic champion at the Olympic Tree. Dorieus was exiled to Thurii in Italy in 424 BC due to political upheaval in Rhodes, and, in 412 BC, he led a contingent of ten ships from Thurii to support the Spartans in Ionia. In 411 BC, he played a key role in obtaining Rhodes' defection from the Delian League to the Peloponnesian League, but he was also unafraid to risk fighting with the Spartans to maintain Rhodian independence. In 411 BC, the Spartan admiral Mindarus sent Dorieus from Miletus to Rhodes to quell a counter-revolution there, and Dorieus' 14-trireme fleet succeeded in bringing Rhodes under one authority. Afterwards, he assisted Mindarus in the Hellespont, but he was defeated by an Athenian squadron and thus missed the Battle of Abydos. In 407 BC, he was captured by Athens, but he was released due to his respected athletic career. In 397-396 BC, Rhodian democrats overthrew Diagoras' dynasty and admitted the Athenian general Konon, and Dorieus died in 395 BC.

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