The Battle of Eurymedon

The Battle of Eurymedon is quite a revelation, for I never heard of it before. I drove along this river on my way from Aspendos to Selge, not knowing that an important fight had taken place here about one hundred years before Alexander marched through this area (see: Selge welcomed Alexander).

After all, my lack of information may not be so surprising as this battle occurred near the end of the Delian League. This was an alliance of various Greek poleis that took shape shortly after the Persian invasion of 480-479 BC and ended at the same time the Peloponnesian War did in 404 BC and which was mainly fought between Athens and Sparta.

The Delian League obviously takes its name from the island of Delos, where the league’s treasury was kept and where the members met on regular set occasions. It is common knowledge that this league was created to take revenge for the Persian invasion of Greece. Still, it also aimed to liberate all the Greeks under Persian domination and guarantee the freedom of the Greek cities.

  

Towards the end of the Delian League, the Athenian statesman Cimon was instrumental in creating Athens’ powerful maritime empire. He was the hero of his time after fighting at the Battle of Salamis. It was a small step to be promoted Admiral and lead the fleet of the Delian League with 300 triremes, of which 200 were Athenian. This was in 466 BC when he set out along the Carian and Lycian coasts to expel the Persian garrisons and to bring those liberated cities into the league.

After taking Phaselis, he set sail for the Eurymedon River, today’s Köprülü River, to annihilate the 200 ships' strong Phoenician fleet that had occupied the river together with several reinforcements from Cyprus. This was Cimon’s most famous battle, and his victory here proved to be definitive. In this phase, he seems to be a precursor of Alexander!

It would have been nice to know where exactly this battle took place, although the mouth of the river near Aspendos sounds to be favorite.