Thorax ( Greek: ) of

Larissa Larissa (; el, Λάρισα, , ) is the capital and largest city of the Thessaly region in Greece. It is the fifth-most populous city in Greece with a population of 144,651 according to the 2011 census. It is also capital of the Larissa regiona ...

Thessaly Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thes ...

was a member of the powerful family of the

Aleuadae The Aleuadae ( grc, Ἀλευάδαι) were an ancient Thessalian family of Larissa, who claimed descent from the mythical Aleuas. The Aleuadae were the noblest and most powerful among all the families of Thessaly, whence Herodotus calls its membe ...

. He was a son of an Aleuas who was a friend of the poet

Simonides Simonides of Ceos (; grc-gre, Σιμωνίδης ὁ Κεῖος; c. 556–468 BC) was a Greek lyric poet, born in Ioulis on Kea (island), Ceos. The scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria included him in the canonical list of the nine lyric p ...

. Thorax and his brothers, Eurypylus and Thrasydaeus, wishing to confirm or to increase their power, were among those who urged Xerxes to invade Greece, and promised him their assistance in the enterprise. In Xerxes' retreat, after the

Battle of Salamis The Battle of Salamis ( ) was a naval battle fought between an alliance of Greek city-states under Themistocles and the Persian Empire under King Xerxes in 480 BC. It resulted in a decisive victory for the outnumbered Greeks. The battle was ...

, Thorax formed one of his escort, after which he still continued to show his zeal in the cause of the invaders, and was present with Mardonius at the

Battle of Plataea The Battle of Plataea was the final land battle during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place in 479 BC near the city of Plataea in Boeotia, and was fought between an alliance of the Greek city-states (including Sparta, Athens, C ...

in 479 BC. When the Persians had been finally driven from Greece, Leotychidas, king of

Sparta Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referre ...

, led an army into Thessaly to punish those who had sided with the barbarians, but the Aleuadae bribed him to refrain from making reprisals against their kin.

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known f ...

. ''Histories'', vi. 72, vii. 6, ix. 1, 58.

References

Sources

*{{SmithDGRBM Ancient Larissaeans Ancient Thessalian statesmen 5th-century BC Greek people Medism People of the Greco-Persian Wars