an Athenian general who plays a conspicuous part in the history of Greece in the first half of the 4th century B.C. He owes his fame chiefly to the improvements which he introduced into military tactics, and the marked success that attended their adoption. The Greek states, at that time at war with each other, carried on hostilities by rapid incursions into each other's territories, and retreats as rapid when a force had been collected sufficient to repel them. To the soldiers who took part in these forays lightness was an indispensable element of safety. Iphicrates, who was the first to see this, resolved to organize a body of troops that should combine the advantages of light and heavy armed men. For this purpose he substituted a light oval target in room of the heavy round buckler then in use, doubled the length of the sword and of the spear, and replaced the steel coat-of-mail by a linen corset. These troops he called "Peltasts," from the target which they bore; and such was their discipline and efficiency, that in a short time none of the ordinary Greek hoplites would meet them in the field, except the elite of the Spartan infantry. Their ordinary method of attack was to break the line of the enemy, either by a feint or by a dense rain of missiles. This done, the hoplite, with his cumbrous panoply, and short, thick sword, had no chance against the agile movements, and long, keen rapier, or equally terrible pike of the nimble Athenian. The Spartans, though they affected to despise these Peltasts as mere skirmishers, were more than once taught a deadly lesson at their hands. A Spartan corps, returning home from the capture of the Piraeus by Agesilaus, in B.C. 392, was attacked by Iphicrates in the neighbourhood of Corinth, and destroyed to a man. This exploit of the Athenian commander soon became noised abroad throughout Greece. This victory, besides the immediate advantages that resulted from it, was peculiarly valuable to the Athenians, whose credit it redeemed, while the pride of Lacedaemon was sorely humbled at the defeat of its bravest warriors by a band of light-armed mercenaries. Encouraged by his success, Iphicrates proceeded rapidly to follow it up. Town after town fell into his hands, and Athens bade fair to retrieve her old place in the van of the Greek states, when the peace of Antalcidas put an end to the war. The latter half of Iphicrates' military career was as brilliant as its outset had been. He served with high distinction in the Hellespont, and afterwards in Egypt, whither he had been sent to assist the Persians in subduing that country. His conduct in Thrace tarnished his good name for a short time. He had married a daughter of Cotys, king of that country, and sided with his father-in-law against his native land, when he went to war with Athens for the possession of the Thracian Chersonesus. For his conduct in this affair he was afraid to return home, but the Athenians soon pardoned him, and gave him a joint command in the Social War. For his conduct in this office he was brought to trial on his return home; but the eloquence of Lysias procured him an honourable acquittal. From this time Iphicrates continued to live quietly in Athens, where he died at a very advanced age, though the exact date of his death is unknown.