Conon, an Athenian general and admiral, living about 400 B. C. In 413 he commanded a fleet of 18 ships off Naupactus, to prevent the Corinthians from sending'aid to the Syra-cusans; in 409 he was elected general in connection with Alcibiades and Thrasybulus; and in 407 he was made the chief of the ten generals appointed to supersede Alcibiades, whose dissolute conduct and mismanagement had disgusted the Athenian people. Soon after, in an engagement with the Spartan admiral Calli-cratidas, off Mitylene, he was defeated with the loss of 30 vessels, and was compelled to take refuge with the remnant of his fleet in the harbor of that city, where he was closely blockaded by his opponent till the Athenian victory at Arginusso effected his deliverance. Having been soon after appointed, with five colleagues, to the command of a large fleet, he proceeded at once to the Hellespont to engage the Lacedaemonian squadron, under the command of Ly-sander, but was surprised at Aegospotami (405), and sustained that memorable defeat which placed Athens at the mercy of her great rival. How far he was responsible for this disaster it is not easy to determine, but that his colleagues were shamefully remiss in duty there is no doubt.

He was the only Athenian general on his guard, and, with the division under his command, escaped to his friend Evagoras, king of Cyprus, where he remained eight years. In 395, having repaired in person to the Persian court to offer his services to Artaxerxes II. against the Spartans, he was appointed with Pharna-bazus to the joint command of a powerful fleet, with which, in August, 394, he gained a splendid victory over Pisander at Cnidus. The next year Conon and Pharnabazus sailed for the Peloponnesus. After they had laid waste the coast of Laconia, Conon repaired to Athens, and rebuilt the walls and fortifications both of the city and of the Piraeus. Thus he had the satisfaction at last of being hailed by his countrymen as at once the deliverer and the restorer of the city. Having been subsequently sent by the Athenians on an embassy to Tiriba-zus, satrap of Ionia, to oppose the intrigues of Antalcidas, who was endeavoring to negotiate a general peace under the mediation of Persia, he was seized in violation of public faith, and thrown into prison. According to some accounts he was put to death, but it is more probable that he escaped to Cyprus and there spent the rest of his days.

The public life of Conon was one of the purest and most useful, as well as one of the most eventful, that adorn Athenian annals.