Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Callimachus 1.
CALLI′MACHUS (Καλλίμαχος). 1. Of the tribe of Aiantis and the δῆμος of Aphidna, held the office of Polemarch, B. C. 490, and in that capacity commanded the right wing of the Athenian array at Marathon, where he was slain, after behaving with much gallantry. In the battle he is said to have vowed to Artemis a heifer for every enemy he should slay. By the persuasion of Miltiades he had given his casting vote for fighting, when the voices of the ten generals were equally divided on the question. This is the last recorded instance of the Polemarch performing the military duties which his name implies. Callimachus was conspicuously figured in the fresco painting of the battle of Marathon, by Polygnotus, in the στοὰ ποικίλη. (Herod, vi. 109—114; Plut. Aristid. et Cat. Maj. 2, Sympos. i. 8. § 3; Schol. ad Aristoph. Eq. 658; Paus. i. 15.)
2. One of the generals of Mithridates, who, by his skill in engineering, defended the town of Amisus, in Pontus, for a considerable time against the Romans, in B. C. 71; and when Lucullus had succeeded in taking a portion of the wall, Callimachus set fire to the place and made his escape by sea. He afterwards fell into the hands of Lucullus at the capture of Nisibis (called by the Greeks Antioch) in Mygdonia, B. C. 68, and was put to death in revenge for the burning of Amisus. (Plut. Lucull. 19, 32; comp. Appian, Bell Mithr. 78, 83; Dion Cass. xxxv. 7.) [E. E.]