Pharacidas
Phara'cidas
(Φαρακίδας) a Lacedaemonian who commanded a fleet of thirty ships sent by the Spartans and their allies to the assistance of the elder Dionysius, when Syracuse was besieged by the Carthaginians under Himilco, B. C. 396. Having fallen in with a squadron of Carthaginian ships, he took nine of them, and carried them safely into the port of Syracuse. His arrival there infused fresh vigour into the besieged, and he appears to have contributed essentially to the successes that followed. At the same time he lent the weight of his name and influence as the representative of Sparta, to support the authority of Dionysius. (Diod. 14.63, 70, 72; Polvaen. 2.11.) [E. IB.j