He was castigated by Demosthenes in his oration Against Aristocrates for repeated treacherous actions toward Athens, yet later he received Athenian citizenship and was elected one of its generals.
Charidemus was probably born in the early 390s BCE in Oreus, a city in northern Euboea (near Histiaea) of a citizen mother and non-citizen father named Philoxenus.
[2] By 368 Charidemus was leading a mercenary force that was hired by the Athenian general Iphicrates to assist in an effort to retake Amphipolis, a colony established by Athens near the mouth of the Strymon River in Thrace in 437.
Before negotiations could take place, Athens relieved Iphicrates and replaced him with Timotheus, who had been conducting campaigns in Samos, Anatolia, and the Thracian Chersonese.
Pharnabazus, the satrap of Phrygia, in northwest Anatolia, left his post in 388/7 and spent the rest of his life in the court of Artaxerxes.
At that time his son, Artabazus, was too young to assume command and his older brother (or uncle – the meaning of the Greek is unclear), Ariobarzanes, served as regent.
To forestall this, he wrote to the Athenian general Cephisodotus, who was then on campaign against Cotys in the Chersonese, promising to assist him in securing control of the region if he would only get him out of his current predicament.
His son Cersobleptes assumed control of eastern Thrace, while his brothers — Berisades and Amadocus — ruled over the central and western portions of the region.
Charidemus attached himself to the young king as a trusted advisor, most effectively by marrying his sister,[9] and during the ensuing years, he and his army of mercenaries preyed repeatedly on Athenian forces in the Propontis (now Sea of Marmara), the Hellespont, and the Chersonese.
[12] Charidemus’ relationship with Athens, however, continued to be problematic for the city, most especially in the attempts he and Cersobleptes subsequently made to conquer the whole of Thrace, in violation of their agreement.
[13] At the same time, Aristocrates, proposed a decree to the Athenian Ecclesia (Assembly) that granted Charidemus immunity from any act of violence committed against him.
[14] Before it could be enacted, though, Euthykles sued Aristocrates in court, accusing him of a decree that was not only illegal, but false in its praise of Charidemus and against the best interests of Athens.
[16] He apparently remained there through 350 and into 349, since during the war between Macedon and Olynthus in 349, during which Athens attempted to support the Olynthians, he was ordered to bring his forces to the Chalcidice Peninsula to augment those already dispatched under Chares’ command.
[20] After the Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC), in which the forces of Athens and Thebes were soundly beaten by Macedonia, there was a faction in the Athenian Assembly that would have entrusted Charidemus with the command of the army and the task of reengaging the Macedonians, but they were countered by the “better men” who persuaded the body to put the city in Phocion's hands.