Tolmides, (Greek: Τολμίδης), son of Tolmaeus, was a leading Athenian general of the First Peloponnesian War.
He rivalled Pericles and Myronides for the military leadership of Athens during the 450s and early 440s BC.
[1] In 455 BC, Tolmides was given command of a fleet and a force of 4,000 soldiers in order to sail round the coasts of the Peloponnesus attacking the Spartans and their allies.
Tolmides made an alliance with Zacynthus, an island in the Ionian Sea,[4] and sailing into the Gulf of Corinth he took the Corinthian colony of Chalcis[5] on the northern coast of the gulf and then seized Naupactus in Ozolian Locris and settled refugees from Messenia there[6] who would act as Athenian allies in a strategic location.
After garrisoning Chaeronea he encountered a force of Boeotian, Locrian and Euboean exiles at Coronea and the Athenians suffered a heavy defeat with Tolmides dying in the battle.