Polycrates

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Polycrates

Polycrates , son of Aeaces

Aeaces

Aeaces is the name of several different figures in ancient Greek history and mythology:* Aeaces, the father of Syloson and Polycrates....
, was the tyrant

Tyrant

This article is about the political ruler. For other uses see Tyrant and Tyranny In modern usage, a tyrant is a single ruler holding absolute political power over a state or within an organization....
of Samos

Samos Island

Samos is a Greece island in the North Aegean sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the Ionian coast of Turkey....
from c. 538 BC to 522 BC.

He took power during a festival of Hera

Hera

In the Twelve Olympians of classical Greek Mythology, Hera or Here was the wife and older sister of Zeus. Her chief function was as goddess of women and marriage....
with his brothers Pantagnotus and Syloson

Syloson

Syloson was the brother of Polycrates of Samos.When Polycrates became tyrant of the island he exiled Syloson where he stayed in Egypt. Syloson would stay in Egypt until a "flame-coloured mantle" he was selling brought him in contact with Darius I of Persia....
, but soon had Pantagnotus killed and exiled Syloson to take full control for himself. He then allied with Amasis II

Amasis II

Amasis II was a pharaoh of the Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt, the successor of Apries at Sais, Egypt. He was the last great ruler of Ancient Egypt before the Persian Empire conquest....
, pharaoh

Pharaoh

Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. In antiquity this title began to be used for the ruler who was the religious and political leader of united ancient Egypt, only during the New Kingdom, specifically, during the middle of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt....
of Egypt

Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
, as well as the tyrant of Naxos Lygdamis. With a navy of 100 penteconter

Penteconter

Penteconter may refer to:*The leader of an ancient Greek infantry pentecostus, or platoon of approximately 50 men*A type of Greek warship with fifty oarsmen...
s and an army of 1,000 archers

Archery

Archery is the art, practice or skill of shooting with Bow and arrow. Archery has historically been used in hunting and combat and has become a precision sport....
, he plundered the islands of the Aegean Sea

Aegean Sea

The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkans and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey respectively....
and the cities on the Ionia

Ionia

Ionia is an ancient region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey, the region nearest Izmir, which was historically Smyrna. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Hellenes settlements....
n coast of Asia Minor, defeating and enslaving the navies of Lesbos

Lesbos Island

Lesbos is a Greece List of islands of Greece located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. It has an area of 1632 Square kilometre with 320 kilometres of coastline, making it the third largest Greek island and the largest of the numerous Greek islands scattered in the Aegean....
and Miletus

Miletus

Miletus was an ancient city on the western coast of Anatolia , near the mouth of the Maeander River in ancient Caria. Evidence of first settlement at the site has been made inaccessible by the rise of sea level and deposition of sediments from the Maeander....
.

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Polycrates , son of Aeaces

Aeaces

Aeaces is the name of several different figures in ancient Greek history and mythology:* Aeaces, the father of Syloson and Polycrates....
, was the tyrant

Tyrant

Samos Island

Hera

Syloson

Amasis II

Amasis II was a pharaoh of the Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt, the successor of Apries at Sais, Egypt. He was the last great ruler of Ancient Egypt before the Persian Empire conquest....
, pharaoh

Pharaoh

Egypt

Penteconter

Penteconter may refer to:*The leader of an ancient Greek infantry pentecostus, or platoon of approximately 50 men*A type of Greek warship with fifty oarsmen...
s and an army of 1,000 archers

Archery

Aegean Sea

Ionia

Lesbos Island

Miletus

Delos

The island of Delos , isolated in the centre of the roughly circular ring of islands called the Cyclades, near Mykonos, is one of the most important mythological, historical and archaeological sites in Greece....
as a dedication to Apollo

Apollo

In Greek mythology and Roman mythology, Apollo , is one of the most important and many-sided of the Twelve Olympians. The ideal of the kouros , Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of light and the sun; truth and prophecy; archery; medicine and healing; music, poetry, and the arts; and more....
.

He had a reputation as both a fierce warrior and an enlightened tyrant. On Samos he built an aqueduct, a large temple of Hera

Hera

In the Twelve Olympians of classical Greek Mythology, Hera or Here was the wife and older sister of Zeus. Her chief function was as goddess of women and marriage....
(the Heraion, to which Amasis dedicated many gifts), and a palace later rebuilt by the Roman emperor

Roman Emperor

The Roman Emperor was the ruler of the Roman Empire during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office: Latin language titles such as imperator , Augustus , Caesar and princeps were all associated with it....
Caligula

Caligula

Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , more commonly known by his nickname Caligula , was the third Roman Emperor, reigning from 16 March 37 until his assassination on 24 January 41....
. In 522 BC he celebrated an unusual double festival in honour of the god Apollo

Apollo

Delos

Delphi

Delphi is an archaeology site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis. Delphi was the site of the Pythia, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world, when it was a major site for the worship of the god Apollo after he slew the Python , a deity who lived there and protecte...
; it has been suggested that the Homeric Hymn
Homeric Hymns

The thirty-three anonymous Homeric Hymns celebrating individual gods are a collection of ancient Greek language hymns, "Homeric" in the sense that they employ the same epic meter? dactylic hexameter? as the Iliad and Odyssey, use many similar formulas and are couched in the same dialect....
to Apollo, sometimes attributed to Cynaethus

Cynaethus

Cynaethus or Cinaethus of Chios was a rhapsode, a member of the Homeridae, sometimes said to have composed the Homeric Hymns to Apollo....
of Chios, was composed for this occasion. Polycrates was certainly a patron of the poets Anacreon

Anacreon

Anacreon was a Greece lyric poem poet, notable for his drinking songs and hymns. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of nine lyric poets....
, and Ibycus

Ibycus

Ibycus , of Rhegium in Italy, was an Ancient Greek Lyric poetry poet. He was included in the canon list of nine lyric poets by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria....
and of the Croton

Crotone

Crotone is a city in Calabria, southern Italy, on the Ionian Sea. Founded circa 710 BC as the Achaean colony of Croton , it was known as Cotrone from the Middle Ages until 1928, when its name was changed to Crotone....
ian doctor Democedes

Democedes

Democedes of Croton, described in The Histories of Herodotus as "the most skillful physician of his time"....
.

According to Herodotus

Herodotus

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture....
, Amasis thought Polycrates was too successful, and advised him to throw away whatever he valued most in order to escape a reversal of fortune. Polycrates followed the advice and threw a jewel-encrusted ring into the sea; however, a few days later, a fisherman caught a large fish that he wished to share with the tyrant. While Polycrates' cooks were preparing the fish for eating, they discovered the ring inside of it. Polycrates told Amasis of his good fortune, and Amasis immediately broke off their alliance, believing that such a lucky man would eventually come to a disastrous end.

It is more likely that the alliance was ended because Polycrates allied with the Persian

Persian Empire

The 'Persian Empire' was a series of successive Iranian or Persianization empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland, and beyond in Southwest Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
king Cambyses II against Egypt. By this time, Polycrates had created a navy of 40 trireme

Trireme

File:Romtrireme.jpgThe trireme is a class of warships used by the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean, especially the Phoenicians, ancient Greece and ancient Rome....
s, probably becoming the first Greek state with a fleet of such ships. He manned these triremes with men he considered to be politically dangerous, and instructed Cambyses to execute them; the exiles suspected Polycrates' plan, however, and turned back from Egypt to attack the tyrant. They defeated Polycrates at sea but could not take the island. They then sailed to mainland Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
and allied with Sparta

Sparta

Sparta was a city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the Eurotas River in the southern part of the Peloponnese. From circa 650 BC it rose to become the dominant military power in the region and as such was recognized as the overall leader of the combined Greek forces during the Greco-Persian Wars....
and Corinth, who invaded the island. After 40 days they withdrew their unsuccessful siege.

Herodotus also tells the story of Polycrates' death. Near the end of the reign of Cambyses, the governor of Sardis

Sardis

Sardis, also Sardes , modern Sart in the Manisa province of Turkey, was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia, one of the important cities of the Persian Empire, the seat of a proconsul under the Roman Empire, and the metropolis of the province Lydia in later Roman and Byzantine Empire times....
, Oroetes, planned to kill Polycrates, either because he had been unable to add Samos to Persia's territory, or because Polycrates had supposedly snubbed a Persian ambassador. In any case, Polycrates was invited to Sardis, and despite the prophetic warnings of his daughter, he was assassinated. The manner is not recorded by Herodotus, as it was apparently an undignified end for a glorious tyrant, but he may have been impaled

Impalement

Impalement is a term that refers to situations in which objects are driven through the body, causing deep stabbing wounds. It can refer either to accidental events or to deliberate wounding used as a method of torture or execution....
and his dead body was crucified

Crucifixion

Crucifixion is an ancient method of execution , whereby the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead....
.

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, by Jona Lendering

Polycrates

See also

External links