Sicyon

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Sicyon

Sikyon was an ancient Greek

Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
city situated in the northern Peloponnesus between Corinth and Achaea

Achaea

Achaea is an ancient province and a present prefectures of Greece of Greece, on the northern coast of the Peloponnese, stretching from the mountain ranges of Erymanthus and Cyllene on the south to a narrow strip of fertile land on the north, bordering the Gulf of Corinth, into which the mountain Panachaicus projects....
. The king-list given by Pausanias

Pausanias (geographer)

Pausanias was a Roman Greece traveller and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius....
comprises twenty-four kings, beginning with the autochthonous Aegialeus; the penultimate king of the list, Agamemnon

Agamemnon

In Greek mythology, Agamemnon / is the son of King Atreus of Mycenae and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus and the husband of Clytemnestra; different mythological versions make him the king either of Mycenae or of Argos....
, compels the submission of Sicyon to Mycenae

Mycenae

Mycenae , is an archaeology in Greece, located about 90 km south-west of Athens, in the north-eastern Peloponnese. Argos is 6 km to the south; Corinth, 48 km to the north....
; after him comes the Dorian

Dorian

The 'Dorians' were one of the three major tribes into which the Ancient Greece divided themselves. Herodotus gave the earliest historical expression of a three-fold division: "......
usurper Phalces. Pausanias shares his source with Castor of Rhodes, who used the king-list in compiling tables of history; the common source was convincingly identified by F.

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Sikyon was an ancient Greek

Ancient Greece

Achaea

Pausanias (geographer)

Agamemnon

Mycenae

Dorian

Menaechmus

Menaechmus was an ancient Greek mathematician and list of geometers born in Alopeconnesus , who was known for his friendship with the renowned philosopher Plato and for his apparent discovery of conic sections and his solution to the then-long-standing problem of doubling the cube using the parabola and hyperbola....
of Sicyon.

Sicyon was built on a low triangular plateau

Plateau

In geology and earth science, a plateau, also called a high plateau or tableland, is an area of highland , usually consisting of relatively flat terrain....
about two miles from the Corinthian Gulf. Between the city and its port lay a fertile plain with olive

Olive

The Olive is a species of small tree in the family Oleaceae, native to the coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean region, from Lebanon, Syria and the maritime parts of Turkey and northern Iran at the south end of the Caspian Sea....
groves and orchards. After the Dorian invasion

Dorian invasion

The Dorian invasion is a concept devised by historians of Ancient Greece to explain the replacement of pre-classical dialects and traditions in southern Greece by the ones that prevailed in Classical Greece....
the community was divided into the ordinary three Dorian tribes and an equally privileged tribe of Ionians, besides which a class of serf

SERF

A spin-exchange relaxation-free magnetometer achieves very high magnetic field sensitivity by monitoring a high density vapor of alkali metal atoms precessing in a near-zero magnetic field....
s lived on and worked the land.

For some centuries, Sicyon remained subject to Argos

Argos

Argos is a city in Greece in the Peloponnese near Nafplion, which was its historic harbour, named for Nauplius ....
, where its Dorian conquerors had come from; as late as 500 BC it acknowledged a certain suzerainty. However, its virtual independence was established in the 7th century BC, when a line of tyrants arose and initiated an anti-Dorian policy. Chief of these rulers was the founder's grandson Cleisthenes

Cleisthenes of Sicyon

Cleisthenes was the tyrant of Sicyon from c.600-570 BC, who aided in the First Sacred War against Kirrha that destroyed that city in 595 BC. He is also told to have organized with success a war against Argos because of his anti-Dorians feelings....
, the uncle of the Athenian legislator Cleisthenes

Cleisthenes

Cleisthenes was a noble Athens of the Alcmaeonidae family. He is credited with reforming the constitution of ancient Athens and setting it on a Athenian democracy footing in 508 BC or 507 BC....
. Besides reforming the city's constitution to the advantage of the Ionians and replacing Dorian cults with the worship of Dionysus

Dionysus

In classical mythology, Dionysus or Dionysos , is the God of wine, the inspirer of ritual madness and ecstasy, and a major figure of Greek mythology, and one of the twelve Olympians, among whom Greek mythology treated Dionysus as a late arrival....
, Cleisthenes gained renown as the chief instigator and general of the First Sacred War

First Sacred War

The First Sacred War was fought between the Amphictyonic League of Delphi and the city of Kirrha. The conflict arose due to Kirrha's frequent robbery and mistreatment of pilgrims going to Delphi and their encroachments upon Delphic land....
(590 BC) in the interests of the Delphian

Delphian

Delphian can refer to:*Delphi Ancient Greek sanctuary* The Delphian, a newspaper* Delphian League, an amateur football league* Delphian School, the founding school of Delphi Schools...
s.

About this time, Sicyon developed the various industries for which it was noted in antiquity. As the abode of the sculptors Dipoenus and Scyllis

Dipoenus and Scyllis

Dipoenus and Scyllis were early Art in Ancient Greece sculpture from Crete who worked together and were said to have been pupils of Daedalus....
it gained pre-eminence in woodcarving and bronze work such as is still to be seen in the archaic metal facings found at Olympia

Olympia, Greece

Olympia , a sanctuary of ancient Greece in Elis, is known for having been the site of the Olympic Games in classical times, comparable in importance to the Pythian Games held in Delphi....
. Its pottery, which resembled Corinthian ware, was exported with the latter as far as Etruria

Etruria

Etruria — usually referred to in Greek language and Latin language source texts as Tyrrhenia — was a region of Central Italy, an area that covered part of what now are Tuscany, Latium, Emilia-Romagna and Umbria....
. In Sicyon also the art of painting

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . In art, the term describes both the act and the result, which is called a painting....
was supposed to have been invented. After the fall of the tyrants their institutions survived till the end of the 6th century BC, when Dorian supremacy was re-established, perhaps by the agency of 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 the city was enrolled in the Peloponnesian League

Peloponnesian League

The Peloponnesian League was an alliance of states in the Peloponnese in the 6th century BC and 5th century BC.By the end of the 6th century, Sparta had become the most powerful state in the Peloponnese, and was the political and military hegemon over Argos, the next most powerful state....
. Henceforth, its policy was usually determined either by Sparta

Sparta

Corinth

Corinth, or Korinth Corinth is now the capital of the Prefectures of Greece of Corinthia. The city is surrounded by the coastal townlets of Lechaio, Isthmia, Kechries, and the inland townlets of Examilia and the archaeological site....
.

In the 5th century BC Sicyon, like Corinth, suffered from the commercial rivalry of Athens

Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
in the western seas, and was repeatedly harassed by squadrons of Athenian ships. In the Peloponnesian War

Peloponnesian War

The Peloponnesian War which lasted from 431-404BC was an Ancient Greece military conflict, fought by Athens and its Athenian empire against the Peloponnesian League, led by Sparta....
Sicyon followed the lead of Sparta and Corinth. When these two powers quarrelled after the peace of Nicias

Peace of Nicias

The Peace of Nicias was a peace treaty signed between the Ancient Greece city-states of Athens and Sparta in the March of 421 BC, ending the first half of the Peloponnesian War....
it remained loyal to the Spartans. Again in the Corinthian war

Corinthian War

The Corinthian War was an Ancient Greece conflict lasting from 395 BC until 387 BC, pitting Sparta against a coalition of four allied states; Thebes , History of Athens#Classical Athens, Corinth, and Argos; which were initially backed by Achaemenid Dynasty....
, Sicyon sided with Sparta and became its base of operations against the allied troops round Corinth. In 369

369 BC

Events...
it was captured and garrisoned by the Theban

Thebes, Greece

Thebes is a city in Greece, situated to the north of the Cithaeron range, which divides Boeotia from Attica, Greece, and on the southern edge of the Boeotian plain....
s in their successful attack on the Peloponnesian League. During this period Sicyon reached its zenith as a centre of art: its school of painting gained fame under Eupompus

Eupompus

Eupompus was the founder of the great school of painting which flourished in the 4th century BC at Sicyon in Ancient Greece. He was eclipsed by his successors, and is chiefly remembered for the advice which he is said to have given to Lysippus to follow nature rather than any master....
and attracted the great masters Pamphilus

Pamphilus (painter)

Pamphilus of Amphipolis was a Macedon distinguished painter and head of Sicyonian school. He was the disciple of Eupompus, the founder of the Sicyonian school of painting , for the establishment of which, how?ever, Pamphilus seems to have done much more than even Eupompus himself....
and Apelles

Apelles

Apelles of Kos was a renowned Painting of ancient Greece. Pliny the Elder, to whom we owe much of our knowledge of this artist rated him superior to preceding and subsequent artists....
as students; its sculpture was raised to a level hardly surpassed in Greece by Lysippus and his pupils.

The destruction of Corinth (146

146 BC

Events...
) brought Sicyon an acquisition of territory and the presidency over the Isthmian games

Isthmian Games

The Isthmian Games or Isthmia were one of the Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece, and were named after the Isthmus of Corinth of Corinth, where they were held....
; yet in Cicero

Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Ancient Rome philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Constitution of the Roman Republic. Cicero is widely considered one of Rome's greatest rhetoric and prose stylists....
's time it had fallen deep into debt. Under the Roman empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
it was quite obscured by the restored cities of Corinth and Patrae; in Pausanias

Pausanias (geographer)

Pausanias was a Roman Greece traveller and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius....
' age (A.D. 150) it was almost desolate. In Byzantine

Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are conventional names used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople....
times it became a bishop's seat, and to judge by its later name Hellas it served as a refuge for the Greeks from the Slavonic immigrants of the 8th century.

The village of Vasiliko

Vasiliko

Vasiliko may refer to the following places in Greece:*Vasiliko, Achaea, a village in Achaea*Vasiliko, Euboea, a village in Euboea*Vasiliko, Ioannina, a village in the Ioannina Prefecture...
(described by the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica as "insignificant") now occupies the site.

This is one of the historical sites least visited by tourists in Greece. , entry to all areas except the small museum is unrestricted.

Notable people

Butades
Butades

Butades of Sicyon, sometimes mistakenly called Dibutades, was the first ancient Greek sculpture in clay. The period at which he flourished is unknown, but has been put at about 600 BC....
(7th century BC) sculptor
Canachus
Canachus

Canachus was a sculpture of Sicyon in Achaea, of the latter part of the 6th century BCE. He was especially noted as the author of two great statues of Apollo, one in bronze made for the temple at Miletus, and one in cedar wood made for Thebes ....
(6th century BC) sculptor
Aristocles
Aristocles (sculptors)

Aristocles is a name attributed to two sculptors in Ancient Greece, as well as a nominal hereditary school of sculpture, started by the elder Aristocles, known to us primarily through different passages in Pausanias....
(5th century BC) sculptor
Praxilla
Praxilla

Praxilla, of Sicyon, was a Ancient Greece lyric poet of the 5th century BC. According to Athenaeus , she was famous as a composer of scolia , which were considered equal to those of Alcaeus and Anacreon ....
(5th century BC) poetess
Eupompus
Eupompus

Eupompus was the founder of the great school of painting which flourished in the 4th century BC at Sicyon in Ancient Greece. He was eclipsed by his successors, and is chiefly remembered for the advice which he is said to have given to Lysippus to follow nature rather than any master....
(4th century BC) painter
Melanthius
Melanthius

Melanthios was a notable Greece Painting of the 4th century BC. He belonged to the school of Sicyon, which was noted for fine drawing.Melanthios is also one of the minor characters who plays an important role in the context of Homer's epic poem, Odyssey....
(4th century BC) painter
Pausias
Pausias

Pausias was an Ancient Greece painter of the first half of the 4th century, of the school of Sicyon. He introduced the custom of painting ceilings of houses....
(4th century BC) painter
Eutychides
Eutychides

Eutychides of Sicyon in Ach?a, Greece sculpture of the latter part of the 4th century BC, was a pupil of Lysippus. His most noted work was a statue of Tyche, which he made for the city of Antioch, then newly founded....
(4th century BC) sculptor
Lysippos
Lysippos

Lysippos was a Greece sculpture of the 4th century BC. Together with Scopas and Praxiteles, he is considered one of the three great sculptors of the Ancient Greece era, bringing transition into the Hellenistic period....
(4th century BC) sculptor
Lysistratus
Lysistratus

Lysistratus was a Ancient Greece sculpture of the 4th century BC, brother of Lysippus of Sicyon. We are told by Pliny the Elder that he followed a strongly realistic line, being the first sculptor to take impressions of human faces in plaster....
(4th century BC) sculptor
Xenokrates
Xenokrates of Sicyon

Xenokrates of Sicyon was an Ancient Greece sculptor and writer, and one of the world's first art history. Three signed statue bases are all that survive of his work....
(3rd century BC) sculptor
Sostrates (4th century BC) pankratiast; thrice Olympic champion
Aratos of Sicyon (3rd century BC) Head of Achaean League

External links

, Ellen Papakyriakou/Anagnostou. Contains a great deal of information on ancient and present-day Sicyon.
, The Ancient Theatre Archive. Theatre specifications and tour of the ancient theatre.