Home > Polycrates

He took power during a festival of Hera with his brothers Pantagnotus and Syloson, but soon had Pantagnotus killed and exiled Syloson to take full control for himself. He then allied with Amasis II, pharaoh of Egypt, as well as the tyrant of Naxos Lygdamis. With a navy of 100 penteconters and an army of 1000 archers, he plundered the islands of the Aegean Sea and the cities on the Ionian coast of Asia Minor, defeating and enslaving the navies of Lesbos and MiletusIn Greek mythology, Miletus was the founder of the city described below. He had two children: Caunus and Byblis. Miletus was an ancient Ionian Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia, in the Aydin Province of Turkey, near the mouth of the Maeander Riv. He also conquered the small island of Rhenea , which he chained to nearby DelosThe island of Delos ( Greek: , Dhilos , isolated in the centre of the roughly circular ring of islands called the Cyclades, near Mykonos, had a position as a holy sanctuary for a millennium before Olympian Greek mythology made it the birthplace of Apollo as a dedication to ApolloApollo ( Greek: , Apollon is a god in Greek and Roman mythology, the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin of Artemis (goddess of the hunt). In later times he became in part confused or equated with Helios, god of the sun, and his sister similarly equated wi.

He had a reputation as both a fierce warrior and an enlightened tyrant. On Samos he built an aqueductThis article is about the structure aqueduct, for the racecourse see Aqueduct Racetrack. An aqueduct is an artificial (man-made) channel that is constructed to convey water (properly called a canal) from one location to another. Many aqueducts are raised, a large temple of Hera (to which Amasis dedicated many gifts), and a palace later rebuilt by the Roman emperor CaligulaGaius Julius Caesar Germanicus ( August 31, AD 12 January 24, AD 41), also known as Gaius Caesar or Caligula was the third Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, ruling from AD 37 to 41. Known for his extremely extravagant, eccentric, and sometimes. He was a patron of the poet AnacreonAnacreon can refer to: Anacreon (poet), a poet and lyricist from ancient Greece Anacreon (planet), a fictional planet in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series Anacreon (computer game), a computer game inspired by the Foundation series Disambiguation., and of the CrotonCroton or Crotona (present-day Crotone , in the "toe" of the Italian peninsula, was an Achaean colony from c. 710 BC on the coast of the Sinus Tarentinus ( Gulf of Taranto), that became a powerful early city of Magna Graecia. It was notable for its resideian doctor Democedes . According to Herodotus, 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 tryant. 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 king Cambyses II against Egypt. By this time, Polycrates had created a navy of 40 triremes, 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 tryant. They defeated Polycrates at sea but could not take the island. They then sailed to mainland Greece and allied with Sparta 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, 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 crucified.