Polycrates
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Polycrate Proper-name noun masculine ablative singular of Polycrates
- a prince of Samos, and friend of Amasis, celebrated for his good fortune, but at last crucified by the Persian governor Oroetes, Cic. Fin. 5, 30, 92; Val. Max. 6, 9, 5 ext.— Gr. acc. in -en, Quint. 2, 17, 4.
(Πολυκράτης), historical.
1. Of Samos, one of the most fortunate, ambitious, and treacherous of the Greek tyrants. With the assistance of his brothers Pantagnotus and Syloson, he made himself master of the island towards the latter end of the reign of Cyrus. At first he shared the supreme power with his brothers; but he shortly afterwards put Pantagnotus to death and banished Syloson. Having thus become sole despot, he raised a fleet of a hundred ships, and took a thousand bowmen into his pay. With this force he conquered several of the islands, and even some towns on the main land; he made war upon Miletus, and defeated in a sea-fight the Lesbians, who had come to the assistance of the latter city. His navy became the most formidable in the Grecian world; and he formed the design of conquering all the Ionian cities as well as the islands in the Aegean. He had formed an alliance with Amasis, king of Egypt, who, however, finally renounced it through alarm at the amazing good fortune of Polycrates, which never met with any check or disaster, and which therefore was sure, sooner or later, to incur the envy of the gods. Such, at least, is the account of Herodotus, who has narrated the story of the rupture between Amasis and Polycrates in his most dramatic manner. In a letter which Amasis wrote to Polycrates, the Egyptian monarch advised him to throw away one of his most valuable possessions, in order that he might thus inflict some injury upon himself. In accordance with this advice Polycrates threw into the sea a seal-ring of extraordinary beauty; but in a few days it was found in the belly of a fish, which had been presented to him by a fisherman. Thereupon Amasis immediately broke off his alliance with him. Of course the story is a fiction; and Mr. Grote remarks (Hist. of Greece, vol. iv. p. 323) with justice, that the facts related by Herodotus rather lead us to believe that it was Polycrates, who, with characteristic faith-lessness, broke off his alliance with Amasis, finding it more for his interest to cultivate friendship with Cambyses, when the latter was preparing to invade Egypt, B. C. 525. He sent to the assistance of the Persian monarch forty ships, on which he placed all the persons opposed to his government, and at the same time privately requested Cambyses that they might never be allowed to return. But these malcontents either never went to Egypt, or found means to escape; they sailed back to Samos, and made war upon the tyrant, but were defeated by the latter. Thereupon they repaired to Sparta for assistance, which was readily granted. The Corinthians likewise, who had a special cause of quarrel against the Samians, joined the Spartans, and their united forces accompanied by the exiles sailed against Samos. They laid siege to the city for forty days, but at length despairing of taking it, they abandoned the island, and left the exiles to shift for themselves. The power of Polycrates now became greater than ever. The great works which Herodotus saw and admired at Samos were probably executed by him, He lived in great pomp and luxury, and like some of the other Greek tyrants was a patron of literature and the arts. The most eminent artists and poets found a ready welcome at his court; and his friendship for Anacreon is particularly celebrated. But in the midst of all his prosperity he fell by the most ignominious fate. Oroetes, the satrap of Sardis, had for some reason, which is quite unknown, formed a deadly hatred against Polycrates. By false pretences, the satrap contrived to allure him to the mainland, where he was arrested soon after his arrival, and crucified, B. C. 522. (Hdt. 3.39-47, 54_56, 120_125; Thuc. 1.13 ; Athen. 12.540.)
2. An Athenian, a lochagus in the army of the Cyrean Greeks, is mentioned several times by Xenophon, whom he defended on one occasion. (Xen. Anab. 4.5.24, 5.1.16, 7.2. §§ 17, 29, 7.6.41.)
3. An Argive, the son of Mnasiades, descended from an illustrious family at Argos, came over to the court of the Egyptian monarch Ptolemy Philopator, just before his campaign against Antiochus III., in B. C. 217. Polycrates was of great service in drilling and encouraging the Egyptian troops, and he commanded the cavalry on the left wing at the battle of Raphia, in B. C. 217, in which Antiochus was defeated, and which secured to Ptolemy the provinces of Coele-Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine. Although Polycrates was still young he was second to no one, says Polybius, in the king's court, and was accordingly appointed by Ptolemy governor of Cyprus. The duties of this office he discharged with the utmost fidelity and integrity ; he secured the island for Ptolemy Epiphanes, the infant son and successor of Philopator, and on his return to Alexandria about B. C. 196, he brought with him a considerable sum of money for the use of the monarch. He was received at Alexandria with great applause, and forthwith obtained great power in the kingdom; but as he advanced in years, his character changed for the worse, and he indulged in every kind of vice and wickedness. We are ignorant of his subsequent career, in consequence of the loss of the later books of Polybius ; but we learn from a fragment of the historian that it was through his evil advice that Ptolemy took no part in military affairs, although he had reached the age of twenty-five. (Plb. 5.64, 65, 82, 84, 18.38, 23.16.)
(Πολυκράτης), an Athenian rhetorician and sophist of some repute, a contemporary of Socrates and Isocrates.
He taught first at Athens and afterwards at Cyprus. He is mentioned as the teacher of Zoilus. He is named along with some of the most distinguished orators of his time by Dionysius of Halicarnassus (de Isaeo, 100.8, de Dem. Eloc. 100.20), who, however, finds great fault with his style. Works
He wrote,-- 1. An accusation of Socrates (κατηγορία Σωκράτους).
This is said by some writers to have been the speech delivered by Melitus at the trial of Socrates; but as it contained allusion to an event which occurred six years after the death of the philosopher, it would seem to have been simply a declamation on the subject composed at a subsequent period. (D. L. 2.38, 39, with the note of Menagius; Aelian, Ael. VH 11.10, with the note of Perizonius; Isocr. Busiris, § 4, &c.; Quint. Inst. 2.17.1, 3.1.11; Suidas, s. v. Πολυκράτης.) 2. Βουσίριδος Ἀπολογία.
The oration of Isocrates, entitled Busiris, is addressed to Polycrates, and points out the faults which the latter had committed in his oration on this subject. 3. Ἐγκώμιον Θρασυδούλου
(Schol. ad Arist. Rhet. p. 48). 4. Περὶ Ἀφροδισίων
An obscene poem on love, which he published under the name of the poetess Philaenis, for the purpose of injuring her reputation (Athen. 8.335c. d.). Other Possible Works Λακωνικά
It is doubtful whether the above-mentioned Polycrates is the same as the Polycrates who wrote a work on Laconia (Λακωνικά) referred to by Athenaeus (iv. p. 139d.). Panegyric on Helen
Spengel supposes that the rhetorician Polycrates is the author of the Panegyric on Helen, which has come down to us as the work of Gorgias. (Westermann, Geschichte der Griech. Beredtsamkeit, § 50, n. 22.)
(Πολυκράτης).
1. A statuary, whom Pliny mentions among those who made athletas et armatos et venatores sacrificantesque (H. N. 34.8. s. 19.34). There is a fragment of a Hermes in the Villa Mattei, bearing the mutilated inscription,
ΤΙΜΟΘΕΟΣ ΑΘΗ... ΠΟΛΓΚΡ...........
on which slight basis Visconti rests the hypothesis that Polycrates was an Athenian artist, contemporary with Timotheus, and that the Hermes in question was a copy of a bronze statue of Timotheus by Polycrates. A simpler hypothesis would be to complete the inscription thus, Τιμόθεος Ἀθηναῖος ἀνέθηκε, Πολυκράτης ἐποίει. (Monum. Mattei vol. iii. n. 118; Visconti, Icon. Grecque, vol. i. p. 150, n.; R. Rochette, Lettre à M. Schorn, pp. 389-390.)
2. An engraver of precious stones, known by an inscription on a gem representing Eros and Psyche. (Mariette, Traité, &c. vol. i. p. 421; R. Rochette, Lettre à M. Schorn, p. 149.) [P.S]
- Paus. 6.17.9
- Paus. 1.2.3
- despot of Samos, son of Aeaces, his friendship with Amasis: Hdt. 2.182, Hdt. 3.39, Hdt. 3.40
- his successes and alarming good luck: Hdt. 3.39-43
- his emerald signet: Paus. 8.14.8
- his war with Lacedaemon: Hdt. 3.44-46, Hdt. 3.54-56
- induced to leave Samos, and murdered by Oroetes: Hdt. 3.120-125