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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
It is a commonplace that the age of the early tyrants was an age of extraordinary commercial development. The invention of coinage, the most important invention in the history of commerce, dates from that age. In what personal relationship did the tyrants stand to this commercial development? They are often assumed to have been merely one of its passive products. Is it not possible that the founder of the tyranny was the man who turned to greatest advantage for political purposes the unique commercial conditions of the age in which he lived? Thucydides connects the rise of tyrannies with money making. Does not the saying χρήματ᾿ ἀνήρ which dates from this time, suggest that the tyrants were the leading members of this new class of nouveaux riches, and that they owed their political supremacy to their previous commercial predominance? The indications are of course exceedingly slight.
1 For the generally received view concerning the genesis of the tyrannis see Beloch, , G.G. i. 312, 313Google Scholar; Plass, , Die, Tyrannis, i. 120, 121Google Scholar; Guiraud, , La main-d'œuvre industrielle dans l'ancienne Grèce, 29Google Scholar; Radet, La Lydie, ch. iv.
2 i. 13.
3 Hdt. ii. 178; iii. 47, 48, 59; v. 99; Et. Mag. Σαμοθρᾁκη ib. ῾Ηραῖον Τεῖχος Athen. vi. 267 A; Plut., De Mal. Hdt. 22Google Scholar; Q. Gr. liv.
4 Thuc. i. 13; Pliny vii. ch. 57.
5 Hdt. iv. 152.
6 Collignon, , La sculpture grecque, i. p. 151Google Scholar. The Samian voyage to Tarshish (620 B.C. Macan, Hdt. 4, 5, 6, i. p. 106) gives the latest date for the beginning of this industry; Apul., Florid. ii. 15Google Scholar.
7 Theocr. xv. 125.
8 Plut., Q. Gr. 57Google Scholar.
9 Apul., Florid, ii. 15Google Scholar; Aesch., Pers. 883Google Scholar.
10 Thuc. i. 13; Hdt. iii. 39; cf. also Euseb. Chron. Armenian version, mare obtinuerunt Samii, just after the notice of Polycrates becoming tyrant. Latin version Dicearchiam Samii condiderunt, just after the notice of Polycrates' accession.
11 Hdt. iii. 60.
12 Hesych. Σαμιακὀς τρὁπος Phot. Σαμαίνη Plut. Pericles xxvi.; Athen, xii. 540e.
13 i. 13.
14 Phot, and Suid., Πὐθια καὶ Δἡλια φασὶ Πολυκρἀτη τὸν Σάμου τύραννον, Πύθια καὶ Δήλια ποίησαντα σ᾿´μα ἐν Δήλῳ πέμψαι εἰς θεοῦ χρησό μενον κ.τ.λ. τὴν Πυθίαν ἀνελεῖν ῾ταῦτά σοι καὶ Πύθια καὶ Δήλια,᾿ βουλομένην δηλοῦν ὄτι ἔσχατα μετ᾿ ὀλίγον γὰρ χρόνον αὐτὸν ἀπολέσθαι συνέβη
15 Str. x. 486.
16 Is it conceivable that the repeated purifications of Delos in the sixth and fifth centuries may not only have had a religious signification, but may also have meant the repeated restriction of a commercial element that was constantly reasserting itself?
17 Hdt. iii. 47 and 48, where observe the causes to which Herodotus attributes the war.
18 Cf. Hdt. iii. 39 with Diod. i. 95 and 98.
19 Ath. 540 c.
20 Hdt. iv. 152.
21 Note however that he was the patron of Theodoras, who was famous not only as a jeweller but also as a maker of metal vases (Hdt. i. 51, Ath. xii. 514f). It will be shown immediately that Polycrates owed his throne to the κατασκευή of ποτήρια. The ποτήρια were almost certainly of metal, ποτήρια κεραμεᾶ are only once mentioned in the passages quoted by Liddell and Scott (Ath. 464 a), whereas there are numerous passages in which ποτήρια are specifically stated to be of metal (χάλκεα Hdt. ix. 37; ἀργυρᾶ, χρυσᾶ C.I. 138 7, 19, 27 et alibi. Hdt. iii. 148). The fact of their being lent for μείζονας ὑποδοχάς is most decisive of all. It may well be the case therefore that Theodoras was something more to Polycrates than merely his crown jeweller and silversmith. Some ancient authorities held that Theodoras flourished 150 years before Polycrates, Plin., N.H. xxxv. 43 (152)Google Scholar. Theodoras is always associated with Rhoecus, and the two names may have been borne in alternate generations by one family of artists. This would not require the Rhoeci to have flourished longer in Samos than the Wedgwoods have in Staffordshire. Whether or no this explanation holds, the divergence in dates points to the industry having flourished for a long time in the island. If one date for Theodoras be insisted on, that of Herodotus (i. 51), which makes the artist the elder contemporary of Polycrates, must of course be chosen (see Frazer, Paus. iv. p. 237).
22 Ibid. 540 D (from Alexis) πρόβατα ἐκ Μιλήτου καὶ τῆς ᾿Αττικῆς Cf. also Hdt. iv. 164. Polycrates' support of Arcesilaus, the banished tyrant of Cyrene, in μηλοτρόφος Λιβύη (Hdt. iv. 155, cf. the oracle in iv. 159 where reference is made to Cyrenean fleeces).
23 One reported act of Polycrates seems quite out of keeping with his character as a great merchant. He is said to have debased the coinage (Hdt. iii. 56). But Herodotus mentions this report only to reject it as ματαιότερος In any case it was only a desperate expedient for getting rid of an invader.
24 It seems probable that Polycrates' brother and partner at first in the tyranny was also originally a merchant or manufacturer of woollen goods. At any rate after his banishment we find Darius wanting to buy a χλανίς from him. According to Herodotus (iii. 139) it was the one that Syloson was at the moment wearing. The incident took place in Egypt. Syloson was one of the Greeks who had followed Cambyses there. Some of these had come κατ᾿ ἐμπορίην some στρατευὁμενοι some as mere sightseers. Syloson, who ἠγόραζε ἐν τῇ Μέμφι at the moment of Darius' request, replied ἐγώ ταύτην πωλέω μὲν οὐδενὸς χρήματος δίδωμι δὲ ἄλλως The incident suggests that Syloson was in Memphis κατ᾿ ἐμπορίην as a merchant in χλανίδες The unromantic commercial aspect of the transaction between Syloson and Darius, which is already obscured in Herodotus' account, has quite disappeared in that of Strabo (xiv. 638), who makes no mention of Darius' offer to purchase.
25 Hdt. iv. 152.
26 Ar., Pol. viii. 11Google Scholar, p. 1313 b; Athen. 540 D.
27 Hdt. iii. 39 and 45.
28 Hdt. iii. 120.
29 Suidas, Σαμίων ὁ δῆμος
30 Strabo, xiv. 638 ἔκητι Συλοσῶντος εὐρυ χωρίη Phot. and Suid. loc. cit. σπάνει τῶν πολιτευομένων
31 i. 31 μισθῷ πείθοντες
32 Ath. 540 D; cf. Hdt. iii. 131.
33 Hdt. ii. 167 μεμαθήκασι δ᾿ ὦν τοῦτο (contempt of χειροτέχναι) πάντες οἰ ῾´Ελληνες
34 Besitz und Erwerb, S. 321.
35 Hes. Op. 309 ἔργον οὐδὲν ὄνειδος and Homer, passim; cf. Plut. Sol. xxii. πρὸς τὰς τέχνας ἔτρεψε τοὺς πολίτας
36 Demosth., κατ’ Ἀφόβου p. 816Google Scholar; Lysias, xii. 19; Xen., de Vect. 4. 14Google Scholar (Nicias' mining works).
37 Ar., Pol. iv. 9Google Scholar, 1328, οὔτε βάναυσον βίον οὔτ᾿ ἀγοραῖον δεῖ ζῆν τοὺς πολίτας
38 Pliny, vii. 57 (Delphin, p. 1425), Figlinas Coroebus inuenit Atheniensis.
39 Perrot, vii. p. 160.
40 Hdt. v. 82–88.
41 Thuc. i. 126.
42 B.M., Vases, vol. ii. Introduction p. 2Google Scholar.
43 Plut. Sol. 24.
44 Another proof that Athens was at this time too backward commercially to have been overcome by the wealth of a would-be despot and to have ‘stablished a tyrant, yielding to gain’ (Theog.) is that the first Athenian colony was not founded till between 560 and 555, duriug the first reign of Peisistratus, Busolt, i. 2, 316; Anm. 3.
45 Plut., Sol. 2Google Scholar.
46 Hdt. i. 59 στασιαζόντων τῶν Παράλων καὶ τῶν ἐκ τοῦ Πεδίου ἤγειρε τρίτην στάσιν
47 Hdt. i. 64.
48 Resp. Ath. 15 of Peisistratus' second banishment.
49 Ar., Resp. Ath. 13, 14Google Scholar.
50 Cf. Alcaeus fr. Χα·κιδικαὶ σπάθαι Aesch. fr. Εὐβοϊκὸν ξίφος Strabo, x. 447 § 9 and name Chalcis. Hesychius says that there were Διακριεῖς in Euboea as well as in Attica. Διάκριοι is a literal translation of Bergleuten, the German for miners. The mining population of South Wales is always spoken of in Cardiff as the people up (in) the hills.
51 Hyp. fr. 33 Blass; Xen., de Vect. 4. 14Google Scholar and 15 and passim; Thuc. vii. 27.
52 Dem. xlii. § 20.
53 Ardaillon, , Les Mines de Laurium, p. 91Google Scholar.
54 Bergk 12 (4). 49, 50.
55 Pythes of Phrygia is reported to have used citizen labour in his mines a generation after Polyerates (Plut., de Mul. Virt. ii. 262)Google Scholar.
56 Parteien in Megara u. Athen, p. 85.
57 Thucydides does iudeed speak of τὴν πάραλον γῆν καλουμένην which suggests that the word πάραλος is conventional. But by this expression Thucydides surely only means that this was the Attic word for the Attic coast. His own word for the Peloponnesian shore in the very next sentence is τὰ ἐπιθαλάσσια
58 Διακρία-χώρα ἡ ἀπὸ Πάρνηθος Βαβυλῶ νος (editors ἔως Βραυρῶνος).
59 ii. 55.
60 The Attic μέταλλα first appear in history in 484 B.C. (Hdt. vii. 144; Plut. Them, iv; Ar., Resp. Ath. 22)Google Scholar, when τὰ μέταλλα τὰ ἐν Μαρωνείᾳ ἐφάνη But this does not show that they had not previously influenced Attic history. They had certainly been worked ages earlier. ‘La disposition des gisements’ (at Maronea), says Ardaillon, (Les Mines de Laurmm pp. 132, 133)Google Scholar, ‘est telle que les plus riches ne sont pas ceux qui pouvaient être atteints les premiers.’ A technical explanation of the veins follows. ‘Il fallut donc des siècles de recherche et d'efforts [Cf. Xen., de Vect. iv. 2Google Scholar, οὐδεὶς οὐδὲ πειρᾶται λέγειν ἀπὸ ποίου χρὁνου ἐπεχειρήθη (τὰ ἀργύρεια] pour en soupçonner l'existence et en atteindre le niveau’ (i.e. of the rich vein ‘discovered’ in 484). Athens was tempted to work the somewhat poor upper veins in the sixth century by the great demand for silver caused by the introduction of a silver coinage. The poorness of the veins which Peisistratus worked, is confirmed by the fact that to root his tyranny firmly he had to start fresh workings in Thrace. For Thracian silver mines see Strabo Z 331 fr. 34 καὶ αὐτὸ τὸ πάγγαιον ὔρος χρυσεῖα καὶ ἀργύρεια ἔχει μέταλλα (cf. Resp. Ath. 15 sup.) and Hdt. v. 17 near lake Prasias on the Strymon (cf. Hdt. i. 64 sup.).
61 Plut., Sol. 31Google Scholarτὸν δὲ τῆς ἀργίας νόμον οὐ Σὁλων ἔθηκεν ἀλλἀ Πεισίστρατος Cf. Periander, , Nic. Dam. fr. 58Google Scholar (Bus. i. 1. 646 Anm. 2), ἐκώλυε τοὺς πολίτας δούλους κτᾶσθαι καὶ σχολὴν ἄγειν ἀεὶ τινα αὐτοῖς ἔργα ἐξευρίσκων Her. Pont., fr. 5Google Scholar. Wilisch, Die Altkorinthische Thonindustrie, p. 15Google Scholar.
62 Aristot., Oecon. ii. 4Google Scholar.
63 Hdt. v. 94 κρατήσας δὲ αὐτοῦ (Πεισίστρατος Σιγείουὶ κατέστησε τύραννον εἶναι παῖδα ἐωυτοῦ νόθον Cf. Periander and Corcyra.
64 Thuc. vi. 59.
65 Hdt. vi. 39.
66 Cardia and Limnae in the Thracian Chersonese were Milesian colonies (Str. xiv. 635, vii. 331, fr. 52).
67 Athenatypen, pp. 20–21.
68 F.H.G. iii. p. 72 fr. 1; Et. Mag. τύραννος
69 Archil. Bergk, 19 (2); Str. xiii. 626, xiv. 680.
70 Cf. Str. xiii. 1. 22 and 23 with Radet, , La Lydie, pp. 172–3Google Scholar.
71 Pl. Rep. ii. 359 D.
72 Plut., Q. Gr. 32Google Scholar.
73 Hdt. v. 28.
74 Ib. v. 23.
75 La Lydie, pp. 134 and 148.
76 Cf. Sol. 2 (13) 6 χρἡμασι πειθόμενοι Theogn. 823 κέρδεσιν εἴκων
77 Thuc. i. 13; Str. viii. 378.
78 Wilisch, , Die Altkorinthische Thonindustrie, p. 151Google Scholar.
79 Thuc. i. 13, τῶν Ελλήνων τὸ πάλαι κατὰ γῆν ἐπιμισγόντων and the account of Ameinocles' invention in the same chapter.
80 Op. cit. p. 151.
81 From Gonussa, Paus. v. 18. 7.
82 Can the story of the infant Cypselus being concealed in a kypsele mean that the future tyrant spent his earlier days in the obscurity of a pottery?
83 Ar., Pol. viii. 1305Google Scholar A.
84 Xen., Mem. ii. 7. 6Google Scholar; Bus., G.G. i. 1. 471Google Scholar.
85 117, 449, 499, 1105, 1164 g.h. (money); 576, 619, 671 f., 691, 856, 1202 (shipping), and note the large number of similes and metaphors in the oligarchic Theognis drawn from money and shipping.
86 679, 318, 523–6, 683.
87 621, 679, 699, 1157.
88 4. 3 and 2. 5 (Bergk); cf. Theog. 44 f., 823.
89 Is it possible to see in Solon 12, 29–32 a reference to the fates of the various tyrant families of the seventh century?
90 Theog. 679.
