Listed 24 sub titles with search on: Biographies for destination: "SARDIS Ancient city TURKEY".
The sovereign power that belonged to the descendants of Heracles fell to the family of Croesus, called the Mermnadae
Candaules (Kandaules). A monarch of Lydia, the last of the Heraclidae, dethroned by Gyges at the instigation of his own queen, whom he had insulted by showing her when naked to Gyges. (Consult Herod.i. 7 foll.) His true name appears to have been Myrsilus, and the appellation of Candaules to have been assumed by him as a title of honour, this latter being, in the Lydian language, equivalent to Heracles--i. e. the Sun.
Candaules (Kandaules), known also among the Greeks by the name of Myrsilus, was the last Heracleid king of Lydia. According to the account in Herodotus and Justin, he was extremely proud of his wife's beauty, and insisted on exhibiting her unveiled charms, but without her knowledge, to Gyges, his favourite officer. Gyges was seen by the queen as he was stealing from her chamber, and the next day she summoned him before her, intent on vengeance, and bade him choose whether he would undergo the punishment of death himself, or would consent to murder Candaules and receive the kingdom together with her hand. He chose the latter alternative, and became the founder of the dynasty of the Mennnadae, about B. C. 715. In Plato the story, in the form of the well-known fable of the ring of Gyges, serves the purpose of moral allegory. Plutarch, following in one place the story of Herodotus, speaks in another of Gyges as making war against Candaules with the help of some Carian auxiliaries (Herod. i. 7-13; Just. i. 7; Plat. de Repub. ii.; Cic. de Off. iii. 9; Plut. Quaest. Graec. 45, Sympos. i. 5.1) Candaules is mentioned by Pliny in two passages as having given Bularchus, the painter, a large sum of money ("pari rependit auro") for a picture representing a battle of the Magnetes. (Plin. H. N. vii. 38, xxxv. 8)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Gyges (Guges). A Lydian, to whom Candaules, king of the country, showed his wife with her person exposed. The latter, having discovered this, was so incensed, although she concealed her anger at the time, that, calling Gyges afterwards into her presence, she gave him his choice either to submit to instant death, or to slay her husband. Gyges chose the latter alternative, married the queen, and ascended the vacant throne, about 680 years before the Christian era. He was the first of the Mermnadae who ruled in Lydia. He reigned thirty-eight years, and distinguished himself by the presents which he made to the oracle of Delphi ( Herod.i. 8 foll.). The wife of Candaules above mentioned was called Nyssia, according to Hephaestion. The story of Rosamund, queen of the Lombards, as related by Gibbon, bears an exact resemblance to this of Candaules. Plato relates a curious legend respecting this Gyges, which differs essentially from the account given by Herodotus. He makes him to have been originally one of the shepherds of Candaules, and to have descended into a chasm, formed by heavy rains and an earthquake in the quarter where he was pasturing his flocks. In this chasm he discovered many wonderful things, and particularly a brazen horse having doors in it, through which he looked, and saw within a corpse of more than mortal size, having a golden ring on its finger. This ring he took off and reascended with it to the surface of the earth. Attending, after this, a meeting of his fellow-shepherds, who used to assemble once a month for the purpose of transmitting an account of their flocks to the king, he accidentally discovered that, when he turned the bezel of the ring inward towards himself, he became invisible, and when he turned it outward, again visible. Upon this, having caused himself to be chosen in the number of those who were sent on this occasion to the king, he murdered the monarch, with the aid of the queen, whom he previously corrupted, and ascended the throne of Lydia.
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Ardys (Ardus), king of Lydia, succeeded his father Gyges, and reigned from B. C. 680 to 631. He took Priene and made war against Miletus. During his reign the Cimmerians, who had been driven out of their abodes by the Nomad Scythians, took Sardis, with the exception of the citadel. (Herod. i. 15, 16; Paus. iv. 24.1)
Sadyattes (Saduattes). A king of Lydia, succeeded his father Ardys, and reigned B.C. 629-617. He carried on war with the Milesians for six years, and at his death bequeathed the war to his son and successor, Alyattes.
Alyattes, (Aluattes). A king of Lydia, who, in B.C. 617, succeeded his father Sadyattes, and was himself succeeded by his son Croesus (Herod. i. 16). The tomb of Alyattes, north of Sardis, near the lake Gygaea, which consisted of a large mound of earth raised upon a foundation of great stones, still exists. It is nearly a mile in circumference.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Alyattes (Aluattes), king of Lydia, succeeded his father Sadyattes, B. C. 618.
Sadyattes during the last six years of his reign had been engaged in a war with
Miletus, which was continued by his son five years longer. In the last of these
years Alyattes burnt a temple of Athena, and falling sick shortly afterwards,
he sent to Delphi for advice; but the oracle refused to give him an answer till
he had rebuilt the temple. This he did, and recovered in consequence, and made
peace with Miletus. He subsequently carried on war with Cyaxares, king of Media,
drove the Cimmerians out of Asia, took Smyrna, and attacked Clazomenae. The war
with Cyaxares, which lasted for five years, from B. C. 590 to 585, arose in consequence
of Alyattes receiving under his protection some Scythians who had fled to him
after injuring Cyaxares. An eclipse of the sun, which happened while the armies
of the two kings were fighting, led to a peace between them, and this was cemented
by the marriage of Astyages, the son of Cyaxares, with Aryenis, the daughter of
Alyattes. Alyattes died B. C. 561 or 560, after a reign of fifty-seven years,
and was succeeded by his son Croesus, who appears to have been previously associated
with his father in the government. (Herod. i. 16-22, 25, 73, 74)
The tomb (sema) of Alyattes is mentioned by Herodotus (i. 93) as one
of the wonders of Lydia. It was north of Sardis, near the lake Gygaea, and consisted
of a large mound of earth, raised upon a foundation of great stones. It was erected
by the tradespeople, mechanics, and courtezans, and on the top of it there were
five pillars, which Herodotus saw, and on which were mentioned the different portions
raised by each; from this it appeared that courtezans did the greater part. It
measured six plethra and two stadia in circumference, and thirteen plethra in
breadth. According to some writers, it was called the "tomb of the courtezan,"
and was erected by a mistress of Gyges. This mound still exists. Mr. Hamilton
says that it took him about ten minutes to ride round its chase, which would give
it a circumference of nearly a mile; and he also states, that towards the north
it consists of the natural rock--a white, horizontally stratified earthy limestone,
cut away so as to appear part of the structure. The upper portion, he adds, is
sand and gravel, apparently brought from the bed of the Hermus. He found on the
top the remains of a foundation nearly eighteen feet square, on the north of which
was a huge circular stone ten feet in diameter, with a flat bottom and a raised
edge or lip, evidently placed there as an ornament on the apex of the tumulus.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Croesus, (Kroisos). The son of Alyattes, king of Lydia, and
born about B.C. 590. He was the fifth and last of the Mermnadae, a family which
began to reign with Gyges, who dethroned Candaules. According to the account of
Herodotus, Croesus was the son of Alyattes by a Carian mother, and had a half-brother,
named Pantaleon, the offspring of an Ionian woman. An attempt was made by a private
foe of Croesus to hinder his accession to the throne and to place the kingdom
in the hands of Pantaleon; but the plot failed, although Stobaeus informs us that
Croesus, on coming to the throne, divided the kingdom with his brother. Plutarch
states that the second wife of Alyattes, wishing to remove Croesus, gave one of
the cooks in the royal household a dose of poison to put into the bread she made
for Croesus. The woman informed Croesus, and gave the poisoned bread to the queen's
children; and the prince, out of gratitude, consecrated at Delphi a golden image
of this cook three cubits high. Croesus ascended the throne on the death of his
father, B.C. 560, and immediately undertook the subjugation of the Greek communities
of Asia Minor (the Aeolians, Ionians, and Dorians), whose disunited state and
almost continual wars with one another rendered his task an easy one. He contented
himself, however, after reducing them beneath his sway, with merely imposing an
annual tribute, and left their forms of government unaltered. When this conquest
was effected, he turned his thoughts to the construction of a fleet, intending
to attack the islands, but was dissuaded from his purpose by Bias of Priene. Turning
his arms, upon this, against the nations of Asia Minor, he subjected all the country
lying west of the river Halys, except Cilicia and Lycia; and then applied himself
to the arts of peace, and to the patronage of the sciences and of literature.
He became famed for his riches and munificence. Poets and philosophers were invited
to his court, and, among others, Solon, the Athenian, is said to have visited
his capital, Sardis. Herodotus relates the conversation which took place between
the latter and Croesus on the subject of human felicity, in which the Athenian
offended the Lydian monarch by the little value which he attached to riches as
a means of happiness, and by his saying that no man should be called happy until
his death.
Not long after this, Croesus had the misfortune to lose his
son Atys, who was accidentally killed by Adrastus, leaving him with only a dumb
child as his heir; but the deep affliction into which this loss plunged him was
dispelled in some degree, after two years of mourning, by a feeling of disquiet
relative to the movements of Cyrus and the increasing power of the Persians. Wishing
to form an alliance with the Greeks of Europe against the danger which threatened
him, a step which had been recommended by the oracle at Delphi, he ad Croesus
on the Pyre. dressed himself, for this purpose, to the Lacedaemonians, at that
time the most powerful of the Grecian communities; and hav ing succeeded in his
object, and made magnificent presents to the Delphic shrine, he resolved on open
hostilities with the Persians. The art of the crafty priesthood who managed the
machinery of the oracle at Delphi is nowhere more clearly shown than in the history
of their royal dupe, the monarch of Lydia. He had lavished upon their temple the
most splendid gifts--so splendid, in fact, that we should be tempted to suspect
Herodotus of exaggeration if his account were not confirmed by other writers--and
the recipients of this bounty, in their turn, put him off with an answer of the
most studied ambiguity when he consulted their far-famed oracle on the subject
of a war with the Persians. The response of Apollo was, that if Croesus made war
upon this people "he would destroy a great Empire"; and the answer of
Amphiaraus (for his oracle, too, was consulted by the Lydian king) tended to the
same effect. The verse itself, containing the response of the oracle, is given
by Diodorus, and is as follows: Kroisos, Halun diabas, megalen archen katalusei,
"Croesus, on having crossed the Halys, will destroy a great empire"--the
river Halys being, as already remarked, the boundary of his dominions to the east.
Croesus thought that the empire thus referred to was that of Cyrus; the issue,
however, proved it to be his own.
Having assembled a numerous army, the Lydian monarch crossed
the Halys, invaded the territory of Cyrus, and a battle took place in the district
of Pteria, but without any decisive result. Croesus, upon this, thinking his forces
not sufficiently numerous, marched back to Sardis, disbanded his army, consisting
entirely of mercenaries, and sent for succour to Amasis of Egypt and also to the
Lacedaemonians, determining to attack the Persians again in the beginning of the
next spring. But Cyrus did not allow him time to effect this. Having discovered
that it was the intention of the Lydian king to break up his present army, he
marched with all speed into Lydia, before a new mercenary force could be assembled,
defeated Croesus (who had no force at his command but his Lydian cavalry) in the
battle of Thymbra, shut him up in Sardis, and took the city itself after a siege
of fourteen days and in the fourteenth year of the reign of the son of Alyattes.
With Croesus fell the Empire of the Lydians. Herodotus relates
two stories connected with this event--one having reference to the dumb son of
Croesus, who spoke for the first time when he saw a soldier in the act of killing
his father, and, by the exclamation which he uttered, saved his parent's life,
the soldier being ignorant of his rank; and the other being as follows: Croesus
having been made prisoner, a pile was erected, on which he was placed in order
to be burned alive. After keeping silence for a long time, the royal captive heaved
a deep sigh, and with a groan thrice pronounced the name of Solon. Cyrus sent
to know the reason of this exclamation, and Croesus, after considerable delay,
acquainted him with the conversation between himself and Solon. The Persian king,
relenting upon this, gave orders for Croesus to be released. But the flames had
already begun to ascend on every side of the pile, and all human aid proved ineffectual.
In this emergency Croesus prayed earnestly to Apollo, the god on whom he had lavished
so many splendid offerings. That deity heard his prayer, and a sudden and heavy
fall of rain extinguished the flames. Croesus, after this, is said to have stood
high in the favour of Cyrus, who profited by his advice on several important occasions;
and Ctesias declares that the Persian monarch assigned him for his residence a
city near Ecbatana, and that in his last moments he recommended Croesus to the
care of his son and successor Cambyses; and entreated the Lydian, on the other
hand, to be an adviser to his son. Croesus discharged this duty with so much fidelity
as to give offence to the new monarch, who ordered him to be put to death. Happily
for him, those who were charged with this order hesitated to carry it into execution;
and Cambyses, soon after, having regretted his precipitation, Croesus was again
brought into his presence and restored to his former favour. The rest of his history
is unknown. As he was advanced in years, he could not have long survived Cambyses.
The wealth of Croesus has passed into a proverb in all languages.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Croesus (Kroisos), the last king of Lydia, of the family of the Mermnadae, was the soi of Alvattes; his mother was a Carian. At the age of thirty-five, he succeeded his father in the kingdom of Lydia (B. C. 560). Difficulties have been raised about this date, and there are very strong reasons for believing that Croesus was associated in the kingdom during his father's life, and that the earlier events of his reign, as recorded by Herodotus, belong to this period of joint government. We are expressly told that he was made satrap of Adramyttium and the plain of Thebe about B. C. 574 or 572 (Nicol. Damasc., supposed to be taken from the Lydian history of Xanthus). He made war first on the Ephesians, and afterwards on the other Ionian and Aeolian cities of Asia Minor, all of which he reduced to the payment of tribute. He was meditating an attempt to subdue the insular Greeks also, when either Bias or Pittacus turned him from his purpose by a clever fable (Herod. i. 27); and instead of attacking the islanders he made an alliance with them. Croesus next turned his arms against the peoples of Asia Minor west of the river Halys, all of whom he subdued except the Lycians and Cilicians. His dominions now extended from the northern and western coasts of Asia Minor, to the Halys on the east and the Taurus on the south, and included the Lydians, Phrygians, Mysians, Mariandynians, Chalybes, Paphlagonians, the Thynian and Bithynian Thracians, the Carians, Ionians, Dorians, Aeolians, and Pamphylians. The fame of his power and wealth drew to his court at Sardis all the wise men (sophistai) of Greece, and among them Solon. To him the king exhibited all his treasures, and then asked him who was the happiest man he had ever seen. The reply of Solon, teaching that no man should be deemed happy till he had finished his life in a happy way, may be read in the beautiful narrative of Herodotus. After the departure of Solon, Croesus was visited with a divine retribution for his pride. He had two sons, of whom one was dumb, but the other excelled all his comrades in manly accomplishments. His name was Atys. Croesus had a dream that Atys should perish by an iron-pointed weapon, and in spite of all his precautions, an accident fulfilled the dream. His other son lived to save his father's life by suddenly regaining the power of speech when he saw Croesus in danger at the taking of Sardis. Adrastus, the unfortunate slayer of Atys, killed himself on his tomb, and Croesus gave himself up to grief for two years. At the end of that time the growing power of Cyrus, who had recently subdued the Median kingdom, excited the apprehension of Croesus, and he conceived the idea of putting down the Persians before their empire became firm. Before, however, venturing to attack Cyrus, he looked to the Greeks for aid, and to their oracles for counsel; and in both points he was deceived. In addition to the oracles among the Greeks, he consulted that of Ammon in Lybia; but first he put their truth to the test by sending messengers to inquire of them at a certain time what he was then doing. The replies of the oracle of Amphiaraus and that of the Delphi at Pytho were correct; that of the latter is preserved by Herodotus. To these oracles, and especially to that at Pytho, Croesus sent rich presents and charged the bearers of them to inquire whether he should march against the Persians, and whether there was any people whom he ought to make his allies. The reply of both oracles was, that, if he marched against the Persians, he would overthrow a great empire, and both advised him to make allies of the most powerful among the Greeks. He of course understood the response to refer to the Persian empire, and not, as the priests explained it after the event, to his own; and he sent presents to each of the Delphians, who in return granted to him and his people the privileges of priority in consulting the oracle, exemption from charges, and the chief seat at festivals (promanteien kai ateleien kai proedrien), and that any one of them might at any time obtain certain rights of citizenship (genesthai Delphon). Croesus, having now the most unbounded confidence in the oracle, consulted it for the third time, asking whether his monarchy would last long. The Pythia replied that he should flee along the Hermus, when a mule became king over the Medes. By this mule was signified Cyrus, who was descended of two different nations, his father being a Persian, but his mother a Mede. Croesus, however, thought that a mule would never be king over the Medes, and proceeded confidently to follow the advice of the oracle about making allies of the Greeks. Upon inquiry, he found that the Lacedaemonians and Athenians were the most powerful of the Greeks; but that the Athenians were distracted by the civil dissensions between Peisistratus and the Alcmaeonidae, while the Lacedaemonians had just come off victorious from a long and dangerous war with the people of Tegea. Croesus therefore sent presents to the Lacedaemonians, with a request for their alliance, and his request was granted by the Lacedaemonians, on whom he had previously conferred a favour. All that they did for him, however, was to send a present, which never reached him. Croesus, having now fully determined on the war, in spite of the good advice of a Lydian named Sandanis (Herod. i. 71), and having some time before made a league with Amasis, king of Egypt, and Labynetus, king of the Babylonians, marched across the Halys, which was the boundary betweeen the Medo-Persian empire and his own. The pretext for his aggression was to avenge the wrongs of his brother-in-law Astyages, whom Cyrus had deposed from the throne of Media. He wasted the country of the Cappadocians (whom the Greeks called also Syrians) and took their strongest town, that of the Pterii, near Sinope, in the neighbourhood of which he was met by Cyrus, and they fought an indecisive battle, which was broken off by night (B. C. 546). The following day, as Cyrus did not offer battle, and as his own army was much inferior to the Persian in numbers, Croesus marched back to Sardis, with the intention of summoning his allies and recruiting his own forces, and then renewing the war on the return of spring. Accordingly, he sent heralds to the Aegyptians, Babylonians, and Lacedaemonians, requesting their aid at Sardis in five months, and in the meantime he disbanded all his mercenary troops. Cyrus, however, pursued him with a rapidity which he had not expected, and appeared before Sardis before his approach could be announced. Croesus led out his Lydian cavalry to battle, and was totally defeated. In this battle Cyrus is said to have employed the stratagem of opposing his camels to the enemy's horses, which could not endure the noise or odour of the camels. Croesus, being now shut up in Sardis, sent again to hasten his allies. One of his emissaries, named Eurybatus, betrayed his counsels to Cyrus], and before any help could arrive, Sardis was taken by the boldness of a Mardian, who found an unprotected point in its defences, after Croesus had reigned 14 years, and had been besieged 14 days (Near the end of 546, B. C.). Croesus was taken alive, and devoted to the flames by Cyrus, together with 14 Lydian youths, probably as a thanksgiving sacrifice to the god whom the Persians worship in the symbol of fire. But as Croesus stood in fetters upon the pyre, the warning of Solon came to his mind, and having broken a long silence with a groan, he thrice uttered the name of Solon. Cyrus inquired who it was that he called on, and, upon hearing the story, repented of his purpose, and ordered the fire to be quenched. When this could not be done, Croesus prayed aloud with tears to Apollo, by all the presents he had given him, to save him now, and immediately the fire was quenched by a storm of rain. Believing that Croesus was under a special divine protection, and no doubt also struck by the warning of Solon, Cyrus took Croesus for his friend and counsellor, and gave him for an abode the city of Barene, near Ecbatana. In his expedition against the Massagetae, Cyrus had Croesus with him, and followed his advice about the passage of the Araxes. Before passing the river, however, he sent him back to Persia, with his own son Cambyses, whom he charged to honour Croesus, and Croesus to advise his son. When Cambyses came to the throne, and invaded Egypt, Croesus accompanied him. In the affair of Prexaspes and his son, Croesus at first acted the part of a flattering courtier, though not, as it seems, without a touch of irony (Herod. iii. 34); but, after Cambyses had murdered the youth, Croesus boldly admonished him, and was obliged to fly for his life from the presence of the king. The servants of Cambyses concealed him, thinking that their master would repent of having wished to kill him. And so it happened; but when Cambyses heard that Croesus was alive, he said that he was glad, but he ordered those who had saved him to be put to death for their disobedience. Of the time and circumstances of Croesus's death we know nothing. A few additional, but unimportant incidents in his life, are mentioned by Herodotus. Ctesias's account of the taking of Sardis is somewhat different from that of Herodotus. (Herod. i. 6, 7, 26-94, 130, 155, 207, 208, iii. 14, 34-36, v. 36, vi. 37, 125, viii. 35; Ctesias, Persica, 4, ap. Phot. Cod. 72; Ptol. Hephaest. ap. Phot. Cod. 190; Plut. Sol. 27; Diod. ix. 2, 25-27, 29, 31-34, xvi. 56; Justin i. 7). Xenophon, in his historical romance, gives some further particulars about Croesus which are unsupported by any other testimony and opposed to that of Herodotus, with whom, however, he for the most part agrees (Cyrop i. 5, ii. 1, iv. 1, 2, vi. 2, vii. 1-4, viii. 2).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Alcman (Alkman), called by the Attic and later Greek writers Alcmaeon (Alkmaion),
the chief lyric poet of Sparta, was by birth a Lydian of Sardis. His father's
name was Damas or Titarus. He was brought into Laconia as a slave, evidently when
very young. His master, whose name was Agesidas, discovered his genius, and emancipated
him; and he then began to distinguish himself as a lyric poet. In the epigram
Anthol. Palat. vii. 709, 19, 18 it is said, that the two continents strove for
the honour of his birth; and Suidas calls him a Laconian of Messoa, which may
mean, however, that he was enrolled as a citizen of Messoa after his emancipation.
The above statements seem to be more in accordance with the authorities than the
opinion of Bode, that Aleman's father was brought from Sardis to Sparta as a slave,
and that Alcman himself was born at Messoa. It is not known to what extent he
obtained the rights of citizenship.
The time at which Alcman lived is rendered somewhat doubtful by the
different statements of the Greek and Armenian copies of Eusebius, and of the
chronographers who followed him. On the whole, however, the Greek copy of Eusebius
appears to be right in placing him at the second year of the twenty-seventh Olympiad
(B. C. 671). He was contemporary with Ardys, king of Lydia, who reigned from 678
to 629, B. C., with Lesches, the author of the "Little Hiad," and with Terpander,
during the later years of these two poets ; he was older than Stesichorus, and
he is said to have been the teacher of Arion. From these circumstances, and from
the fact which we learn from himself (Fr. 29), that he lived to a great age, we
may conclude, with Clinton, that he flourished from about 671 to about 631 B.
C. He is said to have died, like Sulla, of the mortus pedicularis (Aristot. Hist.
Anim. v. 31 or 25; Plut. Sulla, 36; Plin. H. N. xi. 33.39).
The period during which most of Alcman's poems were composed, was
that which followed the conclusion of the second Messenian war. During this period
of quiet, the Spartans began to cherish that taste for the spiritual enjoyments
of poetry, which, though felt by them long before, had never attained to a high
state of cultivation, while their attention was absorbed in war. In this process
of improvement Alcman was immediately preceded by Terpander, an Aeolian poet,
who, before the year 676 B. C., had removed from Lesbos to the mainland of Greece,
and had introduced the Aeolian lyric into the Peloponnesus. This new style of
poetry was speedily adapted to the choral form in which the Doric poetry had hitherto
been cast, and gradually supplanted that earlier style which was nearer to the
epic. In the 33rd or 34th Olympiad, Terpander made his great improvements in music.
Hence arose the peculiar character of the poetry of his younger contemporary,
Alcman, which presented the choral lyric in the highest excellence which the music
of Terpander enabled it to reach. But Aleman had also an intimate acquaintance
with the Phrygian and Lydian styles of music, and he was himself the inventor
of new forms of rhythm, some of which bore his name.
A large portion of Alcman's poetry was erotic. In fact, he is said
by some ancient writers to have been the inventor of erotic poetry. From his poems
of this class, which are marked by a freedom bordering on licentiousness, he obtained
the epithets of "sweet" and " pleasant" (pslukus, charieis). Among these poems
were many hymeneal pieces. But the Parthenia, which form a branch of Alcman's
poems, must not be confounded with the erotic. They were so called because they
were composed for the purpose of being sung by choruses of virgins, and not on
account of their subjects, which were very various, sometimes indeed erotic, but
often religious. Alcman's other poems embrace hymns to the gods, Paeans, Prosodia,
songs adapted for different religious festivals, and short ethical or philosophical
pieces. It is disputed whether he wrote any of those Anapaestic war-songs, or
marches, which were called embateria; but it seems very unlikely that he should
have neglected a kind of composition which had been rendered so popular by Tyrtaeus.
His metres are very various. He is said by Suidas to have been the
first poet who composed any verses but dactylic hexameters. This statement is
incorrect; but Suidas sees to refer to the shorter dactylic lines into which Alcman
broke up the Homeric hexameter. In this practice, however, he had been preceded
by Archiochus, from whom he borrowed several others of his peculiar metres: others
he invented himself. Among his metres we find various forms of the dactylic, anapaestic,
trochaic, and iambic, as well as lines composed of different metres, for example,
iambic and anapaestic. The Cretic hexameter was named Alcmanic, from his being
its inventor. The poems of Alcman were chiefly in strophes, composed of lines
sometimes of the same metre throughout the strophe, sometimes of different metres.
From their choral character we might conclude that they sometimes had an antistrophic
form, and this seems to be confirmed by the statement of Hephaestion (p. 134,
Gaisf.), that he composed odes of fourteen strophes, in which there was a change
of metre after the seventh strophe. There is no trace of an epode following the
strophe and antistrophe, in his poems.
The dialect of Alcman was the Spartan Doric, with an intermixture
of the Aeolic. The popular idioms of Laconia appear most frequently in his more
familiar poems.
T he Alexandrian grammarians placed Alcman at the head of their canon
of the nine lyric poets. Among the proofs of his popularity may be mentioned the
tradition, that his songs were sung, with those of Terpander, at the first performance
of the gymnopaedia at Sparta (B. C. 665), and the ascertained fact, that they
were frequently afterwards used at that festival. The few fragments which remain
scarcely allow us to judge how far he deserved his reputation; but some of them
display a true poetical spirit.
Alcman's poems comprised six books, the extant fragments of which are included
in the collections of Neander, H. Stephens, and Fulvius Ursinus.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Editor's Information:
Biography, reports and essays on Aesop can be found at his birthplace ancient Samos . There is also the suggestion that he was native of Phrygia or Sardis.
Eunapius (Eunapios). A Greek rhetorician, born at Sardis in A.D. 347. In 405 he wrote biographies of twenty-three older and contemporary philosophers and sophists. In spite of its bad style and its superficiality, this book is our chief authority for the history of the Neo-Platonism of that age. There is an edition by Boissonade (Amst. 1822). We have also several fragments of his continuation of the chronicle of Herennius Dexippus. This continuation, in fourteen books, covered the period from A.D. 268 to 404, and was much used by Zosimus.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited July 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Eunapius, (Eunapios), a Greek sophist and historian, was born at Sardis in A. D. 347, and seems to have lived till the reign of the emperor Theodosius the Younger. He received his first education from his kinsman Chrysanthius, a sophist at Sardis, who implanted in him that love of the pagan and that hatred of the Christian religion which so strongly marked his productions. In his sixteenth year lie went to Athens to cultivate his mind under the auspices of Proaeresius, who conceived the greatest esteem for the youth, and loved him like his own son. After a stay of five years, he prepared to travel to Egypt, but it would seem that this plan was not carried into effect, and that he was called back to Phrygia. lie was also skilled in the medical art. During the latter period of his life, he seems to have been settled at Athens, and engaged in teaching rhetoric. Lie is the author of two works. 1. Lives of Sophists (Bioi philosophon kai sophiston), which work is still extant. He composed it at the request of Chrysanthius. It contains 23 biographies of sophists, most of whom were contemporaries of Eunapius, or at least had lived shortly before him. Although these biographies are extremely brief, and are written in an intolerably inflated style, yet they are to us an important source of information respecting a period in the history of philosophy which, without this work, would be buried in utter obscurity. Eunapius shews himself an enthusiastic admirer of the philosophy of the New Platonists, and a bitter enemy of Christianity. His biographies were first edited with a Latin translation and a life of Eunapius by Hadrianus Junius, Antwerp, 1568, 8vo. Among the subsequent editions we may mention those of H. Commelinus (Frankfurt, 1596, 8vo.) and Paul Stephens. (Geneva, 1616, 8vo.) The best, however, which gives a much improved text, with a commentary and notes by Wyttenbach, is that of J. F. Boissonade, Amsterdam, 1822, 2 vols. 8vo. 2. A continuation of the history of Dexippus (Meta Dexippon chronike historia), in fourteen books. (Phot. Bibl. Cod. 77.) It began with the death of Claudius Gothicus, in A. D. 270, and carried the history down to A. D. 404, in which year St. Chrysostom was sent into exile, and which was the tenth year of the reign of Arcadius. This account of Photius (l. c.) seems to be contradicted by a passage of the excerpta (p. 96, ed. Bekker and Niebuhr), in which Eunapius speaks of the avarice of the empress Pulcheria, who did not obtain that dignity till A. D. 414; but the context of that passage shews that it was only a digression in the work, and that the work itself did not extend to A. D. 414. It was written at the request of Oribasius, and Photius saw two editions of it. In the first, Eunapius had given vent to his rabid feelings against Christianity, especially against Constantine the (Great; whereas lie looked upon the emperor Julian as some divine being that had been sent from heaven upon earth. In the second edition, from which the excerpts still extant are taken. those passages were omitted; but they had been expunged with such negligence and carelessness, that many parts of the work were very obscure. But we cannot, with Photius, regard this " editio purgata " as the work of Eunapius himself, and it was in all probability made by some bookseller or a Christian, who thus attempted to remedy the defects of the original. The style of the work, so far as we can judge of it, was as bad as that of the Lives of the Sophists, and is severely criticised by Photius. All we now possess of this work consists of the Excerpta de Legationibus, which were made from it by the command of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, and a number of fragments preserved in Suidas. These remains, as far as they were known at the time, were published by D. Hoschel (Augsburg,1603, 4to.), H. Fabrotti (Paris, 1648, fol.), and in Boissonade's edition of the Lives of the Sophists. (vol. i.) A. Mat discovered considerable additions, which are published in his Scriptorum Vet. Nova Collectio, vol. ii., from which they are reprinted in vol. i. of the Corpus Script. Hist. Byzant. edited by I. Bekker and Niebuhr. Whether the rhetorician Eunapius, whom Suidas (s. v. Mousonios) calls ho ek Phrugias, is the same as our Eunapius, is uncertain. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. vii.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Chrysanthius (Chrusanthios). An eclectic philosopher of Sardis; made high-priest of Lydia by the emperor Julian , and supposed to possess a power of conversing with the gods and of predicting future events
Plato, an obscure Epicurean of Sardis, contemporary with Cicero, Cic. Q. Fr. 1, 2, 4, § 14.
Beronicianus, (Beronikianos), of Sardis, a philosopher of considerable reputation, mentioned only by Eunapius. (Vit. Soph. sub fin.)
All the sages from Hellas who were living at that time (of Croesus), coming in different ways, came to Sardis, which was at the height of its property; and among them came Solon the Athenian, who, after making laws for the Athenians at their request, went abroad for ten years, sailing forth to see the world, he said. This he did so as not to be compelled to repeal any of the laws he had made, since the Athenians themselves could not do that, for they were bound by solemn oaths to abide for ten years by whatever laws Solon should make.
Chilo (Cheilon, Chilon). A Spartan, ranked, on account of his wisdom and experience, among the Seven Sages of Greece. He directed his attention to public affairs, and became one of the ephori, B.C. 556 ( Diog. Laert.i. 68). Many of his maxims are quoted by the ancient writers, which justify the high reputation connected with his name. He died of joy at an advanced age, while embracing one of his sons who had gained a prize at the Olympic Games. Chilo appears to have travelled much abroad, and it is probable that he visited Sardis, the capital of Croesus, a monarch who had sought an alliance with Sparta ( Herod.i. 69). It was at the court of the Lydian monarch, in all probability, that he saw Aesop, since Diogenes Laertius speaks of a question put by the philosopher to the fabulist ( Diog. Laert.i. 68 foll.).
Diodorus (Diodoros). An orator and epigrammatic poet, a native of Sardis. He was surnamed Zonas (Zonas). He fought in Asia and was contemporaneous with Mithridates the Great, against whom he was charged with conspiring. He defended himself successfully. Nine of his epigrams remain.
Diodorus Zonas, (Diodoros Zonas) and Diodorus the Younger, both of Sardis, and of the same family, were rhetoricians and epigrammatists. The elder was distinguished in the Mithridatic war. Strabo (xiii.) says, that he engaged in many contests on behalf of Asia, and when Mithridates invaded that province, Zonas was accused of inciting the cities to revolt from him, but was acquitted in consequence of the defence which he made. Strabo adds, that the younger Diodorus, who was his own friend, composed historical writings, lyrics, and other poems, which were written in an antique style (ten archaian graphen emphainonta hikanos). The epigrams of the Diodori, of which there are several, were included by Philip of Thessalonica in his collection, and they now form a part of the Greek Anthology. (Brunck, Anal. ii. 80, 185; Jacobs, ii. 67, 170.) There is considerable difficulty in assigning each of the epigrams to its proper author, and probably some of them belong to a third Diodorus, a grammarian of Tarsus, who is also mentioned by Strabo (xiv.), and as it seems, by other ancient writers. (Jacobs, xiii. 883, 884 ; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. iv., vi.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Artaphernes, a son of Hystaspes and brother of Dareius Hystaspis, who was appointed satrap of Sardis. In the year B. C. 505, when the Athenians sought the protection of Persia against Sparta, they sent an embassy to Artaphernes. The satrap answered, that the desired alliance with Persia could be granted only on condition of their recognizing the supremacy of king Dareius. When Hippias, the son of Peisistratus, had taken refuge in Asia, he endeavoured to induce Artaphernes to support his cause, and the Athenians, on being informed of his machinations, again sent an embassy to Artaphernes, requesting him not to interfere between them and Hippias. The reply of Artaphernes, that they should suffer no harm if they would recall their tyrant, shewed the Athenians that they had to hope nothing from Persia. In B. C. 501, Artaphernes was induced by the brilliant hopes which Aristagoras of Miletus held out to him, to place, with the king's consent, 200 ships and a Persian force at the command of Aristagoras, for the purpose of restoring the Naxian exiles to their country. But the undertaking failed, and Aristagoras, unable to realise his promises, was driven by fear to cause the insurrection of the Ionians against Persia. When in B. C. 499 Aristagoras and his Athenian allies marched against Sardis, Artaphernes, not expecting such an attack, withdrew to the citadel, and the town of Sardis fell into the hands of the Greeks and was burnt. But the Greeks returned, fearing lest they should be overwhelmed by a Persian army, which might come to the relief of Artaphernes. In the second year of the Ionian war, B. C. 497, Artaphernes and Otanes began to attack vigorously the towns of Ionia and Aeolis. Cumae and Clazomenae fell into the hands of the Persians. Artaphernes was sharp enough to see through the treacherous designs of Histiaeus, and expressed his suspicions to him at Sardis. The fear of being discovered led Histiaeus to take to flight. Some letters, which he afterwards addressed to some Persians at Sardis, who were concerned in his designs, were intercepted, and Artaphernes had all the guilty Persians put to death. From this time Artaphernes disappears from history, and he seems to have died soon afterwards (Herod. v. 25, 30-32, 100, 123, vi. 1, &c.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Artaphernes (Elamite Irdapirna): Persian prince, brother of king Darius
the Great, between 513 and 493 satrap of Lydia.
Artaphernes was the son of Hystaspes and the brother of Darius, who
became king in 522 BCE. He was probably younger than Darius, because he played
no role in the civil war of 522-521. At least, he is not mentioned in the Behistun
inscription, our most important source for these years.
Our most important source for the career of Artaphernes are the fifth
and sixth books of Histories by the Greek researcher Herodotus of Halicarnassus
(fifth century BCE). He mentions the Persian prince several times as satrap of
Lydia, especially during
the years of the rebellion of the Greek towns on the shore, the so-called Ionian
revolt (499-494).
However, he is mentioned for the first time as successor of the satrap
Otanes (513). Six years later, Artaphernes received envoys from Athens, which
offered earth and water, the usual tokens of submission. In 499, he launched an
expedition to the Greek island Naxos,
which was not very succesful and showed the Ionian Greeks that the Persians were
not invincible.
As a consequence, the Ionian Greeks revolted, supported by the Athenians.
Together, they destroyed the capital of Lydia, Sardes.
However, Artaphernes defended the citadel, and when the Greeks had gone home,
he defeated them. In the next years, other commanders were occupied with the suppression
of the rebellion, although Artaphernes became involved in the war as well after
he had rebuild Sardes. Herodotus' information is to a certain extent corroborated
by the tablets found at Persepolis,
where 'Irdapirna' is found issuing travel warrants during the Ionian Revolt (e.g.,
PF 1404: someone traveling from Sardes to Persepolis in November 495).
In 493, when the revolt was over, Artaphernes reorganized the land
register. It was his last act as a satrap (as far as we know), because Darius
replaced his brother. The new satrap of Lydia was not, as has been maintained,
Hydarnes, but his son Artaphernes, who served as one of the commanders of the
Persian expeditionary force that was defeated by the Athenians at Marathon
(490).
Jona Lendering, ed.
This text is cited July 2003 from the Livius Ancient History Website URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
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