Aeaces ( grc, Αἰάκης, fl. 550 BC) was the father of

Polycrates Polycrates (; grc-gre, Πολυκράτης), son of Aeaces, was the tyrant of Samos from the 540s BC to 522 BC. He had a reputation as both a fierce warrior and an enlightened tyrant. Sources The main source for Polycrates' life and activi ...

, the powerful tyrant of

Samos Samos (, also ; el, Σάμος ) is a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of western Turkey, from which it is separated by the -wide Mycale Strait. It is also a sepa ...

. He was a prominent aristocrat in his own right, and may even have been the ruler of the island for a period in the mid-sixth century. He is sometimes referred to as Aeaces I to distinguish him from his grandson Aeaces II, who ruled Samos in the late sixth and early fifth centuries BC.

Life

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known for ...

mentions Aeaces' name but does not provide any information about his life. A very late source, the

Suda The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; grc-x-medieval, Σοῦδα, Soûda; la, Suidae Lexicon) is a large 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas (Σούδας) or Souidas ...

, says that Polycrates' father was the ruler of Samos around 565 BC. His wealth and power is also suggested by his ability to attract the poets

Ibycus Ibycus (; grc-gre, Ἴβυκος; ) was an Ancient Greek lyric poet, a citizen of Rhegium in Magna Graecia, probably active at Samos during the reign of the tyrant Polycrates and numbered by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria in the canon ...

and

Anacreon Anacreon (; grc-gre, Ἀνακρέων ὁ Τήϊος; BC) was a Greek lyric poet, notable for his drinking songs and erotic poems. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of Nine Lyric Poets. Anacreon wrote all of his poetry in the ...

to his circle – the former wrote poetry for the young Polycrates, while the latter was supposedly his tutor. A large seated statue of a goddess from the mid-sixth century BC, erected on the Astypalaea (the Samian Acropolis) bears an inscription identifying its dedicator as Aeaces. Stylistically, the statue appears to date to around 540 BC, while the inscription appears to be later (c. 500 BC). The inscription says: This Aeaces is generally identified with the father of Polycrates, despite the date of the inscription. M. White suggests that inscription made by Aeaces II in order to emphasise his hereditary right to rule. The statue seems to have been erected using the proceeds from captured booty (although other interpretations are possible). This might indicate that the powerful Samian

thalassocracy A thalassocracy or thalattocracy sometimes also maritime empire, is a state with primarily maritime realms, an empire at sea, or a seaborne empire. Traditional thalassocracies seldom dominate interiors, even in their home territories. Examples ...

of Polycrates had its roots in the time of Aeaces. It is not clear whether the inscription reveals Aeaces as the sole ruler of Samos (as his son would later be), or as just one powerful man among many.Carty (2005), 53–66 A bronze pot dedicated at the Heraion c. 575–550 BC has an inscription identifying its dedicator as Brychon, son of Timoleos. This might be Aeaces' father.''IG'' XII.6.ii.537; Schmidt (1974) Aeaces' period of greatest prominence overlaps with a phase of great prosperity on Samos. The period witnessed the monumentalisation of the Heraion sanctuary, including the construction of the Rhoikos temple – the first of the great Ionian temples and the largest

Greek temple Greek temples ( grc, ναός, naós, dwelling, semantically distinct from Latin , "temple") were structures built to house deity statues within Greek sanctuaries in ancient Greek religion. The temple interiors did not serve as meeting places, s ...

built up to that time. If Aeaces was ruler of Samos, his son Polycrates did not inherit the position directly. Herodotus tells us that he seized control around 540 BC by means of a coup.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * {{cite book , last1=Carty , first1=Aideen , title=Polycrates, Tyrant of Samos: New Light on Archaic Greece , date=2015 , publisher=Franz Steiner Verlag , location=Stuttgart , isbn=9783515108980, pages=49–66 Ancient Greek rulers Ancient Samians 6th-century BC Greek people