Nicocles (; d. 306 BC) was a

king King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

Paphos Paphos, also spelled as Pafos, is a coastal city in southwest Cyprus and the capital of Paphos District. In classical antiquity, two locations were called Paphos: #Old Paphos, Old Paphos, today known as Kouklia, and #New Paphos, New Paphos. It i ...

on the island of

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

. As king, Nicocles changed the capital of Paphos, from the old one to the new one. In 321 BC, he allied himself with

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

to fight against

Perdiccas Perdiccas (, ''Perdikkas''; 355BC – 320BC) was a Macedonian general, successor of Alexander the Great, and the regent of Alexander's empire after his death. When Alexander was dying, he entrusted his signet ring to Perdiccas. Initially ...

and

Antigonus Antigonus or Antigonos (), a Greek name meaning "comparable to his father" or "worthy of his father", may refer to: Rulers * Three Macedonian kings of the Antigonid dynasty that succeeded Alexander the Great: ** Antigonus I Monophthalmus (382� ...

. In 310 BC, after Ptolemy had established his power over the whole island of Cyprus, Nicocles entered into secret negotiations with Antigonus. Hereupon, the Egyptian monarch, alarmed lest the spirit of disaffection should spread to other cities, dispatched two of his friends, Argaeus and

Kallikrates Callicrates or Kallikrates (; ) was an ancient Greek architect active in the middle of the fifth century BC. He and Ictinus were architects of the Parthenon (Plutarch, ''Pericles'', 13). An inscription identifies him as the architect of "the Te ...

, to Cyprus; they linked up with

Menelaus In Greek mythology, Menelaus (; ) was a Greek king of Mycenaean (pre- Dorian) Sparta. According to the ''Iliad'', the Trojan war began as a result of Menelaus's wife, Helen, fleeing to Troy with the Trojan prince Paris. Menelaus was a central ...

, who was still on the island with an army, and surrounded the palace of Paphos with an armed force, and commanded Nicocles to put an end to his own life, an order with which, after a vain attempt at explanation, he was obliged to comply. Nikokles and his brothers hanged themselves. After her husband had killed himself,

Axiothea of Paphos Axiothea () was a woman of ancient Greece who lived in the 4th century BCE, and was queen of Paphos on the island of Cyprus. She was the wife of king Nicocles of Paphos. In a fragment of a play by the New Comedy playwright Machon, we learn that t ...

, his wife, slew her virgin daughters to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Greeks. Then, together with her sisters-in-law, she set fire to the palace and perished in the flames so that not even their bodies could fall in the hands of their enemies.

Ancient sources

Isocrates Isocrates (; ; 436–338 BC) was an ancient Greek rhetorician, one of the ten Attic orators. Among the most influential Greek rhetoricians of his time, Isocrates made many contributions to rhetoric and education through his teaching and writte ...

, ''Nicocles or the Cyprians'' * Diodorus Siculurs, ''Bibliotheca Historica'' (''Diod. Sic. xx. 21'') *

Polyaenus Polyaenus or Polyenus ( ; see ae (æ) vs. e; , "much-praised") was a 2nd-century Roman Macedonian author and rhetorician, known best for his ''Stratagems in War'' (), which has been preserved. He was born in Bithynia, Asia Minor. The ''Suda'' c ...

, ''Strategemata'' (VIII, 48).

References

*''

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology The ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' is a biographical dictionary of classical antiquity, edited by William Smith (lexicographer), William Smith and originally published in London by John Taylor (English publisher), Tayl ...

'' *''

Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities ''Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities'' is an English-language encyclopedia on subjects of classical antiquity. Publication history It was edited by Harry Thurston Peck and published 1898 by Harper & Brothers in New York C ...

'' 4th-century BC births 306 BC deaths Year of birth missing 4th-century BC Greek people Ancient Greek monarchs Kings of ancient Cyprus Suicides by hanging in Cyprus {{cyprus-bio-stub