Syloson, son of Calliteles () is a ruler of

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

, known only from a brief reference in the second century AD historian

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 ...

. He may have lived in the early sixth century BC or in the mid-fifth century BC. According to Polyaenus, Syloson was a general of the Samians who was believed to have democratic leanings. During a war with an unspecified group of Aeolians, he encouraged the Samians to hold the traditional festival at the Heraion outside the city walls and then took advantage of their absence to seize control of the city for himself. J. P. Barron argues that this event took place in the early sixth century BC and that the government overthrown by Syloson was the regime that had replaced the Geomori. He suggests that Syloson was the founder of a tyrannical dynasty which ruled Samos for most of the sixth century BC, being succeeded first by Aeaces and then by

Polycrates Polycrates (; ), son of Aeaces (father of Polycrates), 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 ...

. By contrast, Aideen Carty argues that Syloson's coup took place in 453 BC as part of the unrest leading to the Samian War from the

Athenian empire The Delian League was a confederacy of Polis, Greek city-states, numbering between 150 and 330, founded in 478 BC under the leadership (hegemony) of Classical Athens, Athens, whose purpose was to continue fighting the Achaemenid Empire, Persian ...

. The story of Syloson's coup is very similar to the story that

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

tells about the seizure of power by

and his brother Syloson (sons of Aeaces). It is possible that Polyaenus is actually recounting a version of that story, in which Syloson has been given the wrong

patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (more specifically an avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. It is the male equivalent of a matronymic. Patronymics are used, b ...

. In that case Syloson son of Calliteles would just be a doublet for Syloson son of Aeaces.

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=25–28 Ancient Greek monarchs Ancient Samians 6th-century BC Greek people 5th-century BC Greek people