Polycrates

(pōlĭk`rətēz), d. c.522 B.C., tyrant of Samos. He established Samian naval supremacy in the Aegean Sea and tried to control the archipelago and mainland towns of Ionia. He dominated the E Aegean, capturing the island of Rhenea (now Rinía) and defeating the Lesbians, who had gone to the aid of Miletus. His tyranny drove the philosopher Pythagoras from Samos. He sent (c.525) 40 ships manned by his main political opponents from Samos to aid the Persian king Cambyses against the Egyptians, but the crews revolted and, with Spartan aid, unsuccessfully warred against Polycrates. Oroetes, Persian satrap of Sardes, lured him to the mainland and crucified him. He did much to aid industry, increase commerce, and encourage the arts.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Polycrates

Date of birth unknown; died circa 523 or 522 B.C. Ancient Greek tyrant of the island of Samos from circa 540.

During Polycrates’ reign, the polis of Samos became unified. As the owner of a bronze workshop, Polycrates pursued external and internal policies in the interests of the merchant and craftsman strata of the population. He initiated the minting of coins by the government and large-scale construction projects. He created a merchant marine fleet and a land army, fought with the cities of Asia Minor and the islands of the Aegean Sea over trade routes, and concluded treaties with Athens, Naxos, and Cyrenaica. The policies of Polycrates met with active resistance from the clan aristocracy, who joined with Sparta and Corinth to mount a rebellion against him. Polycrates was killed by order of the Achaemenids, who feared the increased strength of Samos.

Polycrates

tyrant of Athens who, renowned for his continual good fortune, is ignominiously trapped and crucified by an envious ruler. [Gk. Myth.: Benét, 801]

See: Irony

Polycrates

tyrant of Samos, known and feared for his proverbial good luck, though it is not permanent. [Gk. Hist.: Benét, 801]

See: Luck, Good

Polycrates

died ?522 bc, Greek tyrant of Samos, who was crucified by a Persian satrap

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

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Pythagoras, who had left the island of Samos for Croton in about 532 B.C., to escape the tyranny of Polycrates, established the dichotomy of peras and apeiron as a groundwork of his teaching on the universal contrasting principles of the world, linking limit with good and the unlimited with evil.

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On return, he immigrated to southern Italy because the political climate under the dictator Polycrates would, he believed, create "factions and revolutions inconsistent with his purpose," which was to began a broad-ranging project of education (8:i:69).

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Some say it was because he felt his teachings were not being properly appreciated there, while others indicate that he fled for his life after arguments with Polycrates, the local tyrant.

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Herodotus (484-c.425 BC), the so-called father of history, illustrates this somewhat summary conception of the forces which control history with the story of Polycrates, which may be a mixture of a factual account and a parable.