Agathocles of Syracuse
| Agathocles | |
|---|---|
| King of Syracuse | |
 Depiction of a bust possibly belonging to Agathocles | |
| Reign | 317 - 289 BC |
| Predecessor | Timoleon |
| Successor | Hicetas |
| Born | 361 BC Himera |
| Died | 289 BC Syracuse |
| Consort | Theoxena |
| Issue | With first wife
With Alcia?
With Theoxena |
| Greek | Ἀγαθοκλῆς |
| Father | Carcinus of Rhegium |
| Religion | Greek Polytheism |
Agathocles (Ancient Greek: Ἀγαθοκλῆς, Agathoklḗs; 361–289 BC) was tyrant of Syracuse from 317 BC and king of much of Sicily from 304 BC until his death. Agathocles began his career as a military officer, then raised his profile as a supporter of the democratic faction in Syracuse against the oligarchic civic government. His opponents forced him into exile, where he became a mercenary leader. Finally, he managed to make his way back to Syracuse and was elected general. A few years after this, he took power through a coup d'état. After this he was, in practice, a tyrant, although a democratic constitution theoretically remained in force.
Agathocles led a long, costly war against the Carthaginians, who ruled the western half of Sicily, between 311 and 306 BC. In a bold campaign, he led an invasion of Carthage's North African heartland in 310 BC. After initial successes, however, he abandoned his army in Africa and returned to Sicily in 307 BC, where he made peace with the Carthaginians which restored the status quo ante bellum. After this, he assumed the royal title. He managed to bring almost the whole Greek portion of Sicily and part of Calabria under his control. For a while, he came close to the goal of bringing the whole of Magna Graecia under his control, but his attempt to establish a dynasty fell apart as a result of conflict within his family. He was assassinated in 289 BC and his kingdom instantly collapsed.
Biography
[edit]Agathocles was born at Thermae Himeraeae (modern name Termini Imerese), Magna Graecia, in Sicily. The son of a potter who had moved to Syracuse in about 343 BC, he learned his father's trade, but afterwards entered the army along with his brother Antander. In 333 BC he married the widow of his patron Damas, a distinguished and wealthy citizen. He was twice banished for attempting to overthrow the oligarchical party in Syracuse.[1]
In 317 BC he returned with an army of mercenaries under a solemn oath to observe the democratic constitution which was established after they took the city. Having massacred the oligarchs and the richest of the citizenry, he thus made himself master of Syracuse, and he created a strong army and fleet and subdued the greater part of Sicily.[1]
War with Carthage followed. In 311 BC Agathocles was defeated in the Battle of the Himera River and besieged in Syracuse. In 310 BC he made a desperate effort to break through the blockade and attack Carthage. He landed at Cape Bon in August 310 BC, and was able to defeat the Carthaginians for the first time, and establish a camp near Tunis. He then turned east and tried to take over coastal trading cities such as Neapolis and Hadrumetum, and on this occasion concluded an alliance with Ailymas, king of the Libyans according to Diodorus of Sicily, in an attempt to surround and isolate Carthage. After capturing Hadrumetum, Thapsus and other coastal towns, Agathocles turned his attention to central Tunisia. Before or during this campaign, he broke his alliance with Ailymas, whom he pursued and killed, but he kept his Numidian army, including war chariots they built.[2]
In 309/8 BC, Agathocles began trying to sway Ophellas, ruler of Cyrenaica, as he was likely to prove a useful ally in Agathocles' war against the Carthaginians. To gain his allegiance, he promised to cede to Ophellas whatever conquests their combined forces might make in Africa, reserving to himself only the possession of Sicily.[3] Ophellas gathered a powerful army from the homeland of his wife Euthydike (a descendant of Miltiades), Athens, where many citizens felt disgruntled after having lost their voting rights.[4] Despite the natural obstacles that presented themselves on his route, Ophellas succeeded in reaching the Carthaginian territories after a toilsome and perilous march of more than two months.[5] He was received by Agathocles with every demonstration of friendship, and the two armies encamped near each other, but a few days later, Agathocles betrayed his new ally by attacking the camp of the Cyrenaeans and having Ophellas killed.[6] The Cyrenean troops, left without a leader, went over to Agathocles.[4]
After several victories, he was finally completely defeated (307 BC) and fled secretly to Sicily.[1] After concluding peace with Carthage in 306 BC, Agathocles styled himself king of Sicily in 304 BC, and established his rule over the Greek cities of the island more firmly than ever. A peace treaty with Carthage left him in control of Sicily east of the Halycus River. Even in his old age, he displayed the same restless energy and is said to have been contemplating a fresh attack on Carthage at the time of his death.
His last years were plagued by ill health and the turbulence of his grandson Archagathus, at whose instigation he is said to have been poisoned; according to others, he died a natural death. He was a born leader of mercenaries, and, although he did not shrink from cruelty to gain his ends, he afterwards showed himself a mild and popular "tyrant". Agathocles restored the Syracusan democracy on his deathbed and did not want his sons to succeed him as king.
Family
[edit]Agathocles was married three times. His first wife was the widow of his patron Damas, by whom he had two sons:
- Archagathus, who was murdered by the army in Africa in 307 BC after Agathocles abandoned it. He had one son, also called Archagathus, who was Agathocles' main general and heir in the 290s BC, but became involved in a succession dispute with his younger uncle, also called Agathocles, and was assassinated immediately after his father's deat in 289 BC.
- Heracleides, who was murdered with his brother in Africa in 307 BC.
Agathocles' second wife was Alcia, with whom he had two children:
- Lanassa, second wife of King Pyrrhus of Epirus and mother of Alexander II of Epirus.
- Agathocles, who was murdered in a succession dispute shortly before his father's death.
Agathocles' third wife was Theoxena, who was the second daughter of Berenice I and her first husband Philip and thus a stepdaughter of Ptolemy I Soter, king of Egypt. She escaped to Egypt with their two children following Agathocles' death in 289 BC:
- Archagathus and Theoxena, who escaped to Egypt in 289 BC. Their descendants included Agathocleia and Agathocles of Egypt, who were Ptolemy IV's chief mistress and chief minister respectively, and dominated Egypt in the first years of Ptolemy V's reign.
Legacy
[edit]Agathocles was cited as an example "Of those who become princes through their crimes" in chapter 8 of Niccolò Machiavelli's treatise on politics - The Prince (1513).
He was described as behaving as a criminal at every stage of his career. Machiavelli claimed:
Agathocles, the Sicilian, became King of Syracuse not only from a private but from a low and abject position. This man, the son of a potter, through all the changes in his fortunes, always led an infamous life. Nevertheless, he accompanied his infamies with so much ability of mind and body that, having devoted himself to the military profession, he rose through its ranks to be Praetor of Syracuse.[7]
Machiavelli goes on to reason that Agathocles' success, in contrast to other criminal tyrants, was due to his ability to commit his crimes quickly and ruthlessly, and states that cruelties are best used when they
are applied at one blow and are necessary to one's security, and that are not persisted in afterwards unless they can be turned to the advantage of the subjects.
However, he came to glory as much as he did brutality by repelling invading Carthaginians and winning the loyalty of the denizens of his land.
Family tree of Agathocles
[edit]| Magas | Antigone of Macedon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Carcinus of Rhegium | Philip | Berenice I | Ptolemy I king of Egypt | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1.(unknown) | Agathocles I tyrant of Syracuse, king of Sicily | 3.Theoxena Elder | Ptolemy II king of Egypt | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2.Alcia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Archagathus Elder general ∞ Theoxena | Heracleides military officer | Agathocles II | Lanassa | Pyrrhus I king of Epirus | Antigone | Archagathus of Libya epistates of Cyrenaica ∞ Oenanthe | Theoxena Younger | Ptolemy III king of Egypt | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Archagathus Younger military officer | Agathocles Elder ∞ Oenanthe | Ptolemy IV king of Egypt | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Agathoclea | Agathocles Younger | Ptolemy V king of Egypt | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Primary sources
[edit]- Diodorus Siculus Library of History Books 19–21.
- Justin, Epitome of Pompeius Trogus Book 22.
- Polyaenus 5.3
- Polybius 9.23
References
[edit]Cited sources
[edit]- ^ a b c Chisholm 1911.
- ^ Camps, G. (July 1986). "Encyclopédie Berbère, Ailymas, G. Camps". Encyclopédie Berbère (3): 325–326. doi:10.4000/encyclopedieberbere.833. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
- ^ Diodorus xx. 40.1-4
- ^ a b Habicht 1997, p. 95.
- ^ Diodorus xx. 41-42
- ^ Diodorus xx. 42.4-5; 43.3-4
- ^ "The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Prince, by Nicolo Machiavelli | Chapter VIII". gutenberg.org. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
Bibliography
[edit]- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Agathocles". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 370.
- Habicht, Christian (1997). Athens from Alexander to Antony. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674051119.
Further reading
[edit]- Tillyard, H.J.W. (1908). The History of Agathocles. Cambridge: CUP. Archived from the original on 15 December 2009.
- Meister, Klaus (1984). "Agathocles". In Walbank, F. W.; Astin, A. E.; Frederiksen, M. W.; Ogilvie, R. M. (eds.). The Cambridge Ancient History: Volume 7 Part 1. The Hellenistic World (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 384–411.
- Bennett, Chris. "Family of Agathocles". Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 21 July 2018.
- Consolo Langher, Sebastiana Nerina (2000). Agatocle: da capoparte a monarca fondatore di un regno tra Cartagine e i Diadochi. Messina: Di.Sc.A.M. ISBN 978-88-8268-004-6.
- Schubert, Rudolf (1887). Geschichte des Agathokles. W. Koebner.
- Berve, Helmut (1953). Die Herrschaft Des Agathokles. Munich: Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.
- Lehmler, Caroline (2005). Syrakus unter Agathokles und Hieron II.: die Verbindung von Kultur und Macht in einer hellenistischen Metropole. Berlin: Verlag Antike. ISBN 978-3-938032-07-7.
External links
[edit]
- Coinage of Agathocles
- Agathocles- Encyclopædia Britannica
- Agathocles of Syracuse- Ancient History Encyclopedia
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