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Article

Seleucus (2) II Callinicus, 'Gloriously Victorious', Seleucid king, c. 265–225 BCE  

Guy Thompson Griffith, Susan Mary Sherwin-White, and R. J. van der Spek

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek History and Historiography
  2. Near East

Seleucus (2) II Callinicus, king of the *Seleucid empire (246–226/5 or 225/4bce), the eldest son of *Antiochus (2) II and *Laodice (2). Seleucus' accession was immediately contested by *Ptolemy (1) III who tried to defend the right of the son of Antiochus II's second wife and his own sister *Berenice (2), invaded Syria, took Seleucia in Pieria and Antioch and proceeded as far as Babylon (‘Third Syrian War,’ 246–241; App. Syr. 65, Polyaenus, Strat. 8.50; BCHP 11). Seleucus, however, was immediately accepted as (sole) king in Asia Minor and Babylonia, Berenice and her son were murdered, and Ptolemy had to return to Egypt in 245 (Just. Epit. 27.1.9). *Seleucia in Pieria, however, remained in Ptolemaic hands until 219. Later he had to cope with the claims of his younger brother *Antiochus (8) Hierax in Asia Minor, which led to the ‘War of the Brothers’.

Article

Seleucus (3) III Ceraunus, 'Thunderbolt', Seleucid king, c. 243–222 BCE  

Susan Mary Sherwin-White and R. J. van der Spek

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Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek History and Historiography
  2. Near East
Seleucus (3) III Ceraunus, king of the Seleucid empire (226/5 or 225/4–222bce), eldest son of *Seleucus (2) II. His original name was Alexandros (PorphyryFGrH 260 F 32,9). He subsidized the New Year Festival in *Babylon (BCHP 12). He was assassinated while on a campaign against *Attalus I of Pergamum trying to regain Seleucid possessions in Asia Minor.

Article

Seleucus (4) IV Philopator, 'Father-lover', Seleucid king, c. 218–175 BCE  

Guy Thompson Griffith, Susan Mary Sherwin-White, and R. J. van der Spek

Article

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Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek History and Historiography
  2. Near East
Seleucus (4) IV Philopator, king of the *Seleucid empire (187–175 bce), second son of *Antiochus (3) III, was made co-regent after the battle of Magnesia (189; see magnesia, battle of). In his reign he maintained careful relations with Rome (his brother *Antiochus (4) IV was hostage in Rome) and observed the harsh terms of the peace of Apamea (188), which forbade the Seleucid navy to sail west of the river Calycadnus and the promontory of Sarpedon on offensive missions. However, Seleucus toyed with the notion of intervening to support *Pharnaces (1) I, king of Pontus, against Pergamum (Diod. Sic. 29. 24). Seleucus is depicted as patron (II Macc. 3: 3; Cotton, Wörrle2007) and a despoiler of temples (II Macc. 3:7ff). At the end of his reign Seleucus exchanged his brother Antiochus for his son *Demetrius (10) to serve as hostage in Rome. Seleucus was assassinated in 175 by his highest officer Heliodorus.

Article

Semos, of Delos, Greek antiquarian, c. 200 BCE  

John Francis Lockwood and Kenneth S. Sacks

Article

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Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Geography
  2. Greek History and Historiography
Semos of *Delos (c. 200 bce), Greek antiquarian, was a careful, scholarly compiler, whose geographical and antiquarian works include: Delias, an 8-book survey of the geography, antiquities, institutions, and products of Delos, from which *Athenaeus (1) quotes extensively; Nesias, a work on *islands; On Paros; On Pergamum; and a Periodoi.

Article

Sicels  

D. W. R. Ridgway

Article

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Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek History and Historiography

Sicels appears to be a generic term applied by Greeks to the indigenous peoples they encountered when founding their colonies on the east coast of *Sicily towards the end of the 8th cent. bce; they were supposed to have arrived comparatively recently from the Italian mainland (Hellanicus, FGrH 4 F 79b; Dion. Hal. 1. 22; Thuc. 6. 2. 5), where their presence is traditionally attested in the south and perhaps linguistically also in *Latium. It is, however, more than usually difficult in Sicily to correlate the complex origins and vicissitudes of semi-legendary ethnic groups with the testimony of the spade: archaeology does not yield a reliable distinction between, say, ‘Ausonian’ (see ausonian culture) and ‘Sicel’ sites. In 1892, P. Orsi achieved his seminal and long-lasting division of Sicilian prehistory into four post-neolithic ‘Siculan’ periods, and christened as ‘Sicels’ all the peoples of eastern Sicily throughout the early bronze age Castelluccio and middle bronze age Thapsos cultures: both are considerably earlier than the period suggested by the ancient sources for the Sicel incursion.

Article

Sitalces  

James Maxwell Ross Cormack and Simon Hornblower

Article

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Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek History and Historiography
Sitalces, son of Teres, king of the Odrysae of *Thrace. Sitalces continued the policy of his father, and under him the Odrysian kingdom took shape, until it covered a larger area than the whole of central Greece, extending from the Danube on the north to the Aegean on the south, and the Euxine on the east, a kingdom more powerful and better equipped than the Macedonian. In 431 bce through the agency of Nymphodorus of Abdera, Athenian *proxenos in Thrace, whose sister was married to Sitalces, the Athenians approached Sitalces to obtain his help in controlling *Perdiccas (2) of Macedon and the towns of Thrace (Thuc. 2. 29). In the following year (430) the Spartans tried in vain (Thuc. 2. 67) to persuade Sitalces to abandon his alliance with Athens and to send an army to relieve *Potidaea, which was being besieged by the Athenians. In 429 bce Sitalces marched against Perdiccas and the Chalcidians, taking with him Amyntas, son of Philip, brother of Perdiccas, whom he intended to put on the throne of Macedonia.

Article

Social Wars  

Howard Hayes Scullard and Peter Sidney Derow

Article

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Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek History and Historiography
The name given to a conflict collectively involving allies (σύμμαχοι, *socii).ὁ συμμαχικὸς πόλεμος, the revolt of the allies of *Athens (357–355 bce), led by *Rhodes, *Cos, and *Chios, with the support of *Byzantium and *Mausolus of Caria, caused by discontent at Athenian supremacy and the exactions imposed by Athenian generals and mercenaries. The defeat of Athens at sea at Embata (356) and the threat of Persian intervention (355) led to negotiations and peace. See second athenian confederacy.The conflict (220–217 bce) in which *Philip (3) V of Macedon and his Hellenic League fought against the Aetolians (see aetolian confederacy), Sparta, and *Elis. It began with Aetolian aggression and ended with the Peace of Naupactus, when concerted attempts at mediation (by *Ptolemy (1) IV, *Chios, *.

Article

Solon, Athenian politician and poet, late 7th century to early 6th century BCE  

Edward M. Harris

Article

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Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek History and Historiography
  2. Greek Law
  3. Greek Literature

Solon was an Athenian lawgiver who wrote poetry and enacted laws in 594/3 bce. He confronted a chaotic situation in Attica caused by violence and raids for plunder and slaves. Solon created four property classes and distributed power among various sections of society. His main aims were to prevent tyranny, the concentration of power in the hands of one man, and to strengthen formal institutions. Solon abolished enslavement for debt, gave all citizens the right to have their cases heard in court, and allowed all citizens to bring accusations on behalf of those who had been wronged. Solon did not enact a cancellation of debt but abolished payment for protection by poor citizens to local leaders. Finally, he legislated not only for the élite but for all citizens on a wide range of topics ranging from family and property to funerals and religion. It is difficult, however, to determine in many cases whether the laws attributed to him are genuine or not.

Article

Sophaenetus, of Stymphalus  

C. J. Tuplin

Article

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Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek History and Historiography
One of *Cyrus (2)'s mercenary generals, he helped lead the Greeks back to the Black Sea (see pontus) (401/400), though he was fined 10 minae at Cotyora for neglecting duties. The lost Anabasis ascribed to him by *Stephanus of Byzantium may be the source which ultimately accounts for non-Xenophontic elements in Diodorus' account (presumably via the Oxyrhynchus historian), though some regard it as a post-Plutarchan forgery.

Article

Sosicrates, historian and biographer  

Frank William Walbank and Kenneth S. Sacks

Article

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Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek History and Historiography

Sosicrates, historian and biographer, perhaps from *Rhodes (Diog. Laert 2. 84). He probably flourished mid-2nd cent. bce as a contemporary of *Apollodorus (6). His φιλοσόφων διάδοχή (‘succession of philosophers’) is a series of biographies of philosophers, following the teacher–pupil relationship. Its sources included *Hermippus (2) and perhaps *Satyrus (1) (see biography, greek); whether he used Apollodorus is disputed: a common source in *Eratosthenes may explain similarities. *Diogenes (6) Laertius and *Athenaeus (1) draw on it. He also wrote a history of *Crete, which contains traditions similar to Apollodorus' commentary on Homer's Ship Catalogue in Iliad 2; the relationship between the works remains uncertain.

Article

Sosylus, of Sparta, Greek historian, late 3rd–early 2nd cent. BCE  

Peter Sidney Derow

Article

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07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek History and Historiography

Sosylus accompanied *Hannibal and wrote a history of his campaigns in seven books. *Polybius (1) criticized him severely on one occasion (3. 20. 5) but used him extensively. A fragment of bk. 4 is preserved on papyrus, containing a very competent account of a naval engagement early in the war.

Article

Sparta  

Paul Cartledge, Stephen Hodkinson, and Antony Spawforth

Article

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Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Geography
  2. Greek History and Historiography

Sparta (‘the sown land’?) lies c. 56 km. (35 miles) south of *Tegea, and 48 km. (30 mi.) north of Gytheum, at the heart of the fertile alluvial valley of the Eurotas. See laconia. Very few prehistoric remains are known from the site of historical Sparta, but there was a substantial neolithic community not far south, and a major late bronze age settlement about 3 km. north-east (the *'Menelaion' site at Therapne). The circumstances of the settlement of Sparta town are enveloped in the fog of myth and legend: the ‘Return of the Heraclids’, as the ancients put it, and the ‘Dorian Invasion’, in modern parlance (see dorians; heraclidae). Archaeology as currently understood suggests a cultural break with the bronze age and a humble new beginning somewhere in the darkness of the 10th cent.; the initial relationship between Sparta and *Amyclae, which by 700 had been incorporated on equal terms with the other four villages comprising Sparta town, is no less obscure.

Article

Spartocids  

David C. Braund

Article

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Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek History and Historiography
The ruling dynasty of the Bosporan kingdom in the eastern Crimea and Taman' peninsula (see bosporus(2); chersonesus(2)). It was founded by a Thracian mercenary, Spartocus, who ruled from 438/7 to 433/2 bce, following the dynasty of the Archeanactidae (480–438). The Spartocids remained in power until about 110 bce, when they were replaced by *Mithradates VI Eupator. The last of the dynasty, Paerisades V, seems to have called for the assistance of Mithradates. However, Paerisades was killed in an uprising led by one Saumacus. The Bosporan kingdom was taken over by Mithradates, to whom it had possibly been bequeathed by Paerisades.The earlier members of the dynasty did not use royal titles, but styled themselves archons (lit. ‘rulers’). Spartocus III (ruled 304–284 bce) seems to have been the first of the Spartocids to call himself king. They engaged in energetic diplomacy with the Aegean world, especially the city of Athens. Their ability to control substantial grain-supplies and other resources was a fundamental part of that diplomacy. See food supply, and Tod 115, RO 64 and 65.

Article

stratēgoi  

D. M. MacDowell

Article

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Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek History and Historiography
The ordinary term for military commanders in Greece, but in Athens in the 5th cent. bcestratēgoi had political as well as military importance. Little is known of the number and method of appointment of Athenian stratēgoi in the 6th cent., but in 501/0 a new arrangement was introduced by which ten stratēgoi were elected annually, one from each phylē (see phylai). The ten were of equal status: at Marathon in 490 (according to Hdt. 6. 109–10; see marathon, battle of) they decided strategy by majority vote, and each held the presidency in daily rotation. At this date the *polemarchos had a casting vote, and one view is that he was the commander-in-chief; but from 487/6 onwards the polemarch, like the other *archontes was appointed by lot. Good leaders, whether military or political, obviously could not be regularly selected by lot; so now, if not before, the polemarch ceased to command the army, and the stratēgoi, who continued to be elected, not only were the chief military commanders, but in some cases became political leaders too.

Article

Stratocles  

R. M. Errington

Article

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Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek History and Historiography
  2. Greek Law

Stratocles, son of Euthydemus, Athenian from the *deme of Diomeia (c. 355 to after 292 bce). He was the official prosecutor of *Harpalus (Din. 1. 1. 20) (324/3). After *Demetrius (4)'s democratic restoration in 307, Stratocles distinguished himself by unscrupulous demagogy and excessive praise of Demetrius and his entourage, whose agent in Athens he became. Inscriptions confirm Plutarch's unsavoury picture of him (Demetr. 11 ff.). His influence disappeared with Demetrius' defeat at Ipsus (301), but his recovery of Athens in 294 brought Stratocles back to the fore: his honorary decree for Lysimachus' friend, the poet *Philippides, in April 292 is preserved (IG 22. 649).

Article

tetrarchy  

Henry Dickinson Westlake and Antony Spawforth

Article

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Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek History and Historiography
  2. Greek Law

Tetrarchy was first used to denote one of the four political divisions of *Thessaly (‘tetrad’ being a purely geographical term). The term found its way to the Hellenistic east and was applied to the four divisions into which each of the three Celtic tribes of *Galatia was subdivided (Strabo 12. 5. 1, 567 C). In Roman times many Hellenized *client kings in Syria and Palestine were styled ‘tetrarch’, but the number of tetrarchies in any political organization ceased to be necessarily four, denoting merely the realm of a subordinate dynast. Modern scholars conventionally describe as a ‘tetrarchy’ the system of collegiate government (two senior Augusti, two junior Caesars) instituted by *Diocletian (ce 293); the usage has no ancient authority.

Article

Thallus, Greek chronographer  

Alexander Hugh McDonald and Antony Spawforth

Article

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Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek History and Historiography
Thallus, Greek chronographer of imperial date, published a work in three books, from the Trojan War to Ol. 167 (112–109bce) according to *Eusebius; but on the evidence of the fragments, from the Assyrian king Belus to at least the death of Christ. If Eusebius is right, Thallus' work must have been later extended. Euhemeristic in character (see euhemerus), it was used by the Christian *apologists.

Article

Theagenes (1), of Megara, tyrant  

Rosalind Thomas

Article

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07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek History and Historiography

Theagenes of Megara slaughtered the flocks and herds of the wealthy, secured a bodyguard, and made himself tyrant (see tyranny). He married his daughter to *Cylon of Athens, and supported Cylon's unsuccessful attempt to make himself tyrant; he may have been the first to attach *Salamis(1) to Megara. He constructed a famous fountain-house in Megara, now rediscovered (Gruben, ΑΔ1964, 37 ff.). He was later banished. The date of his tyranny hangs on that of Cylon (attempted coup before *Draco; *Olympic victor in 640, thus somewhere between 640 and 620 bce).

Article

Theagenes (3), of Thasos, Olympic victor  

Simon Hornblower

Article

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Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek History and Historiography

Theagenes (3) (or Theogenes) of *Thasos, outstanding 5th.-cent. bce victor in the *Olympian Games, given long-lived cult at Thasos (Paus. 6. 6. 5-6 and 6. 11. 2-9; Syll. 3 36; LSS72). But attempts to explain this cult politically, in terms of Thasian relations with Athens, are not compelling.

Article

theatricality  

Simon Hornblower

Article

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Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek History and Historiography
Theatricality has been defined (Chaniotis) as ‘the effort of individuals or groups to construct an image of themselves which is at least in part deceiving’, and to attempt to gain control over the *emotions of others. This may be done either by employing techniques developed in or associated with the theatre, or by actually exploiting theatrical spaces for public display or self-advertisement (see theatre staging; theatres; tragedy, greek; historiography, hellenistic). Certain prominent individuals in the ancient Greek world, such as *Demetrius(4), seem to have been specially prone to theatrical behaviour, and to have attracted theatrical imagery; but it is not easy to separate how much of this is Demetrius himself and how much is the contribution of our main source, *Plutarch, in his Life of him, or indeed of the earlier writers whom Plutarch followed. There is plentiful evidence of theatricality in the Hellenistic period, but it would be unsafe to suppose that there was nothing of the sort earlier, especially in classical *Sicily.