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The Spartan Embassy to Lygdamis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

D. M. Leahy
D. M. Leahy
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
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Extract

Amongst the unattributed Apophthegmata Laconica of Plutarch is one (no. 67, 236D) which seems to refer to an episode in Spartan history not recorded elsewhere in the extant sources. The text is as follows:

The details of the affair are lacking, but it is clear that the apophthegm presupposes a Spartan embassy to a tyrant named Lygdamis, on a subject which made him unwilling to receive it. The identity of the tyrant in question is not immediately certain; in addition to the famous Lygdamis of Naxos, the adventurer who assisted Pisistratus in his final attempt at securing power and was in return himself installed as tyrant of his native island, there was a Halicarnassian tyrant of that name, the son or (less probably) grandson of Queen Artemisia; and her father, who was also called Lygdamis, was quite possibly himself a tyrant. However, the chance that the reference here is to a Halicarnassian tyrant is I think remote. There is no tradition of Spartan dealings with Halicarnassus either in the time of Artemisia's father or in the generations immediately following her, nor can any plausible occasion be suggested; the former period is marked by Sparta's concentration on home affairs, the latter by her complete abdication from trans-Aegean politics in favour of Athens after 478 B.C. Thus whether the apophthegm be genuine or invented it seems unlikely that a Halicarnassian tyrant is meant; for even invented Laconisms, if credited with specific circumstances, are usually made to have reference to something either historical or at least plausible.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 77 , Issue 2 , November 1957 , pp. 272 - 275
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1957

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References

1 Hdt. i. 61. 4; 64. 2. For further details concerning Lygdamis of Naxos, Cf. Kahrstedt, R.E., s.v. ‘Lygdamis’ no. 2, How, and Wells, , Commentary on Herodotus, i, 84 Google Scholar.

2 For the elder Lygdamis of Halicarnassus, Cf. Hdt. vii. 99. 2; Kahrstedt, loc. cit., no. 3; for the younger, Suda s.v. ‘Herodotos’; Beloch, , Gr. Gesch.2 ii, 2. 2 Google Scholar: Kahrstedt, R.E. no. 4.

3 Apart from the short-range and disastrous expedition of Anchimolius against Athens (Hdt. v. 63), the only indication of Spartan transmarine activities in the period following the attack on Polycrates is afforded by the appearance of a Spartan thalassocracy in the Eusebius list, between those of Samos and Eretria, probably for the years 517–515 (Diod. Sic. vii. fr. 13). For a discussion of this vexed passage see Myres, ‘On the list of the thalassocracies in Eusebius’, JHS xxvi. 99–100 Google Scholar. The most likely explanation seems to me that the compiler had in mind the activities of Dorieus in Libya (Hdt. v. 42), and that he has created a somewhat erroneous impression, since these activities are probably not to be regarded as directed by the Spartan government (Cf. esp. v. 42. 2). A truer indication of the official attitude to overseas undertakings in this period is given by the refusal of help to Maeandrius (Hdt. iii. 148–9) and Aristagoras (Hdt. v. 49–50). See also below, p. 273 and notes there.

4 Thus the Apophthegmata attributed to Leonidas (224f–225e) afford good examples of how appropriate sayings, some duplicated from other sources (e.g. no. 6, said by Herodotus (vii. 226. 2) to have been uttered by Dieneces), have been fitted to circumstances either historical (e.g. the general position at Thermopylae) or plausible (e.g. the letter of Xerxes presupposed in no. 10). (I do not of course preclude the possibility that one or two of these apophthegmata may be genuine.)

5 Plut., de Mal. Her. 21 (859d)Google Scholar; Schol. on Aeschines ii. 77.

6 For a general conspexus of the nature of the Apophthegmata Laconica see Ziegler, P.-W., s.v. ‘Plutarchos’ coll. 865 ff.

7 Ath. Pol. 15, 2 Google Scholar; Pol. 1305a41; Econ. 1346b7; Athenaeus, 348a–c (citing Constitution of the Naxians).

8 Cf. Thuc. i. 18, 1; Arist. Pol. 1312b7; Isoc. iv. 125; p. Ryl. 18, and the passages cited in n. 5 above.

9 E.g. those attributed to Demaratus (219f–220c). (I especially exclude from the generalisation in the text the sections which deal with Lycurgus' institutions (225f–229a) and Cleomenes' Argive campaign (223b–c), which seem to raise special problems, and are in fact hardly to be regarded as apophthegmata at all in the strict sense.)

10 E.g. those attributed to Alcamenes (216e–f), Ariston (2–3: 218a–b), Theopompus (1–2; 221d–e), Polydorus (1, 4; 231e–f) and Charilaus (232b–d).

11 Note e.g. the remarks of ‘the Spartans’ to the Samian envoys (iii. 46, 1): of Gorgo to Cleomenes (v. 51, 2); of Cleomenes to Crius (vi. 50. 3); of Syagrus to Gelon (vii. 159); of Dieneces about Persian arrows (vii. 226, 2), and of Chilon about Cythera (vii. 235, 2).

12 iii. 55.

13 So,e.g., Kahrstedt, R.E. s.v. ‘Lygdamis’ 2: Lenschau, ibid. s.v. ‘Tyrannis’ 1831: Beloch, , Gr. Gesch.2 i, 394 Google Scholar: Ure, in C.A.H. iv. 101 Google Scholar, and esp. Parke, , Polycrates and Delos, C.Q. xl, 106 ffGoogle Scholar.

14 Lycurg. 30. 2.

15 E.g. Beloch and Kahrstedt, loc. cit. in n. 13.

16 Andrewes, , The Greek Tyrants, 123 Google Scholar. Also ATL, iii, 98.

17 Diod. vii. 13 (Cf. above, n. 3).

18 Parke, op. cit. in n. 13.

19 Lygdamis is said by Polyaenus (i. 23) to have helped Polycrates to power.

20 Parke, op. cit., 107.

21 Plut., de Mal. Her. 21 (859d)Google Scholar; p. Ryl. 18.

22 iii. 47, 1.

23 de Mal. Her. 21 (859c).

24 The participation of Samos in the Second Messenian war (Hdt. iii. 47. 1) may be legendary, but does at least indicate good relations between that island and Sparta in the early period.

25 Hdt. v. 63. 2; Arist., Ath. Pol. 19, 4Google Scholar.

26 So, e.g. Bengtson, , Griechische Geschichte (Handb. des Alt.) 126 Google Scholar; Cornelius, , Die Tyrannis in Athen, 50 Google Scholar. Cf. also Schachermeyr, loc. cit. (v. next n.), 186; Adcock, , C.A.H. iv. 70 Google Scholar.

27 For a survey, with references, of Pisistratus' foreign policy, see Schachermeyr, R.E. s.v. ‘Peisistratos,’ 180ff. esp. 182–6.

28 Hdt. iii. 39. 4.

29 See How and Wells, i. 267.

30 39, 4: .

31 Hdt. ibid. Cf. How and Wells ad loc. Polycrates seems to have revived the long-standing feud between Samos and Miletus, dating at least from the Lelantine war. (It had evidently been interrupted about the middle of the sixth century by an alliance against Priene: Plut., Quaest. Gr. 20 (296a)Google Scholar: Cf. Halliday ad loc.) On the relations of Samos and Miletus in general, cf. Dunham, , History of Miletus, 63–9Google Scholar.

32 Hdt. v. 99. 1.

33 Arist., Ath. Pol. 15, 2Google Scholar. Cf. also Hdt. i. 61. 2 (Pisistratus takes refuge in Eretria); 62. 1 (he uses it as a base or his attack upon Athens).

34 Thuc. i. 13. 6; iii. 104. 2.

35 Her. i. 64. 2.