Figure 31 Engraved chalcedony scarab, showing a satyr with vessels for wine; length 16 mm, ca. 500
BC. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 67.624, Frederick Brown Fund.

Source: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA / Frederick Brown Fund / Bridgeman Images.

Tyranny

Herodotus’ story is obviously fictional, but the part about Polycrates being the friend of the king of Egypt
is, in fact, historically accurate. For Polycrates was no ordinary individual. He was the ruler of the island
of Samos, which was, largely because of Polycrates’ determination, the most prosperous and influential
Greek state in the Aegean region in the sixth century BC. Samos and Egypt were allies, sharing a common
apprehension of the resolute expansion of the Persian Empire. This apprehension was perfectly justified,
and both Egypt and Samos were eventually subjected to Persian control, but not until after the death of
Amasis and the assassination of Polycrates. Amasis – this is the Greek form of the name of the Egyptian
King Ahmose II – had become king of Egypt as the result of a coup that overthrew the previous king.
Polycrates became the ruler of Samos as the result of a coup as well, but Samos, unlike Egypt, was not a
hereditary monarchy. Rather, Polycrates appropriated for himself power that previously had belonged to
an aristocracy, of which Polycrates was himself a member. What happened on Samos, when Polycrates
became ruler of the island in about 535 BC, is not at all untypical of what happened in any number of
Greek poleis in the period beginning in the early seventh century BC. The government of nearly all Greek