citizens of the polis (a practice that is annoyingly common among today’s politicians, facilitated by the
eager collusion of the news media), but also in order to focus on the public and communal aspects of the
polis in contrast to the more limited, elitist concerns of the aristoi, such as the exclusive symposium with
which we began this chapter. Consequently, during the tyranny of Polycrates, Samos was provided with an
impressive artificial harbor that accommodated Polycrates’ fleet of one hundred warships, perhaps the
most substantial Greek navy until that time. Also, a new temple of the goddess Hera, the patron deity of
Samos, was begun, a temple that Herodotus calls “the largest of all temples that we know of.” And a
tunnel of about a kilometer in length, parts of which can still be seen today, was constructed to ensure the
fresh water supply of the city of Samos. (When this tunnel was dug, excavation began at both ends
simultaneously; that there was only a very slight misalignment when the two shafts met is testimony to the
level of accomplishment in geometry among Polycrates’ engineers.) In addition, Polycrates attracted two
of the leading lyric poets of the day to his court, Ibycus from Rhegium in southern Italy and Anacreon from
Abdera on the north coast of the Aegean Sea.
“You too, Polycrates, will gain undying acclaim, in tandem with my own acclaim as a singer.”
(Ibycus, fragment 1.47–8)While there is no such thing as a “typical” Greek tyrant, Polycrates has a great deal in common with
several of the tyrants of other poleis about whom we know. So, for example, after Polycrates lost his
power and his life, the poet Anacreon, along with other leading poets, was welcomed to Athens by
Hipparchus, the brother of the reigning tyrant of Athens and the son of his predecessor. Nor was the
character of Polycrates’ “friendship” with the king of Egypt at all unusual. Today, we would think of this
type of relationship in more political terms, and we would speak of an “alliance” between Samos and
Egypt rather than a “friendship” between Polycrates and Amasis. But alliances between states that are
ruled by autocrats, no matter how “political” their motivation, are conducted in purely personal terms,
and there is evidence for several Greek tyrants who maintained personal relationships with non-Greek
kings and with tyrants in other Greek poleis. For example, Periander, who became tyrant of Corinth in
about 627 BC (and was the patron of the almost legendary lyric poet Arion), sent a lavish gift to King
Alyattes of Lydia. The gift consisted of three hundred young boys, the sons of the leading families of a
Greek polis that was responsible for putting Periander’s son to death; the boys were to be castrated and
put into the service of Alyattes as eunuchs. Periander seems to have cultivated relations with the king of
Egypt as well; his nephew was named Psammetichus, which is the Greek form of the name of Psamtek, the
pharaoh of Egypt at the time Periander became tyrant. Periander also maintained friendships with tyrants
of other Greek poleis, like Thrasybulus of Miletus on the coast of Asia Minor; this “alliance” between the
two poleis considerably benefited Corinth’s capacity for trade in the east and Miletus’ in the west.
Sometimes these personal relationships between tyrants were formalized by marriage. Periander, for
example, was the son-in-law of the tyrant of the neighboring polis of Epidaurus, which polis he eventually
invaded and annexed, taking his father-in-law prisoner.
“You too, Polycrates, will gain undying acclaim, in tandem with my own acclaim as a singer.”
(Ibycus, fragment 1.47–8)In this adherence to a personal mode of diplomacy and statesmanship the Archaic tyrants were continuing
an aristocratic tradition that is in evidence also among the basileis in the Homeric poems, for whom the
exchange of valuable gifts is a ratification of the reciprocal ties of friendship and mutual obligation
between noblemen living in different parts of the Greek world. The Greek warriors who participate in the