Arete of Syracuse

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Arete ( Greek  Ἀρέτη ; † 353 BC ) was a daughter of the tyrant Dionysius I of Syracuse and the wife of her uncle Dion of Syracuse .

Arete was a daughter of Dionysius I and Aristomache , an older sister of Dion. She first married Thearides , who was her father's brother. After Thearides died, she went about 375 BC. A second marriage to Dion, with whom she had a son.

Dionysius II , the son and successor of Dionysius I, invited Dion in 366 BC. BC invited the philosopher Plato to Syracuse as a consultant. But the new tyrant suspected Dion of trying to overthrow him. So he exiled Dion while Aristomache and Arete stayed in Syracuse. Another, 361 BC. The journey to Sicily undertaken by Plato at the request of Dionysius II did not bring about the hoped-for compromise between the tyrant and Dion; on the contrary, Dionysius II confiscated Dion's remaining property in Syracuse and forced Arete to dissolve their marriage and to marry his officer Timocrates.

Dion returned in 357 BC. BC and was able to break the rule of the tyrant in much of Syracuse; only the upstream city fortress Ortygia , where Arete, her mother and her son were, remained in Dionysius' hands. Only when the commanding son of Dionysius II in Ortygia, Apollokrates , 355 BC Chr. Capitulated and withdrew with his crew, Dion saw his family again after a long separation. He took Arete back into his house.

The Dion government was perceived as increasingly authoritarian. One of his confidants, the officer Callippos from Athens, planned a coup. Dion refused to listen to warnings, but Arete and her mother confronted Callippus. He tried to dispel the suspicion by taking a solemn oath of allegiance, but had Dion eliminated soon after (354 BC) and then thrown Aristomache and Arete in prison, where the latter gave birth to a son. Presumably, by imprisoning the women, Kallippus wanted to prevent possible dynastic claims of the Dion family.

After a son of Dionysius I, Hipparinos , already 353 BC. Arete and her mother were freed and placed in the care of Dion's former friend Hiketas , who sent them by sea to the Peloponnese . On the way, the two women died, according to Plutarch, allegedly murdered on Hiketas' orders, but the news is doubtful.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Plutarch, Dion 6; Nepos , Dion 1.1.
  2. ↑ Plutarch, Dion 21 and 26; Nepos, Dion 4.3.
  3. ↑ Plutarch, Dion 51; Nepos, Dion 6.2; Claudius Aelianus , Varia historia 12.47 (who mistakenly makes Arete the mother and Aristomache the wife of Dion).
  4. ↑ Lionel J. Sanders: Callippus . In: Mouseion. Journal of the Classical Association of Canada 2, 2002, pp. 1–21, here: 18f., 21.
  5. ↑ Plutarch, Dion 57f. and Timoleon 33.
personal data
SURNAME Arete
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Wife of the ruler Dion of Syracuse
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 353 BC Chr.