Arganthonios

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Arganthonios ( Greek  Ἀργανθώνιος ) was in the 6th century BC. A ruler of ancient Tartessos , kingdom or port city on the south coast of the Iberian Peninsula at the mouth of the Guadalquivir west of the Strait of Gibraltar . According to Herodotus , Arganthonios supported the Phoceans in their resistance to Cyrus during his reign . He died before the fugitive Phocaeans reached the western Mediterranean .

To the great age of Arganthonios in the ancient sources

Tartessos, location and spread

The Tartessian ruler was famous in ancient times because of the old age he is said to have reached. After Herodotus , Arganthonios lived 120 years, 80 of which he ruled Tartessus. Anakreon tells of a king who is said to have ruled Tartessos for 150 years. Strabo , Pliny , Phlegon von Tralles and Pseudo-Lukian thought this ruler was Herodotus Arganthonios. However, Phlegon and Pseudo-Lucian do not notice the discrepancy between the messages of Herodotus and Anacreon and report that Arganthonios - according to Herodotus and Anacreon - lived 150 years. According to Silius Italicus , Arganthonios was even 300 years old. A person who reached a particularly old age was called in Greek  μακροβιώτερος Ἀργανθωνίου .

Arganthonios and the Phocaeans

The Greek- Ionian Phokaia on the Mediterranean coast of Asia Minor - whose inhabitants made sea ​​voyages to the Iberian Peninsula and established trading bases in archaic times - was threatened by the Persians . According to Herodotus, Arganthonios therefore offered the Phocaiians to resettle in his kingdom on the south coast of the Iberian Peninsula. When the Phocaeans refused, he generously sent them a lot of gold for building a defensive wall against the Persians. After the siege by the Persians under Harpagos around 545 BC. The Phoceans - according to Herodotus - gave up their city. They fled with their ships across the Mediterranean to their colonies in order to stay there. Many of them moved to Corsica , to Alalia, which they had founded twenty years earlier .

Remarks

  1. ↑ Cf. Herodotus , Historien I, 163; see. also Pliny , Naturalis historia VII, 156.
  2. ↑ See Anakreon , fragment 8.
  3. ↑ See Strabo III, 151.
  4. ↑ Cf. Pliny , Naturalis historia VII, 154.
  5. ↑ Cf. Phlegon von Tralles , Makrob . 4th
  6. ↑ Cf. Pseudo-Lukian , Makrob . 10.
  7. ↑ See Appian , Iberike 63.
  8. ↑ See Silius Italicus III, 396–398.
  9. ↑ Cf. Themistios , Orationes II, 38a.
  10. ↑ Cf. Herodotus , Historien I, 163.
  11. ↑ Cf. Herodotus , Historien I, 164-165.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Arganthonios
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ἀργανθώνιος (Greek)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION ancient ruler of Tartessus
DATE OF BIRTH 7th century BC BC or 6th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH before 545 BC Chr.