Deinocrates (general)

Deinocrates (Δεινοκράτης; Latin : Dinocrates ; * before 350 BC in Syracuse (?); † after 304 BC ) was a noble Syracuse who lived from 311 to 304 BC. Fought in Sicily as a general of the exiled oligarchs against the tyrant Agathocles of Syracuse .

Life

Deinocrates was a friend of Agathocles in 316 BC. When he reached for tyranny in Syracuse and had his oligarchic enemies murdered. In exile, Deinocrates became the leader of the Syracuse oligarchs. 311 BC He entered into an alliance with the Carthaginians to drive out the tyrant and to force his return.

After the battle of Himeras , the allies succeeded in persuading almost all of Sicily to desert Agathocles. When, during the following siege of Syracuse, the Carthaginian general Hamilcar was captured and killed in a night raid, Deinocrates took command of the armed forces of the allied Greeks and Carthaginians.

Deinocrates now issued the popular slogan of autonomy for all Greek cities and assembled an army of 20,000 foot soldiers and 1,500 cavalrymen. His opponent had nothing comparable to oppose this, so he avoided a meeting.

After Agathocles failed with a bold counteroffensive against the Carthaginian heartland in Africa , he offered in 307 BC. The abandonment of tyranny and the homecoming of the exiles. Deinocrates, however, demanded that Agathocles should leave Sicily. However, through an alliance with the Etruscans , he was soon able to free himself from the predicament and force the Carthaginians to withdraw from the war.

After the peace treaty in 306 BC Between Syracuse and Carthage there was a decisive battle between the parties of the Sicilian Greeks at Torgion in central Sicily. The oligarchs were vastly outnumbered: Deinocrates had 25,000 infantrymen and 3,000 cavalrymen, while Agathocles supposedly had just under 5,000 foot soldiers and around 800 horsemen. However, the tyrant won because part of the oligarchical force defected to him during the battle.

After the defeat, Deinocrates surrendered in 304 BC. BC and delivered the places he occupied. Agathocles not only spared him, but reconciled himself with him and even made him one of his commanders . As such, Deinocrates later conquered the city of Leontinoi for Syracuse.

swell

• Diodorus : Library , XIX 8,6; 103-104.2; XX 29.5; 31.2; 57.1; 61.5; 63.7; 77.3; 79.1ff; 89f.
• Polyainos : Strategika , 5,3,2.

literature

• Helmut Berve : The rule of Agathocles. Publishing house of the Bavarian Academy, Munich 1953.
• Klaus Meister : Deinocrates [1]. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 3, Metzler, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-476-01473-8 , column 370.
• Hans Volkmann: Deinokrates 1. In: The little Pauly (KlP). Volume 1, Stuttgart 1964, column 1428.

Remarks

1. ^ Diodorus, Bibliothek 20, 89: 1-5.