Leptines (Nauarch)

Leptines (* around 430 BC; † around 374 BC) was half-brother of the tyrant Dionysius I of Syracuse , for whom he worked as a naval commander ( Nauarch ).

Leptines was married to his niece Dikaiosyne, a daughter of the tyrant from his marriage to Doris from Lokroi (today Locri in Calabria ). He is also said to have had two daughters from an extramarital relationship with a married woman.

As Nauarch he was at the beginning of Dionysios' second Carthaginian War in 398 BC. Involved in the successful siege of the Carthaginian city of Motye (today Mozia ). 396 BC BC he suffered a heavy defeat against the Carthaginian fleet at Katane ( Catania ); more than half of his ships were destroyed.

386 BC BC Leptines is said to have married one of his illegitimate daughters to his advisor Philistos , the commander of the citadel of Syracuse, without the knowledge of his half-brother . This step aroused the tyrant's suspicions; Philistus fell from grace and was banished to the mainland.

383 BC BC Leptines led the Syracusan auxiliary troops, which were supposed to support the Italian Lucanians in their fight against the Greek city union in southern Italy. His intervention prevented the Italians from completely destroying the Greek city of Croton . Since this leniency did not fit into the tyrant's southern Italian expansion plans, Leptines fell out of favor for it, was replaced as Nauarch by the (third) brother Thearides and also banished; both Leptines and his son-in-law Philistus then lived in exile in Thurioi .

Dionysius later reconciled himself with Leptines. This was allowed to return to Syracuse and also take on military offices again. He died (probably 374 BC) fighting the Carthaginians.

literature

• Karl Friedrich Stroheker : Dionysius I figure and history of the tyrant of Syracuse. Wiesbaden 1958

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b} Plutarch , Dion 11, 6.
2. ↑ Diodorus Siculus , Weltgeschichte, Book July 15, 3-4.
3. ^ Diodorus Siculus, Weltgeschichte, book 15.17.1.