Lycophron II of Pherai

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Lycophron II ( Greek  Λυκόφρων ; † after 352 BC), son of Jason of Pherai , was from 355 to 352 BC. A tyrant of Pherai in Thessaly .

Lycophron was one of the three sons of the tyrant Jason of Pherai, his brothers were Tisiphonos and Peitholaos. In 358 BC The brothers supported their sister Thebe in the murder of her husband and cousin Alexandros , whereupon Tisiphonus, the eldest, took over the tyranny in Pherai. Tisiphonus died in 355 BC. BC or shortly thereafter, and Lycophron and Peitholaos jointly succeeded him. Both brothers were described by Aristotle as extremely corrupt.

In order to regain the rule over Thessaly that was lost by Alexandros and to be able to stand against Philip II of Macedonia , the brothers entered into an alliance with the Phokers . Because they attacked the sanctuary of Delphi in the Third Holy War that had just broken out and were therefore declared blasphemers, the tyrants gambled away their last sympathies among the Thessalians. In 353 BC In the 3rd century BC Philip II returned from Macedonia to Thessaly to fight Lycophron and defeated a 7,000-strong army of the Phocians who came to the aid of the tyrants. Thereupon the military leader of the Phocians, Onomachus , personally moved with an army to Thessaly and defeated the Macedonians after two victorious battles from Thessaly. But because he immediately withdrew to Boeotia , Philip II was able to return to Thessaly the following year. Again there was a battle between Phokers and Macedonians, in which the Macedonians achieved a complete victory in the decisive battle on the crocus field (352 BC).

The defeat of their only ally put an end to the tyranny in Pherai. Lycophron and Peitholaos gave up their rule and handed the city over to Philip II, with which the rule of Macedonia over Thessaly was finally established. The brothers then went to Phocis with 2,000 mercenaries. Philip II's marriage to Nikesipolis , which is believed to have belonged to the tyrant family, probably fell during that period as part of the surrender agreement with the tyrant brothers. In the same year they moved to the Peloponnese with 150 Thessalian horsemen in the Phoker army to support the megalopolis that was besieged by the Spartans .

The year of death of Lycophron II and Peitholaus is unknown. As allies of Athens in the Third Holy War, both were granted Attic citizenship, but at least Peitholaos was revoked after a judgment of the Ekklesia .

literature

  • Christopher Ehrhardt: Two Notes on Philip of Macedon's First Interventions in Thessaly. In: The Classical Quarterly. Vol. 17 (1967), pp. 296-301.
  • Hans Volkmann : Lykophron 3). In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 3, Stuttgart 1969, Col. 814 f.
  • Thomas R. Martin: A Phantom Fragment of Theopompus and Philip II's First Campaign in Thessaly. In: Harvard Studies in Classical Philology. Vol. 86: 55-78 (1984).
  • Ernst Badian : Philipp II and the Last of the Thessalians. In: Ancient Macedonia. Vol. 6 (1999), pp. 111-113.
  • Slawomir Sprawski: The End of the Pheraean Tyranny. In: ΥΠΕΡΕΙΑ. Volume 5 (2010), pp. 181-189.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Xenophon , Hellenika 6, 4, 36-37; Diodorus 16, 14, 1; Plutarch , Pelopidas 35, 3.
  2. ^ Aristotle, Rhetoric 3, 9, 8.
  3. ↑ Diodorus 16, 35, 1.
  4. ↑ Diodorus 16, 35, 2.
  5. ↑ Diodorus 16, 35, 3-6.
  6. ↑ Diodorus 16, 38, 1. Philip II had ended the tyranny in Pherai and established their inner freedom, that is, a democratic constitution.
  7. ↑ Diodorus 16, 37, 3.
  8. ↑ Diodorus 16, 39, 3.
  9. ↑ Isocrates , Epistole 6: 3; Demosthenes , Apollodorus versus Neaira (59), 91.
personal data
SURNAME Lycophron II of Pherai
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Thessalian ruler
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 4th century BC Chr.