Nikokreon (King)

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Nikokreon ( Greek  Νικοκρέων ; † 311/310 BC) was a king of Salamis in Cyprus . He was a son and from 332/31 BC. Successor of Pnytagoras . He claimed to be descended from Aiakos . He was either brother of the Trierarch Nitaphon or identical with him.

Nikokreon fought with Alexander the Great before Tire . 321 BC He allied himself with Ptolemy I. The alliance was established in 315 BC. Chr. Renewed. Two years later, Ptolemy made Nicokreon the strategist of Cyprus and increased his powers to have a powerful ally in the fight against Antigonus I Monophthalmos . However, Nikokreon thus became a subordinate of the Ptolemaic. Bronze shields as consecration gifts from Nikokreon are known from Argos , Delphi and Delos . On Delos, Nikokreon was Proxenos .

According to Valerius Maximus , the philosopher Anaxarchus had insulted Nikokreon at the table, whereupon Alexander had him tortured. In order not to be misled by the torture, Anaxarchus bit his tongue off and spat it in the face of the king during an interrogation, who had him executed. Ammianus Marcellinus tells this story about the philosopher Zeno , which is probably based on a mix-up. Macrobius reports that Nikokreon asked Serapis what kind of god he was. If the question is real, the traditional answer is not.

Nikokreon died in 311/10 BC. By committing suicide with his family and being buried in the rubble of the burned-down palace. In the style of around 350-300 BC Vassos Karageorghis found in the cenotaph of Nikokreon , the Greek sculptor Lysipp modeled death figures , portraits of the dead . They presumably represent the king and his family. In order to give them a dignified burial, the Salaminians had clay sculptures similar to portraits made, although only the visible parts were fully formed. They carried out a symbolic cremation and arched a burial mound, which did not contain the corpses, but only the remains of the funerary figures. The story of his end passed down by Diodorus relates to Nicocles of Paphos .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Arrian Ind. 18.8
  2. ↑ Plutarch , Alexandros 29.2 f.
  3. ^ Arrian The Fragments of the Greek Historians 156 F 10.6.
  4. ↑ Diodorus 19.59.1; 62.5.
  5. ↑ Diodorus 19.79.5.
  6. ↑ Inscriptiones Graecae XI 2,199 B 87.
  7. ↑ Diogenes Laertios 9,10,59, Cicero , Tusculanae disputationes 2,22,52; De natura deorum 3,33,82; Valerius Maximus 3.3 ext. 4th
  8. ↑ Wolfgang Seyfarth , commentary, in: Central Institute for Ancient History and Archeology of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR (ed.): Ammianus Marcellinus, Roman History. Old World Writings and Sources. Academy, Berlin 1968, note 210.
  9. ↑ Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.2016 f.
  10. ^ Marble Parium , The Fragments of the Greek Historians 239 B 17.
  11. ↑ Diodorus 20:21
predecessor Office successor
Pnytagoras King of Salamis
332 / 331-311 / 310 BC Chr. 		-
personal data
SURNAME Nikokreon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION King of Salamis in Cyprus
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 311/310 BC Chr.