Philistus

Philistus of Syracuse (* around 432 BC; † 356 BC ) was an ancient Greek politician, officer and historian in Sicily. He was a loyal supporter of the tyrant Dionysius I of Syracuse and also served his son Dionysius II.

Life

Syracuse in antiquity with the offshore island of Ortygia

Philistus came from the upper class of Syracuse , but allied himself with the popular speaker Dionysius, even before he came to power as a tyrant, although Dionysius agitated against the “powerful” and “rich”. When Dionysios was fined for his agitation in 405, Philistus paid for him. After the coup d'état of Dionysius (summer 405) Philistus became one of the most important military commanders. The tyrant entrusted him with the fortress on the island of Ortygia off Syracuse, where the center of his power was.

386 BC BC Philistus aroused the displeasure of Dionysius I when he married a daughter of Dionysius' half-brother, the naval commander Leptines , without his consent . Plutarch states that this was the reason why Philistus had to leave Syracuse. In any case, he was sent into exile on the mainland. Whether, as Plutarch claims, he remained in exile for two decades or relatively soon returned to the service of the tyrant and entrusted with a command in the Adriatic , where he remained until Dionysius' death (367 BC), is controversial; in any case, he stayed away from Sicily. The son and successor of Dionysius I, Dionysius II , summoned him to his court soon after he came to power in order to counterbalance the influence of Dion's party . Dion, who had built up a strong position for himself as a brother-in-law and loyal follower of Dionysius I, induced Dionysius II to bring the philosopher Plato from Athens to Syracuse, which he hoped would strengthen his influence. However, Plato was a fundamental opponent of tyrant rule and strove to change the constitution of Syracuse in line with his philosophical state ideal. Philistus, on the other hand, considered tyranny to be the best form of government. So Plato was drawn into the power struggle between Dion and Philistus.

Philistus and his partisans tried to convince Dionysius that Dion wanted to overthrow him in order to give power to his nephew, the sons of Dionysius I from another marriage. When Dion wrote a letter to the Carthaginians , with whom Syracuse was at war at the time, recommending himself to them as an advisor and mediator for peace negotiations, and this letter was intercepted and fell into the hands of the tyrant, the party of Philistus had won . Dionysius read the letter from Philistus, discussed it with him and then decided to send Dion into exile for treason.

When Dion, after staying in Greece for a decade, set out with a small force of mercenaries in 357 to overthrow Dionysius II, Philistus was in command of the tyrant's fleet. The Syracusans rose against Dionysius and drove his mercenaries from the city; he could only hold the fortress on Ortygia. A sea battle broke out between the Syracusan fleet under the command of Herakleides of Syracuse and that of the tyrant under Philistus. Philistus lost the battle. He was captured, tortured and killed. This version of his end, handed down by Plutarch, is more believable than a report that he killed himself to avoid capture.

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During his absence from Syracuse, Philistus occupied himself with writing a history of Sicily (Sikeliká) in eleven books. The first part (books 1 to 7) contained the history of the island up to the conquest of Agrigento by Carthage (406 BC), the second part the story of the elder and the younger Dionysius up to the year 363 BC. At this point Philistos' compatriot Athanis took over the continuation. Only fragments of the work have survived.

reception

Alexander the Great valued history. The Alexandrian scholars included Philistus in the canon of historiographers. Cicero thought highly of him; he praised him as excellent and astute and found that the Sicilian was "almost a little Thucydides ". Also Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Quintilian compared him to Thucydides.

As a Platonist, Plutarch judged from the perspective of the anti-tyrant. He said that one should not praise the works of the Philistos, but it was just as inappropriate to mock his miserable end, for such a fate could also hit the best men. The behavior of the historian Timaeus of Tauromenion is to be disapproved of. Although he benefited from the news material of the Philistus for his own account, he showered him with insults and showed satisfaction at his downfall. Posterity should take a more impartial attitude. The fact is, however, that Philistus was the greatest friend of all tyrants. More than anyone else, he admired and praised the brilliance of tyrant power. He skilfully glossed over unjust deeds and bad character traits.

swell

• Felix Jacoby (Ed.): The Fragments of the Greek Historians , Part 3 B, Brill, Leiden 1950, pp. 551–567 (No. 556; contains all source statements on Philistos and the fragments of his work)
• Frances Pownall: Philistus (556). In: Brill's New Jacoby (with English translation, commentary and research discussion).

literature

Overview display

• Carlo Scardino: Historiography. In: Bernhard Zimmermann , Antonios Rengakos (Hrsg.): Handbook of the Greek literature of antiquity. Vol. 2: The literature of the classical and Hellenistic period. CH Beck, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-406-61818-5 , pp. 617-677, here: 622 f.

Investigations

• Helmut Berve : The tyranny among the Greeks . 2 volumes, Beck, Munich 1967
• Charles A. Folcke: Dionysius and Philistus. The Tyrant and the Historian . Binghamton 1973 (dissertation)
• Stefan Schorn : Political Theory, 'Fürstenspiegel' and Propaganda. Philistus of Syracuse, Xenophons Hieron and Dionysius I of Syracuse . In: David Engels u. a. (Ed.): Between ideal and reality. Rule in Sicily from ancient times to the late Middle Ages . Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-515-09641-6 , pp. 37-61
• Karl Friedrich Stroheker : Dionysius I figure and history of the tyrant of Syracuse . Franz Steiner, Wiesbaden 1958
• Renate Zoepffel : Investigations on the historical work of the Philistos of Syracuse . Freiburg 1965 (dissertation)

Remarks

1. ↑ Karl Friedrich Stroheker: Dionysios I figure and history of the tyrant of Syracuse , Wiesbaden 1958, p. 37.
2. ^ Lionel J. Sanders: Dionysius I of Syracuse and Greek Tyranny , London 1987, p. 43.
3. ↑ Lionel J. Sanders pleads for a re-dating - 384 instead of 386 -: Dionysius I of Syracuse and Greek Tyranny , London 1987, p. 44.
4. ↑ Plutarch, Dion 11.4; Lionel J. Sanders argues for this tradition: Dionysius I of Syracuse and Greek Tyranny , London 1987, pp. 44-46.
5. ↑ So Helmut Berve, Dion , Wiesbaden 1957, p. 32 and note 1.
6. ↑ Helmut Berve, Dion , Wiesbaden 1957, pp. 80f.
7. ↑ For the background to Alexander's interest, see Lionel J. Sanders: Dionysius I of Syracuse and Greek Tyranny , London 1987, pp. 48, 50, 94f.
8. ↑ Cicero, Epistulae ad Quintum fratrem 2,12,4.
9. ↑ For these comparisons see Lionel J. Sanders: Dionysius I of Syracuse and Greek Tyranny , London 1987, pp. 60–70.
10. ↑ Plutarch, Dion 36.