Polycrates – Tyrant of Samos
Polycrates – the Tyrant Who Made Samos a Great Power
He seized power with the help of just a handful of men, had one brother killed and banished the other, and later created one of the most powerful fleets in the Greek world on Samos. Under his rule, the island experienced a period of extraordinary development, monumental buildings were constructed, and stories about Polycrates’ wealth and good fortune survived for more than 2,500 years. But he was not a ruler to be defied. His own story ended as remarkably as it had begun – with a journey into a trap set by the Persians and a death that even Herodotus did not wish to describe in detail.
👦 Before He Became a Tyrant
We know surprisingly little about Polycrates’ early life. We know neither the exact date of his birth nor where he was born. We do know that he was a Samian and the son of Aeaces, and that his brothers were Pantagnotus and Syloson. Everything suggests that the family belonged to the island’s influential circles, but we do not know what position Polycrates held or what he did before seizing power.
Even the position of his father is not entirely clear. Herodotus calls Polycrates the son of Aeaces, but does not describe Aeaces as an earlier tyrant of Samos. Some scholars, however, believe that the family may already have played an important political role and that Aeaces himself may possibly have ruled the island. This remains a hypothesis – the history of Samian tyranny before Polycrates is still a subject of debate among scholars today.
One thing, however, is important: Polycrates did not emerge on a poor and insignificant island that only he would transform into a great power. Samos had already been developing for decades. The Samians engaged in long-distance trade, were excellent sailors, and at the Sanctuary of Hera they erected monumental buildings and dedicated valuable offerings brought from even the most distant parts of the known world. Scholars point out that some of the projects and policies later associated with Polycrates had actually begun before he came to power.
⚔️ Fifteen Men and a Coup on Samos
Around the middle of the 6th century BC, Polycrates and his brothers Pantagnotus and Syloson seized power on Samos. We do not know exactly what the political situation on the island was immediately before the coup or precisely whom the brothers removed from power. Samos was a polis, not a kingdom in which a monarch passed the throne on to his successor. This makes the information given by Herodotus all the more surprising: the brothers are said to have needed just fifteen armed men to seize power.
This does not, of course, mean that fifteen warriors conquered the entire island. Most likely, it was a coup carried out by a small group that took control of the most important points in the city and then gained or forced enough support to remain in power. Herodotus does not explain exactly how this happened, however, so we do not know how many supporters Polycrates had among the inhabitants or who backed him before the coup.
A much more colourful version of events was recorded several centuries later by the Greek author Polyaenus. According to him, the brothers took advantage of a festival in honour of Hera, during which the armed inhabitants were required to lay down their weapons before entering the sanctuary. Polycrates’ men then seized the weapons and took control of Astypalaia – the fortified hill of the ancient city. They were also supposedly aided by Lygdamis, the tyrant of Naxos. It is a fascinating story, but it comes from a much later source, so we cannot be certain that this is really how Polycrates seized power.
👥 Three Brothers in Power
After the successful coup, Polycrates did not immediately become the sole ruler of Samos. Power was divided between the three brothers: Polycrates, Pantagnotus and Syloson. Herodotus writes that they divided Samos into three parts, with each brother receiving a share in the government. He does not explain, however, where the boundaries between these parts lay or whether this was an actual territorial division of the island or rather a division of responsibilities and influence.
Such an arrangement was probably difficult from the outset. Three ambitious men who had seized power together now had to exercise it together. We know nothing about the disputes that may have arisen between them, nor do we know why Polycrates began to seek complete control. The sources are silent about what happened between the coup and the collapse of the three brothers’ joint rule.
We do know, however, how the arrangement ended. Polycrates had Pantagnotus killed and banished his youngest brother, Syloson, from Samos. Herodotus reports these events very briefly, giving neither a reason nor any details about the circumstances of Pantagnotus’ death. With both brothers removed, Polycrates became the island’s sole ruler.
Syloson disappeared from Samos, but not from our story. Many years later, the exiled brother would play an extraordinarily important role in the history of the island. Thanks to a chance encounter in Egypt and... a single red cloak, he would return to Samos in circumstances that Polycrates could certainly never have foreseen.
For now, however, the island belonged to Polycrates. And this was the beginning of the era with which his name is still associated today.
👑 Polycrates Rules Alone
After the death of Pantagnotus and the exile of Syloson, Polycrates became the sole ruler of Samos. We do not know the exact date of these events or the details of the conflict between the brothers. Herodotus passes over them in little more than a single sentence and immediately presents Polycrates as a man whose power was rapidly growing. It is with this period that we associate the most important part of his rule, during the second half of the 6th century BC.
Polycrates was a tyrant. Today, the word is associated primarily with a cruel ruler, but in ancient Greece it had a somewhat different meaning. A tyrant was someone who had seized power outside the traditional political order and ruled in his own right. This did not automatically mean that every tyrant governed solely through terror. In the case of Polycrates, however, there is little doubt that he could be ruthless – the fate of his own brothers is the clearest example.
We do not know what his court or the island’s administration looked like, how many people helped him govern or how he made everyday decisions. The sources are interested mainly in his wars, fleet, alliances and extraordinary good fortune. Through them, however, we can see the scale of his ambition. Polycrates had no intention of limiting himself to ruling Samos peacefully. He wanted the island to become a major power in the Aegean.
⛵ One Hundred Ships and a Thousand Archers
When Herodotus describes the growing power of Polycrates, he gives figures that are impressive even today: 100 penteconters and 1,000 archers. A penteconter was a long, fast vessel powered by around fifty oarsmen. A hundred such ships would have required several thousand men simply to crew them, as well as commanders, soldiers, shipwrights, sailmakers and people responsible for the harbour and supplies. Maintaining such a fleet therefore required enormous resources.
We do not know whether all one hundred ships were permanently ready to sail or whether the figure given by Herodotus precisely reflects the size of the fleet at any one particular moment. There is little doubt, however, that the naval power of Samos under Polycrates was real. Thucydides also refers to it, and modern scholars regard Samos as one of the most important Greek naval powers of the Archaic period.
Then there were the 1,000 archers. We should not, however, imagine them simply as a thousand soldiers standing on the decks of Samian ships. Herodotus lists the fleet and the archers as two elements of Polycrates’ military strength, but does not say that all the archers served as members of the ships’ crews. They may have taken part in operations both at sea and on land after disembarking.
Polycrates used this power very aggressively. Herodotus writes that he attacked islands and cities along the coast of Asia Minor, making little distinction between friends and enemies. He even attributes a rather cynical saying to him: a friend would be more grateful if you returned something you had previously taken from him than if you had never taken anything from him in the first place. We also know that Polycrates defeated the people of Lesbos at sea when they came to the aid of Miletus. The prisoners were later taken to Samos and forced to work on the city’s fortifications.
The fleet therefore served not merely to defend the island. It was the instrument that allowed small Samos to project its power far beyond its own shores. Under Polycrates, the sea did not separate the island from its neighbours – it was a route to wealth, influence and further conquest.
Only one question remains: where did warfare end and ordinary piracy begin? In the case of Polycrates, the line between the two was exceptionally thin.
💰 Trade, War or Piracy?
Today, it would be easy to say that Polycrates built the power of Samos through its fleet and trade. In the 6th century BC, however, things were more complicated. Merchants, warships and pirates used the same sea routes, and the line between trade, warfare and the seizure of booty was not always as clear as it is today.
Samos already had extensive trading connections. Samian ships sailed to Egypt and other parts of the eastern Mediterranean, and even before the time of Polycrates, the sailor Colaeus of Samos had travelled as far as Tartessos on the Iberian Peninsula. Polycrates therefore did not create Samian seafaring from scratch. He took control of an island whose inhabitants had for generations known how to use the sea as a route to wealth and contact with distant parts of the world. Scholars point out that some of the policies associated with Polycrates were a continuation of a direction Samos had already taken before his rule.
Polycrates himself, however, went much further. Herodotus writes that he attacked islands and cities on the mainland, capturing them and bringing them under his control. He even attacked those he considered friends. He is said to have claimed that a friend would be more grateful to have stolen property returned than if it had never been taken in the first place. In Polycrates’ world, a maritime expedition could therefore mean seizing booty, forcing submission or extending the influence of Samos.
Was he, then, a pirate? In a sense, some of his activities could be described this way, and piracy also appears in studies of Archaic Samos. We should, however, be careful about applying the modern meaning of the word. In the 6th century BC, raids on ships and coastal settlements could form part of the policy of an entire state rather than being the work of criminals operating outside it. The Samians, moreover, had a tradition of such maritime expeditions even before Polycrates.
Captured goods, control of sea routes, trade and growing influence all reinforced one another. A powerful fleet protected the interests of Samos, but at the same time allowed it to seize the wealth of others. A wealthy island, in turn, could maintain more ships and the men needed to undertake further expeditions. This created a mechanism through which a relatively small island became one of the most important centres in the Aegean.
It is therefore probably best not to try to define Polycrates’ activities with a single word. He was the ruler of a naval power, fought wars, benefited from Samos’s extensive trading connections and had no hesitation in acquiring wealth by force. In his world, trade, politics and violence all met on the same sea.
🌍 Samos at the Centre of the Ancient World
Polycrates’ power was not limited to the neighbouring islands. Samos was part of a network of connections stretching from the coast of Asia Minor to Egypt, and under his rule the island became an important political player in the eastern Mediterranean. This, however, had not begun with Polycrates. The Samians had already been trading and sailing over long distances, and they also had their own sanctuary at Naucratis in Egypt – a major centre where Greek merchants from different parts of the world came together.
Polycrates knew how to use these connections politically as well. One of his most important allies was Amasis II, Pharaoh of Egypt. Herodotus writes that the two rulers formed an alliance and exchanged gifts. An extraordinary trace of their close relationship was also left on Samos itself: Amasis presented the Heraion with two wooden statues of himself, which Herodotus claimed to have seen there as late as the 5th century BC.
The political situation, however, was changing rapidly. To the east, the Persian Empire was expanding and, after conquering Lydia, was bringing more and more areas of Asia Minor under its control. When the Persian king Cambyses prepared his campaign against Egypt, Polycrates decided to send ships to support him. This meant turning against his former ally, Amasis. Herodotus explains the end of their friendship through the famous story of Polycrates’ extraordinary good fortune and the ring thrown into the sea, but behind this tale there may have been a much more pragmatic political calculation: Polycrates had to find his place in a world where the balance of power was shifting in favour of Persia.
This did not mean that Samos became a Persian subject. Polycrates continued to pursue his own policies and commanded a force that others had to take into account. Herodotus writes that his fame spread throughout Ionia and the whole of Greece, while his campaigns brought him repeated success. A relatively small island off the coast of Asia Minor therefore found itself at the very centre of a rivalry involving the Greeks, Egypt and the growing Persian Empire.
And this is precisely what makes Samos under Polycrates so remarkable. The island was not large, but its importance far exceeded its size. It had a fleet, extensive trading connections, a wealthy sanctuary and a ruler pursuing his own political game among the most powerful forces of the ancient world.
The wealth and ambition of this period can also be seen in what was being built on Samos at the time. But here we need to be careful – not every great monument associated with Polycrates was actually his work.
🏗️ The Great Building Projects of Polycrates’ Era
When we think of Samos under Polycrates, three extraordinary structures almost immediately come to mind: the Tunnel of Eupalinos, the great Temple of Hera and the massive breakwater protecting the ancient harbour. These were the very works that impressed Herodotus. He regarded them as three of the greatest achievements of the Greeks and wrote that this was one of the reasons why he devoted so much attention to Samos in his Histories.
It is easy, therefore, to take the next step and say: “Polycrates built all of this.” But that would not be true. Herodotus speaks of the achievements of the Samians, not of three monuments built by Polycrates. Archaeology also shows that the great development of Samos had begun before he came to power. It is therefore safer to speak of the great building projects of Polycrates’ era, while remembering that some of them may have been started earlier. Their precise dating remains a subject of scholarly debate to this day.
The best example is the Heraion. The monumental temple of Rhoikos and Theodoros was built around 570–560 BC, before Polycrates became sole ruler. It was enormous, but did not survive for long. Construction later began on an even larger temple, approximately 108 metres long and surrounded by as many as 155 columns. UNESCO associates the beginning of this new building project with the period of Polycrates’ rule. It was never fully completed.
Similar caution is needed when discussing the Tunnel of Eupalinos. It was built in the 6th century BC to carry water from the Agiades spring to the city through a channel hidden inside the mountain. Herodotus even knew the name of its designer – Eupalinos of Megara, son of Naustrophos. The tunnel is 1,036 metres long and was excavated simultaneously from opposite sides of the mountain. It is one of the greatest engineering achievements of ancient Greece, but there is no firm basis for describing it without qualification as Polycrates’ personal project.
The third great achievement was the breakwater of the ancient harbour. Herodotus describes a massive structure extending out into the sea and protecting the harbour of Samos. For an island with such a powerful fleet, the harbour was far more than a centre of trade – it was one of the foundations of its military power. Here too, however, Herodotus praises the achievement of the Samians without explicitly stating that Polycrates ordered its construction.
Samos in the time of Polycrates must therefore have been an extraordinary sight. A great harbour filled with ships, the monumental Sanctuary of Hera and water brought into the city through the heart of a mountain reveal the scale of what this relatively small island was capable of achieving. Not everything was the work of a single ruler. Polycrates benefited from the achievements of earlier generations and continued development that had already begun, but it was during his rule that Samos reached one of the peaks of its power. UNESCO describes the 6th century BC as a period of exceptional technical and artistic development for the ancient city.
One question, however, cannot be answered by monumental ruins: what was life like under Polycrates for the people who helped create this power?
👥 What Was Life Like on Samos Under Polycrates?
Looking at the great buildings, powerful fleet and far-reaching connections of Samos, it is easy to assume that the island’s inhabitants enjoyed exceptionally prosperous times under Polycrates. We cannot, however, say this with certainty. Ancient sources tell us mainly about the ruler, wars and politics, and much less about the everyday lives of ordinary people. What we do know presents a more complicated picture: Samos was developing and growing wealthy, but Polycrates was not a ruler whom it was safe to oppose.
The great projects must have involved enormous numbers of people – stonemasons, carpenters, builders, sailors and craftsmen. The fleet required thousands of oarsmen and people to maintain it, while the expanding harbour provided work for many more inhabitants. We can therefore assume that this period of intensive development created opportunities to earn a living, especially for those connected with the sea, trade and crafts. We do not know, however, what their wages were like or whether the island’s growing wealth improved the lives of all its inhabitants.
Interestingly, Aristotle viewed the great Samian building projects very differently. Writing around two centuries later about methods used to maintain tyranny, he cited Polycrates’ projects as an example of measures intended to keep subjects occupied with work and drain their resources so that they had neither the time nor the means to organise a revolt. We cannot, however, treat this as an eyewitness account. Aristotle was describing a general mechanism of tyranny and used Samos as one of his examples.
We know much more about Polycrates’ fear of political opponents. When the Persian king Cambyses was preparing his campaign against Egypt, Polycrates selected the Samians whom he most suspected of plotting rebellion and sent them away on forty ships, asking Cambyses not to allow them to return. When the rebels nevertheless reappeared on the island, fighting broke out. Herodotus records an even more disturbing detail: Polycrates is said to have locked the wives and children of the men under his rule inside shipsheds, threatening to burn them if the men went over to the side of his opponents.
There is, however, also an account that presents a very different side of his rule. Later Samian tradition attributed to Polycrates the practice of caring for the mothers of soldiers killed in his wars. Wealthy citizens were supposedly given responsibility for supporting them. We know this from a later tradition associated with Duris of Samos, who lived around two centuries after Polycrates, so it is difficult to determine how accurately it reflects the reality of the 6th century BC. If true, however, it suggests that the ruler also took measures to address the social consequences of the wars he fought.
So what was life like under Polycrates? Probably very different depending on who you were. For a merchant benefiting from Samos’s far-reaching connections, a craftsman working on major projects or someone employed by the fleet, it may have been an age of enormous opportunity. For a political opponent of Polycrates, it could be a time when you risked losing your property, being driven into exile or facing far greater danger.
We should therefore not automatically equate the power of Samos with prosperity for all Samians. Behind the impressive buildings, fleet and wealth stood a state ruled by a man who could reward loyalty but could also ruthlessly remove anyone he regarded as a threat. And perhaps this contradiction best captures Samos under Polycrates: the island was experiencing one of the most extraordinary periods in its history, but not all of its inhabitants would necessarily have viewed the price of that power in the same way.
🎭 The Tyrant’s Court
Polycrates built his position not only through ships and military power. Poets also gathered at his court, and Samos became one of the places where Greek lyric poetry flourished in the 6th century BC. The most famous were Anacreon of Teos and Ibycus of Rhegion. Modern studies explicitly identify both as poets associated with the court of Polycrates.
Polycrates’ connection with Anacreon is particularly well attested. The poet came from Teos on the coast of Asia Minor and became famous above all for his light-hearted poetry about love, wine, feasting and the pleasures of life. His poems were performed to music, probably before a small circle gathered around the ruler. Later sources even claimed that his songs were full of references to Polycrates and his extraordinary good fortune.
Anacreon also appears directly in Herodotus’ account. When the Persian governor Oroetes sent a messenger to Polycrates with an offer that would ultimately lead the tyrant to his doom, the poet was in his company. Herodotus describes a curious scene: Polycrates was lying facing the wall and did not even turn around while speaking to the Persian envoy. Herodotus himself notes, however, that he does not know whether Polycrates did this deliberately.
The other famous poet associated with Samos was Ibycus, who came from Rhegion in southern Italy. His connections with the Samian circle may have begun even before Polycrates became sole ruler. A surviving fragment of a poem addresses Polycrates and promises that his fame will endure through song. We do not know for certain, however, exactly what the relationship between the poet and the ruler was like or how long Ibycus stayed on Samos.
We should not imagine Polycrates’ court as resembling the elaborate royal courts of later periods, with their complex ceremonies. We do not even know exactly where the tyrant lived or what his residence looked like. The sources do, however, reveal something more important: Polycrates attracted renowned artists from other parts of the Greek world. Poetry was also more than entertainment. A song could tell of a ruler, his successes and his fame, helping to create the image of a man whose name was meant to endure.
And endure it did. Polycrates wanted to leave behind a powerful Samos, but part of his fame is owed to people who neither built walls nor commanded ships – they composed songs. And one of the most famous stories associated with his name begins not with a war, but with his friendship with the Pharaoh of Egypt.
🤝 Friendship with Pharaoh Amasis
One of Polycrates’ most important allies was Amasis II, Pharaoh of Egypt, who reigned from 570 to 526 BC. This was no accidental alliance. Egypt maintained close contacts with the Greek world, and Samians had been present on the Nile even before the time of Polycrates. For the ruler of Samos, friendship with one of the most powerful monarchs in the eastern Mediterranean strengthened his position, while for Amasis an allied island with a powerful fleet could be a valuable partner in a world increasingly threatened by the expansion of Persia.
Herodotus explicitly states that Polycrates formed an alliance with Amasis and that the two rulers exchanged gifts. Their friendship also left a trace on Samos. Amasis presented the Sanctuary of Hera with two wooden statues of himself. Remarkably, Herodotus claimed that around a century later they could still be seen in the Heraion, standing behind the doors of the great temple.
We do not know how often Polycrates and Amasis communicated or whether they ever met in person. Herodotus, however, presents their relationship as something more than a cold political arrangement. He calls them friends and allies, and it is upon this friendship that he builds one of his most famous stories about Polycrates. Amasis was supposedly becoming increasingly concerned as he watched the Samian ruler achieve one success after another. Polycrates won wars, captured cities and islands, his fleet grew ever more powerful, and almost everything he attempted seemed to succeed.
For an ancient Greek, uninterrupted good fortune was not necessarily something to envy – it could be a warning. Too much success might arouse the jealousy of the gods and end in a sudden fall. This is how Herodotus explains Amasis’ concern. The pharaoh is said to have written to Polycrates that he would rather see a friend who sometimes prospered and sometimes suffered setbacks than a man who experienced nothing but success. He therefore advised Polycrates to bring a small misfortune upon himself: to give up something whose loss would hurt him more than anything else.
Polycrates took his advice.
💍 The Ring That Returned from the Sea
Polycrates did exactly what Amasis had advised him to do. He chose the possession whose loss would hurt him most: a signet ring with a precious stone set in gold, made by the famous Samian craftsman Theodorus, son of Telecles. He boarded a penteconter, ordered the crew to sail far from the island and, in full view of everyone on board, threw the ring into the sea. Herodotus adds that when Polycrates returned home, he genuinely grieved over his loss.
It seemed that, this time, the ruler’s extraordinary good fortune had been deliberately interrupted. But five or six days later, a fisherman caught an exceptionally large and beautiful fish. He decided that such a magnificent catch should not be taken to market, but presented to Polycrates himself. He therefore brought the fish to the ruler, who was so pleased with the gift that he invited the fisherman to a feast.
When the servants began preparing the fish, they found Polycrates’ ring inside its stomach. The object that was supposed to have disappeared forever into the depths of the sea had returned to its owner only a few days later. Polycrates saw this as a sign of divine intervention and immediately wrote to Amasis, describing everything that had happened.
The pharaoh, however, was not delighted by his friend’s extraordinary good fortune. According to Herodotus, he realised that a man who recovered even something he had deliberately tried to lose forever would not be able to escape his destiny. He concluded that Polycrates’ unbroken run of success must eventually end in a great disaster. He therefore sent a herald to Samos and ended their friendship, so that he would not later have to suffer the grief of seeing his friend meet a tragic fate.
📜 Herodotus Tells the Story...
The story of the ring is one of Herodotus’ most famous tales, but we cannot treat it as a documented historical event. It has all the features of a story about a fate that no human being can change. For Herodotus, Polycrates’ extraordinary good fortune is not a sign of further success to come. Quite the opposite – from this moment onwards, the reader already knows that dark clouds are gathering over the ruler of Samos.
Interestingly, the ring itself went on to have a long life in later stories. Several centuries later, a gemstone was displayed in Rome that was said to be the famous jewel of Polycrates. Even in antiquity, however, there were doubts as to whether it really was the same object.
And Polycrates’ troubles were to come much sooner. First, the Samians themselves turned against him, and before long a Spartan army appeared off Samos.
⚔️ The Spartans at the Walls of Samos
Polycrates’ power did not mean that the island was peaceful. Around 525–524 BC, a group of Samians whom the tyrant himself had previously tried to get rid of rose against him. When the Persian king Cambyses was preparing his campaign against Egypt, Polycrates sent him 40 ships carrying the men he most suspected of plotting rebellion, reportedly asking the Persians not to allow them to return to Samos.
The plan failed. Herodotus knew different versions of what happened next. According to one, the Samians sailed all the way to Egypt before turning back, while another claimed that they rebelled earlier. What Herodotus considered certain, however, was that they returned to Samos and rose against Polycrates. They tried to defeat him on the island, but failed.
The tyrant’s defeated opponents therefore sailed to Sparta and asked for help. Herodotus tells an amusing story about their visit. The Samian envoys supposedly made such a long speech to the Spartans that they replied that they had forgotten the beginning and had not understood the end. When the Samians returned, they brought only an empty sack and said that “the sack needs flour”. The Spartans decided that even the word “sack” had been unnecessary – but this time they agreed to help. It is one of those moments when Herodotus interrupts the grand sweep of history with a small anecdote revealing something of the character of both sides.
Why did Sparta decide to send an army so far from the Peloponnese? Herodotus offers several explanations. The Samians themselves claimed that the Spartans wanted to repay earlier wrongs committed against them by the islanders. The Corinthians also joined the expedition and had their own reasons for hostility towards the Samians. For us, however, the most important point is the result: a local conflict with Polycrates developed into a major military expedition against Samos. Historians continue to debate the precise motives behind the Spartan intervention.
The Spartans and Corinthians landed on the island and began to besiege the city. They attempted to break in near one of the towers but were driven back. Herodotus records the names of two Spartans, Archias and Lycopas, who fought with exceptional determination and were killed after making their way inside the fortifications. Despite further attempts, the attackers failed to capture the city. After forty days of siege, the Spartans gave up and sailed away. Polycrates remained in power.
📜 Herodotus Tells the Story...
A story later circulated that Polycrates had got rid of the Spartans through trickery. He was said to have minted a huge number of lead coins, covered them with gold and given them to the besiegers as a bribe. The Spartans supposedly took the “gold” and sailed away. Herodotus knew this story, but did not accept it as true. Interestingly, scholars have noted evidence suggesting that emergency lead coinage may indeed have been used on Samos, which could later have given rise to the entire tale.
The siege reveals something very important. Polycrates was able to survive not only a rebellion by his own opponents, but also an attack by one of the greatest military powers in Greece. At the same time, we can see the price of his rule: some Samians were prepared to seek help as far away as Sparta in order to remove him from power.
After the Spartans sailed away, Polycrates was still master of Samos. To the east, however, a power was growing against which even his fleet could mean very little – the Persian Empire.
🇮🇷 A Dangerous Game with Persia
While Polycrates was building the naval power of Samos, a change was taking place just across the Aegean that would transform the entire region. The Persians under Cyrus the Great conquered Lydia – a kingdom in what is now western Turkey – and then brought the Greek cities along the coast of Asia Minor, including Miletus, Ephesus and Priene, under their control. Samos therefore found itself almost directly opposite lands controlled by the Persian Empire. The island remained outside direct Persian rule, but the empire had reached almost to its shores. Polycrates therefore had to conduct his foreign policy in the shadow of a state far more powerful than any Greek polis.
Initially, he was an ally of the Egyptian Pharaoh Amasis. The situation changed when Cyrus’ successor, Cambyses II, began preparing to conquer Egypt. Polycrates decided to support the Persians and sent Cambyses 40 ships. Their crews, however, consisted largely of Samians whom the tyrant suspected of plotting rebellion. Herodotus even claims that Polycrates asked the Persian king not to send them back when the campaign was over. As we already know, the plan backfired – the men returned and became his enemies.
The decision to support Cambyses looks like a political shift towards the rising power. Around the same time, other states in the region were also changing their allegiance: Phoenicia came under Persian rule, Cyprus abandoned the side of Amasis, and Cyrene sought an agreement with Persia. Polycrates was therefore not acting in a political vacuum. The eastern Mediterranean was increasingly being reshaped around a new great power.
This did not mean, however, that Samos became a Persian vassal. Polycrates retained his independence and continued to pursue his own policies. Modern studies have in fact drawn attention to his independent stance towards Persia, while the precise nature of the relationship between Samos and the empire remains a subject of debate.
And this is where history takes an ironic turn. Polycrates had tried to use Persia for his own purposes – to get rid of his opponents and place himself on the winning side in the coming war with Egypt. A few years later, a man representing Persian authority in Asia Minor would use Polycrates’ own ambition against him.
That man was Oroetes, the Persian satrap based in Sardis. Why did he want the ruler of Samos dead? Even Herodotus did not know for certain. He gives us two stories intended to explain how the conflict began – and both are unusual enough to be worth knowing.
🪤 Oroetes Sets the Trap
Why did the Persian governor Oroetes decide to kill Polycrates? Even Herodotus did not know. What is more, he points out that the two men had never met before and that Polycrates had done Oroetes no harm. He nevertheless gives two stories that were supposed to explain how their conflict began.
According to the first, Oroetes quarrelled with another Persian governor, Mitrobates. Mitrobates mocked him for having failed to bring nearby Samos under the authority of the Persian king – an island that Polycrates himself had supposedly managed to seize with the help of just fifteen men. Humiliated, Oroetes is said to have decided to eliminate the man because of whom he had been ridiculed.
The second version is even more personal. Oroetes supposedly sent a messenger to Samos with a request. The envoy found Polycrates resting in the company of the poet Anacreon. The ruler was lying with his face turned towards the wall and, while the messenger spoke, Polycrates neither turned towards him nor replied. Herodotus himself did not know whether Polycrates had deliberately shown contempt for Oroetes or whether the incident was simply a coincidence.
📜 Herodotus Tells the Story...
After presenting both versions, Herodotus effectively leaves the decision to the reader: you can believe whichever one you prefer. For us, this is an important clue – we simply do not know the real reason why Oroetes wanted Polycrates dead.
Oroetes did, however, know how to tempt the ruler of Samos. He knew the scale of his ambitions. Polycrates wanted to extend his influence over Ionia and the islands of the Aegean, and plans like these required money. The Persian therefore prepared an offer almost perfectly tailored to his weakness.
While staying at Magnesia on the Maeander, in what is now western Turkey, Oroetes sent a messenger to Polycrates. He claimed that King Cambyses intended to kill him. He therefore wanted to escape with his enormous fortune and asked Polycrates for help. In return, he offered him part of his treasure – wealth so vast, he claimed, that it would allow the ruler of Samos to realise his boldest ambitions.
Polycrates did not believe him immediately. He sent a trusted man, his secretary Maeandrius, to the mainland to check whether the treasure really existed. Oroetes was prepared for this. He ordered eight chests to be filled with stones, leaving only a small space near the top. He covered the stones with gold, closed the chests and showed them to the envoy. Maeandrius saw the gold and returned to Samos with exactly the message Oroetes had hoped for: the treasure was real.
The trap was ready. Polycrates, who for years had played a risky political game and ruthlessly exploited others, was now himself lured by the promise of wealth.
All that remained was to persuade him to sail to Magnesia in person.
And it was then that a warning appeared whose meaning could not yet be understood – a dream experienced by Polycrates’ daughter.
🔮 The Daughter’s Dream
Polycrates had already made up his mind. Although Maeandrius, whom he had sent earlier, had confirmed the existence of Oroetes’ supposed treasure, another warning came before the journey. This time it came not from a political adviser or a soothsayer, but from Polycrates’ daughter. Herodotus does not give us her name, but he devotes one of the most poignant scenes from the tyrant’s final days to her.
The girl had a strange dream. She saw her father suspended high in the air – washed by Zeus and anointed by the sun. Terrified, she interpreted the dream as a bad omen and begged Polycrates not to go to meet Oroetes.
Polycrates, however, had no intention of changing his plans. In fact, his daughter’s pleas began to irritate him. He even threatened that if he returned safely, he would not allow her to marry for a long time. She replied that she would rather remain unmarried than lose her father. But she could not persuade him.
The ruler of Samos set off for the mainland. He did not, however, travel alone. He was accompanied by a group of Samians, among whom Herodotus mentions Democedes of Croton, a physician who enjoyed a great reputation at the time. Polycrates was therefore sailing to meet a man he had never seen before, tempted by a fortune whose existence had been confirmed only by the chests shown to his envoy.
📜 Herodotus Tells the Story...
Only after Polycrates’ death was his daughter’s dream supposed to reveal its gruesome meaning. His body was displayed high above the ground. When it rained, Zeus “washed” him, and when the sun shone, moisture appearing on his body made him seem to be “anointed” by the sun. In this way – according to Herodotus – the prophecy that Polycrates had refused to heed was fulfilled.
Of course, we do not know whether Polycrates’ daughter really had such a dream. In Herodotus’ story, however, it plays an important role. Polycrates receives one final warning, but a man for whom almost everything had gone well for years once again places his trust in his own good fortune.
This time, it was about to desert him.
☠️ The Gruesome End of Polycrates
Polycrates crossed to the coast of Asia Minor, convinced that Oroetes’ enormous fortune was waiting for him there. It was around 522 BC. The man who for years had emerged victorious from wars, rebellions and the siege of Samos had now willingly placed himself beyond the protection of his island, his fleet and the men who could defend him.
What happened after his meeting with Oroetes remains a mystery. Herodotus deliberately refuses to describe how Polycrates was killed. He says only that Oroetes put him to death in a manner he did not even wish to relate, because it was unworthy of Polycrates’ greatness. The Persian governor then had his body put on public display.
Here, too, we need to be cautious. Some translations say that Polycrates was crucified, others that he was impaled or that his body was hung up. The Greek verb used by Herodotus does not allow us to reconstruct the method of execution with complete certainty. We should therefore not imagine crucifixion in its later Roman sense. What is certain is that after his death Polycrates’ body was displayed high above the ground.
Oroetes spared the Samians who had accompanied the tyrant, allowing them to return home. Those who were not free Samians, however, he kept as slaves. And so the expedition that was supposed to bring Polycrates enormous wealth ended with his death and the collapse of the system of power he had created.
📜 Herodotus Tells the Story...
Only now was the meaning of Polycrates’ daughter’s dream supposed to become clear. The tyrant’s displayed body was high above the ground. When it rained, Zeus washed it, and when the sun shone, moisture coming from the body made it seem as though it were being anointed. The dream about which his daughter had tried to warn him had come true.
Herodotus ends the story of Polycrates in a remarkable way. Although he had earlier described his ruthlessness, wars and deceptions, he shows no satisfaction at his death. On the contrary, he considers the manner in which Polycrates died unworthy of a man who had achieved so much. Among the Greek tyrants who had lived before his time, Herodotus presents few as capable of matching Polycrates in ambition and fame.
There is something very Herodotean about this ending. A man for whom almost everything had gone well for years did not lose a great battle and was not overthrown by his own subjects. What destroyed him was the promise of even greater wealth. In Herodotus’ account, the story of the ring, Amasis’ warning and the daughter’s dream all lead to this very moment – Polycrates’ good fortune lasted for so long that it could only end in catastrophe.
But the death of Polycrates was not the end of his family’s story. The brother he had banished from Samos many years earlier was still alive. And the object that would open the way for his return to the island was far less valuable than the famous ring – a red cloak.
🔴 A Brother, a Red Cloak and a Return to Samos
When Polycrates banished Syloson many years earlier, he probably never imagined that his younger brother would one day play an important role in the island’s history. Syloson left Samos and eventually found himself in Egypt. It was there that something happened which, at the time, must have seemed completely insignificant.
While staying in Memphis, Syloson was walking through the marketplace wearing a red cloak. Darius saw him there. He was not yet king of Persia, but was serving among the followers of Cambyses. Darius liked the cloak so much that he wanted to buy it. Syloson refused to accept any money and simply gave it to him. As Herodotus tells us, he later thought that his generosity had merely cost him a perfectly good piece of clothing. He could not have known who had just received his gift.
Several years passed. Cambyses died, a struggle for power broke out within the Persian Empire, and Darius became king of Persia. When Syloson learned that the man to whom he had once given the red cloak now sat on the Persian throne, he travelled to Susa, one of the royal residences. There he introduced himself as a benefactor of Darius. At first, the king had no idea who he was, but when he heard the story of the cloak, he remembered their earlier encounter.
Darius wanted to reward him with gold and silver. Syloson, however, did not ask for money. He wanted Samos back. He also asked that the island be given to him without its inhabitants being killed or enslaved. Darius granted his request and sent an army commanded by Otanes, ordering him to hand Samos over to Syloson without harming its people.
Polycrates was no longer on the island. Power was held by Maeandrius, the man whom the tyrant had entrusted with governing Samos before his departure. After receiving news of Polycrates’ death, Maeandrius did something surprising: he summoned the inhabitants and announced that he would hand power back to them and establish political equality. He even claimed that he himself had disapproved of Polycrates for ruling over men who were his equals. The attempt did not end well, however. When one of the citizens demanded that he account for the money under his control, Maeandrius withdrew his promises, began imprisoning his opponents and ultimately tried to keep power for himself.
When the Persians arrived with Syloson, it initially appeared that Samos would be handed over without a fight. Maeandrius agreed to leave the island. Then, however, his brother Charilaus persuaded him to launch an attack. Maeandrius’ men fell upon the unsuspecting Persians and killed several high-ranking commanders.
Otanes’ response was terrible. He ignored Darius’ order to spare the Samians and instructed his soldiers to kill the inhabitants they encountered. Herodotus describes a massacre that did not spare even those who sought refuge in the temples. He then writes that the Persians handed Syloson a depopulated Samos; Otanes was later said to have helped repopulate the island. We cannot determine the true scale of the catastrophe from Herodotus’ dramatic account alone, but his narrative leaves no doubt that the Persian takeover of Samos involved extreme violence.
📜 Herodotus Tells the Story...
History had come full circle in a remarkable way. Polycrates had banished Syloson so that he could rule Samos alone. The exiled brother happened to give a red cloak to a man who was not yet particularly important. That man later became king of the greatest empire of his time, and an ordinary gift opened the way for Syloson to return to Samos.
Syloson’s return, however, had a bitter ending. He had asked Darius to restore his homeland to him without bloodshed, but received an island devastated by Persian intervention. His return marked the end of an era in which Samos under Polycrates had pursued its own extraordinarily ambitious course among the greatest powers of the region.
📜 The Real Polycrates and Herodotus’ Polycrates
After the story of the ring, the prophetic dream and the gruesome death, it is easy to ask: how much of all this really happened? Polycrates was a historical figure, as were Amasis, Cambyses, Oroetes and Darius. The naval power of Samos, the struggles against the tyrant’s opponents, the Spartan expedition to the island and Polycrates’ death on the orders of Oroetes were also real. The problem begins when we try to separate these events from the stories that grew up around this extraordinary ruler.
Our most important source is Herodotus, who was born several decades after Polycrates’ death. It was he who left us the fullest account of the Samian tyrant; other ancient references are much shorter or were written even later. Herodotus also knew Samos and clearly drew on local traditions. He described objects kept in the Heraion, knew the names of individual Samians and details of events, and in several places gave different versions of the same story. Scholars have long tried to establish which Samian traditions may lie behind his account.
Herodotus was not, however, writing a biography of Polycrates in the modern sense. He was interested in something more: how human fortune changes and whether anyone can escape fate. This is why the story of Polycrates unfolds in his work almost like a drama. Everything goes well for the ruler. Amasis begins to fear what this might mean. The ring thrown into the sea returns to its owner. His friend sees this as a warning of disaster. Then comes the daughter’s ominous dream. Polycrates ignores the warning and sets out on a journey from which he will never return. Scholars have noted that Polycrates’ extraordinary good fortune is one of the central themes of Herodotus’ entire account.
This does not mean that Herodotus invented everything that sounds like a good story. He often openly admits when he does not know something. He gives different versions of the reasons for Oroetes’ hatred of Polycrates, does not resolve all the conflicting accounts concerning the Samian rebels and refuses to describe the manner in which the tyrant was murdered. This is very important, because it shows that he was drawing on stories already circulating in his time and was not always able to establish which version was true.
We need to be even more cautious with authors writing several centuries later. Some of the colourful details about Polycrates come from them. They may preserve older traditions, but the greater the distance from the events, the harder it is to assess their reliability. That is why Herodotus’ account of the fifteen men carries a different weight from Polyaenus’ much later story about using the festival of Hera to stage the coup.
Archaeology complicates the picture even further. For centuries, it was easy to attribute almost everything impressive on Archaic Samos to Polycrates. Research now shows, however, that the island’s power did not begin with him. Samos had already developed trade, seafaring, craftsmanship and monumental architecture, while some of the policies associated with Polycrates continued developments begun by the previous generation. Even among historians there is no complete agreement about the chronology of Samian tyranny or how many of these achievements should be attributed directly to Polycrates.
This does not mean, however, that all we are left with is legend. Behind Herodotus’ stories emerges a real and extraordinarily ambitious ruler who seized power by force, removed his own brothers, built a powerful fleet, pursued an aggressive policy in the Aegean, formed alliances, attracted poets and managed to retain power even through rebellion and a Spartan siege. The wealth and importance of Samos under his rule were not simply a literary invention of Herodotus, although scholars continue to debate the details and chronology.
And perhaps this is the best way to read the story of Polycrates: not to choose between “truth” and “legend”, but to learn to distinguish between them. We can leave the ring in the fish’s stomach to Herodotus. The powerful Samos of Polycrates belonged to history.
And traces of that history can still be found on the island today.
👀 Where Can You Find the Samos of Polycrates Today?
Polycrates left behind no palace that we can enter and no monument marking the place where he made his decisions. What remains, however, is an entire city and landscape that experienced one of the most important periods in its history during his lifetime. Most traces of this era can be found in and around modern Pythagorio. This was where the ancient city of Samos once stood.
🚰 The Tunnel of Eupalinos – this tunnel, more than a kilometre long and cut through the mountain, formed part of the system that supplied water to the city. It was built in the 6th century BC and was already in use during the era of Polycrates. Herodotus included it among the three achievements of the Samians that he particularly admired. We cannot say with certainty, however, that Polycrates himself ordered its construction.
⚓ The ancient harbour – standing on the waterfront in Pythagorio today, you are in the place from which Samian ships once sailed. The ancient harbour included a naval section, while its enormous breakwater was one of the most famous engineering achievements of Samos. Much of the ancient structure is now underwater or covered by later harbour development, but the location itself still gives you a sense of just how important the sea was to Polycrates.
🧱 The walls of ancient Samos – a powerful system of fortifications surrounded the city and the hills above modern Pythagorio. The earliest monumental phase dates from the 6th century BC, which is why the fortifications are sometimes called the “Walls of Polycrates”. It is important to remember, however, that the walls were rebuilt many times and not every stone visible today dates from his era. Some of the most impressive surviving sections are considerably later.
🏛️ The Heraion – around 6 kilometres from the city stood the great Sanctuary of Hera. During the time of Polycrates, construction began on another, even larger temple, planned as a colossal building surrounded by 155 columns. This was also where Pharaoh Amasis was said to have dedicated statues of himself. Today’s Heraion also reminds us that the greatness of Samos began before Polycrates – the earlier monumental temple of Rhoikos and Theodoros had already been built around 570–560 BC.
🏺 The Archaeological Museum of Pythagorio – this is where you should look not for a single “souvenir of Polycrates”, but for objects that reveal the world in which he lived: the wealth of Archaic Samos, its contacts with other parts of the Mediterranean, its religion, craftsmanship and the everyday lives of its inhabitants. These objects allow us to see beyond the monumental buildings as the only witnesses to this remarkable period.
And there is one more place that can no longer be identified on the ground. Ancient sources and later studies locate the fortified residence of Polycrates on the acropolis known as Astypalaia, but no recognisable remains of his residence have survived.
The best way to discover the Samos of Polycrates, therefore, is not to search for a single monument bearing his name. Instead, look at Pythagorio as one great organism: the harbour, the walls, the water brought through the mountain, the Sanctuary of Hera and the objects uncovered by archaeologists. Only together do they reveal just how extraordinary this small island was in the 6th century BC.
📖 The Man Who Told Us This Story
The ring found inside a fish, the daughter’s dream, Syloson’s red cloak, the siege of Samos and the trap set by Oroetes – we know most of these stories thanks to one man: Herodotus of Halicarnassus, who lived in the 5th century BC, roughly half a century after the death of Polycrates.
Herodotus was not a Samian. He was born in Halicarnassus, on the coast of what is now Turkey, but he knew Samos very well. Everything suggests that he spent time on the island, and some scholars have even suggested that he may have lived there for a period. In his Histories, he describes Samian places, buildings and people in remarkable detail. He knew the Tunnel of Eupalinos, the great breakwater and the Heraion, mentions objects he himself saw in the sanctuary, and devotes an unusually large amount of space to the story of Polycrates.
Why Polycrates?
Because his story fitted perfectly with a question that fascinated Herodotus throughout his life: can a person for whom everything goes well ever be certain that their good fortune will last? Polycrates seized power, created a powerful fleet, defeated his opponents and survived both a rebellion and a Spartan siege. Even the ring he symbolically surrendered to the sea returned to him inside a fish. And then a single journey was enough for him to lose everything.
Herodotus is often called the “father of history” today, but his Histories are nothing like a modern textbook. He collected people’s accounts, local traditions and stories he had heard, compared different versions of events, sometimes openly stated that he did not believe one of them, and at other times left the decision to the reader. Thanks to him, therefore, we encounter not only the Polycrates who really ruled Samos, but also the Polycrates remembered by people living several decades later.
And perhaps that is precisely why we are still telling his story more than 2,500 years later. Of many rulers of Archaic Greece, little more than their names have survived. Polycrates received something more – Herodotus, who turned his life into a story whose ending you want to discover.