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Sicyon (/ˈsɪʃiˌɒn,ˈsɪs-/;Greek:Σικυών;gen.: Σικυῶνος) orSikyōn was anancient Greekcity state situated in the northernPeloponnesus betweenCorinth andAchaea on the territory of the present-day regional unit ofCorinthia. The ruins lie just west of the modern village ofSikyona (previously Vasiliko). An ancient monarchy at the times of theTrojan War, the city was ruled by a number of tyrants during the Archaic and Classical period and became a democracy in the 3rd century BC. Sicyon was celebrated for its contributions to ancient Greek art, producing many famous painters and sculptors. In Hellenistic times it was also the home ofAratus of Sicyon, the leader of theAchaean League.
Sicyon was built on a low triangularplateau about 3 kilometres (two miles) from theCorinthian Gulf. Between the city and its port lay a fertile plain witholive groves and orchards.[1]
InMycenean times, according to Eusebius, Sicyon had been ruled by a line of twenty-six mythical kings and then seven priests of Apollo. The king-list given byPausanias[2] comprises twenty-four kings, beginning with theautochthonousAegialeus. The penultimate king of the list,Agamemnon, compels the submission of Sicyon toMycenae; after him comes theDorian usurperPhalces. Pausanias shares his source withCastor of Rhodes, who used the king-list in compiling tables of history; the common source was convincingly identified byFelix Jacoby[3] as a lostSicyonica by the late 4th-century poetMenaechmus of Sicyon.
After theDorian invasion the city remained subject toArgos, whence its Dorian conquerors had come. The community was now divided into the ordinary three Dorian tribes and an equally privileged tribe ofIonians, besides which a class ofserfs (κορυνηφόροι,korynēphóroi orκατωνακοφόροι,katōnakophóroi) lived on and worked the land.[1]
For some centuries the suzerainty of Argos remained, but after 676 BC Sicyon regained its independence under a line of tyrants called the Orthagorides after the name of the first rulerOrthagoras. The most important however was the founder's grandsonCleisthenes, the grandfather of the Athenian legislatorCleisthenes, who ruled from 600 to 560 BC.[4] Besides reforming the city's constitution to the advantage of the Ionians and replacing Dorian cults with the worship ofDionysus, Cleisthenes gained a reputation as the chief instigator and general of theFirst Sacred War (590 BC) in the interests of theDelphians.[1]
His successor Aeschines was expelled by the Spartans in 556 BC and Sicyon became an ally of the Lacedaemonians for more than a century. During this time, the Sicyonians developed the various industries for which they were known in antiquity. As the abode of the sculptorsDipoenus and Scyllis it gained pre-eminence in woodcarving and bronze work such as is still to be seen in the archaic metal facings found atOlympia. Its pottery, which resembledCorinthian ware, was exported with the latter as far asEtruria. In Sicyon also the art ofpainting was supposed to have been invented. After the fall of the tyrants their institutions survived until the end of the 6th century BC, when Dorian supremacy was re-established, perhaps by the agency ofSparta under theephorChilon, and the city was enrolled in thePeloponnesian League. Henceforth, its policy was usually determined either bySparta orCorinth.[1]
During thePersian Wars, the Sicyonians participated with fifteen triremes in theBattle of Salamis and with 3,000 hoplites in theBattle of Plataea. On theDelphicSerpent Column celebrating the victory Sicyon was named in fifth place after Sparta, Athens, Corinth and Tegea. In September 479 BC a Sicyonian contingent fought bravely in theBattle of Mycale, where they lost more men than any other city.
Later in the 5th century BC, Sicyon, like Corinth, suffered from the commercial rivalry ofAthens in the western seas, and was repeatedly harassed by squadrons of Athenian ships.[1] The Sicyonians fought two battles against the Athenians, first against their admiralTolmides in 455 BC and then in a land battle againstPericles with 1000 hoplites in 453 BC.
In thePeloponnesian War Sicyon followed the lead of Sparta and Corinth. When these two powers quarrelled during thepeace of Nicias, it remained loyal to the Spartans.[1] At the reprise of the war, during theAthenian expedition in Sicily, the Sicyonians contributed 200 pressed hoplites under their commander Sargeus to the force that relievedSyracuse. At the beginning of the 4th century, in theCorinthian war, Sicyon sided again with Sparta and became its base of operations against the allied troops round Corinth.[1]
In 369 BC Sicyon was captured and garrisoned by theThebans in their successful attack on the Peloponnesian League.[1] From 368 to 366 BC Sicyon was ruled byEuphron who first favoured democracy, but then made himself tyrant. Euphron was killed inThebes by a group of Sicyonian aristocrats, but his compatriots buried him in his home town and continued to honour him like the second founder of the city.
During the 4th century BC, the city reached its zenith as a centre of art: its school of painting gained fame underEupompus and attracted the great mastersPamphilus andApelles as students, whileLysippus and his pupils raised the Sicyonian sculpture to a level hardly surpassed anywhere else in Greece.[1] The tyrantAristratus, a friend of theMacedonian royal family, had himself portrayed by the painterMelanthius aside the goddess of victoryNike on a chariot. In this period Sicyon was the undisputed center of Greek painting with its school attracting famous artists from all over Greece, including the celebratedApelles andPausias.
In 323 BCEuphron the Younger, a grandson of the tyrant Euphron, reintroduced a democracy, but was soon conquered by theMacedonians during theLamian War. When the Macedonian commanderAlexander was murdered in Sicyon in 314 BC, his wifeCratesipolis took control of the city and ruled it for six years, until she was induced by kingPtolemy I to hand it over to the Egyptians. Between 308 and 303 BC Sicyon was ruled by two Ptolemaic commanders, first Cleonides and then Philip.
In 303 BC Sicyon was conquered byDemetrius Poliorcetes who razed the ancient city in the plain and built a new wall on the ruins of the old Acropolis on the high triangular plateau which resulted sufficient for the reduced populace. The new agora was adorned by a "Painted Stoa" attributed to the king's mistressLamia, a flute player. For a short time the town was now called "Demetrias", but eventually the old name prevailed.
Demetrius left a garrison in the castle to control the city, and the commanderCleon established another tyrannical regime. After some twenty years he was killed by two rivals,Euthydemus andTimocleidas, who became the new joint tyrants of Sicyon. Their rule ended, probably around the start of theChremonidean War in 267 BC, when they were expelled by the people who elected their leader Cleinias to govern the city on a democratic ground. Two magistrates of these years were thehieromnemoi Sosicles and Euthydamos, known from an inscription atDelphi. The democratic government's most important achievement was the construction of thegymnasium which is attributed to Cleinias. During the same timeXenokrates of Sicyon published his history of art which contributed to spreading the fame of Sicyon as an undisputed capital of ancient art.
Even this time democracy did not last more than a few years, and in 264 BC Cleinias was slain by his cognateAbantidas, who established his tyranny for twelve years. In 252 BC Abantidas was murdered by two rhetoricians,Aristotle the Dialectician andDeinias of Argos, and his fatherPaseas took over, only to be murdered after a short rule by another rival namedNicocles.
In 251,Aratus of Sicyon, the 20-year-old son of Cleinias, conquered the city with a night assault and expelled the last tyrant. Aratus re-established democracy, called back the exiles and brought his city into theAchaean League. This move ended the internal strife and Aratus remained the leading figure of Achaean politics until his death in 213 BC, during a period of great achievements. The prosperity and peaceful condition of Sicyon was only interrupted by anAetolian raid in 241 BC and an unsuccessful siege at the hands of kingCleomenes III of Sparta in early 224 BC.
As a member of the Achaean federation Sicyon remained a stable democracy until the dissolution of the League by the Romans in 146 BC. In this period Sicyon was damaged by two disastrous earthquakes in 153 BC and 141 BC.
The destruction of Corinth (146 BC) brought Sicyon an acquisition of territory and the presidency over theIsthmian games; yet inCicero's time it had fallen deep into debt. Under theRoman empire it was quite obscured by the restored cities of Corinth andPatrae; inPausanias' age (150 AD) it was almost desolate.
In the 4th century BC the people of Sicyon were the subject of a popular comedy byMenander titledSikyonioi.
William Shakespeare, in his 1606 playAntony and Cleopatra (Act I, Scene 2), notes thatMarc Antony's wife,Fulvia died in Sicyon. Historically, she died there in 40 BC while in rebellion against Octavius Caesar.
Friedrich Hölderlin's novelHyperion from 1797 starts at the "paradisiac plain of Sicyon".
During the early Middle Ages, Sikyon continued to decline. It became a bishop's seat and, judging by its later designation "Hellas," it appears to have become a haven for populations seeking refuge from the settlement ofSlavic groups in Greece during the 7th century.[1] Following theFourth Crusade, the settlement, then known as Vasilika (Basilikata), came under the control of thePrincipality of Achaia and became part of the prince's domain. A castle was erected atop the ruined ancient acropolis by PrinceWilliam of Villehardouin (1246–1278), to complement the defenses of Corinth.[5] By 1369, many villages in the vicinity of Vasilika were abandoned due to the raids of Turkish pirates.[6] Together with Corinth, Vasilika was acquired by the Florentine in Angevin serviceNiccolò Acciaioli, from whom it passed to Donato Acciaioli in 1362. Donato's son Angelo Acciaioli mortgaged Corinth and Vasilika to his cousinNerio I Acciaioli, the futureduke of Athens, by 1372.[7] When Nerio died in 1394, Corinth and Vasilika were inherited by his daughter,Francesca Acciaioli, who had recently marriedCarlo I Tocco, thecount palatine of Cephalonia and Zante. These provisions were contested by Nerio's other daughter,Bartolomea Acciaioli, and her husband, DespotTheodore I Palaiologos ofthe Morea. Following the ensuing conflict, Francesca and Carlo were only able to retain Vasilika and Megara, while Corinth passed to the Despot Theodore.[8] Finally, DespotTheodore II Palaiologos of the Morea seized Vasilika in 1427, alongside other gains from the Principality of Achaia.[9] TheOttoman Turks invaded and subjugated Corinth and Vasilika, alongside other northern Moreot towns and fortresses, in 1458, two years before completing the conquest of the Morea in 1460–1461.[10]
A village named until 1920Vasiliko (described by the 1911Encyclopædia Britannica as "insignificant") lies next to the site of ancient and medieval Sikyon. It is now namedSikyona, reflecting the name of the ancient city.
Kings largely according to Eusebius's chronicle and other Greco-Roman sources are:
Seven priests of Apollo Carneius ruled that follow these kings as rulers according to Eusebius are:
The list of Orthagorides goes as follows:
Ancient
Modern
Sicyon has been traditionally identified with the mythical Mecone or Mekone,[17][18] site of thetrick at Mecone carried out by Prometheus. Mecone is also described byCallimachus as "the seat of the gods", and as the place where the brother deitiesZeus,Poseidon andHades cast lots for what part of the world each would rule.[19]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Caspari, Maximilian (1911). "Sicyon". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 37.
37°59′03″N22°42′40″E / 37.984104°N 22.711145°E /37.984104; 22.711145
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