- Scythes
Scythes (Gr. polytonic|Σκύθης) was
tyrant or ruler ofZancle inSicily ,Citation | last = Smith | first = William | author-link = William Smith (lexicographer) | contribution = Scythes (1) | editor-last = Smith | editor-first = William | title =Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology | volume = 3 | pages = 762–763 | publisher =Little, Brown and Company | place = Boston | year = 1867 | contribution-url = http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/3095.html ] appointed to that post about494 BC byHippocrates of Gela . [cite book | last = Holm | first = Adolf | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = The History of Greece: from Its Commencement to the Close of the Independence of the Greek Nation | publisher = Macmillan & Co. | date = 1902 | location = London | pages = 79 | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=rw8PAAAAYAAJ | doi = | id = | isbn = ]The Zanclaeans had sent to
Ionia to invite colonists to join them in founding a new city on the "Kale Acte" (polytonic|Καλὴ Ἀκτή), or north shore of Sicily, and the offer had been accepted by a large body of Samians, together with some fugitives fromMiletus .But when they arrived at
Locri , Scythes and the Zanclaeans were engaged in hostilities against theSicel s. Meanwhile, the Samians were persuaded byAnaxilas ofRhegium to take advantage of Scythes' absence, and occupy the city of Zancle itself. Hereupon Scythes called in the assistance of his ally, Hippocrates, tyrant ofGela , but the latter proved no less perfidious than the Samians, and immediately on his arrival threw Scythes himself and his brother Pythogenes into chains, and sent them as prisoners toInycum , while he betrayed his allies the Zanclaeans into the hands of the Samians. Scythes, however, contrived to make his escape toHimera , and from thence repaired to Asia, to the court of Darius, king of Persia, where he was received with much distinction, and rose to a high place in the king's favor.Scythes afterwards revisited his native city, but again returned to the
Persia n court, where he died at an advanced age, and in the possession of great wealth, while he enjoyed general esteem for the probity of his character. [Herodotus , vi. 23, 24] [Claudius Aelianus , "Varia Historia" viii. 17] It is remarkable thatHerodotus , while he designatesAnaxilas and Hippocrates as tyrants (polytonic|τύραννοι) of their respective cities, styles Scythes king (polytonic|βασιλεύς) or monarch (polytonic|μούναρχος} of the Zanclaeans.He is thought by some writers, including
Perizonius , to have been the father ofCadmus of Kos .cite book | last = Dewald | first = Carolyn | authorlink = | coauthors = John Marincola | title = The Cambridge Companion to Herodotus | publisher =Cambridge University Press | date = 2006 | location = Cambridge | pages = 263 | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=U9XV3KycOlMC | doi = | id = | isbn = 0-521-83001-X] Others, such asLodewijk Caspar Valckenaer , suppose that this Scythes was the uncle of another Scythes inKos , who was the father of Cadmus.cite book | last = Larcher | first = Pierre Henri | authorlink = Pierre Henri Larcher | coauthors = | title = Larcher's Notes on Herodotus: Historical and Critical Comments on the History of Herodotus | publisher = Whittaker & Co. | date = 1844 | location = London | pages = 196 | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=8gIubwJJAC4C&pg=PA316 | doi = | id = | isbn = ]References
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