Editing Sicyon (section)

==Ancient history==
[[File:Korinth Isthmus de.png|thumb|right|Location of Sicyon]]
[[File:Sikyon ancient theatre.jpg|thumb|right|The ancient theatre of Sikyon today]]
[[File:Sikyon doric temple.jpg|thumb|right|Excavation site of a Doric temple in Sikyon]]

Sicyon was built on a low triangular [[plateau]] about 3 kilometres (two miles) from the [[Corinthian Gulf]]. Between the city and its port lay a fertile plain with [[olive]] groves and orchards.<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911 |wstitle=Sicyon |volume=25 |page=37 |inline=1 |first=Maximilian |last=Caspari}}</ref>

In [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenean 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 by [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]]<ref>Pausanias 2.5.6-6.7.</ref> comprises twenty-four kings, beginning with the [[indigenous peoples|autochthonous]] [[Aegialeus (king of Sicyon)|Aegialeus]]. The penultimate king of the list, [[Agamemnon]], compels the submission of Sicyon to [[Mycenae]]; after him comes the [[Dorians|Dorian]] usurper [[Phalces]]. Pausanias shares his source with [[Castor of Rhodes]], who used the king-list in compiling tables of history; the common source was convincingly identified by [[Felix Jacoby]]<ref>[[Felix Jacoby]] on Castor in ''[[Fragmente der griechischen Historiker|Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker]]'' 250 F 2, noted with approval by Robertson 1999:65 and note 36.</ref> as a lost ''Sicyonica'' by the late 4th-century poet [[Menaechmus of Sicyon]].

After the [[Dorian invasion]] the city remained subject to [[Argos, Peloponnese|Argos]], whence its Dorian conquerors had come. The community was now divided into the ordinary three Dorian tribes and an equally privileged tribe of [[Ionians]], besides which a class of [[serf]]s ({{lang|grc|κορυνηφόροι}}, {{Transliteration|grc|korynēphóroi}} or {{lang|grc|κατωνακοφόροι}}, {{Transliteration|grc|katōnakophóroi}}) lived on and worked the land.<ref name=EB1911/>

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 ruler [[Orthagoras]]. The most important however was the founder's grandson [[Cleisthenes of Sicyon|Cleisthenes]], the grandfather of the Athenian legislator [[Cleisthenes]], who ruled from 600 to 560 BC.<ref>Herodotus 6.121</ref> Besides reforming the city's constitution to the advantage of the Ionians and replacing Dorian cults with the worship of [[Dionysus]], Cleisthenes gained a reputation as the chief instigator and general of the [[First Sacred War]] (590 BC) in the interests of the [[Delphi]]ans.<ref name=EB1911/>

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 sculptors [[Dipoenus and Scyllis]] it gained pre-eminence in woodcarving and bronze work such as is still to be seen in the archaic metal facings found at [[Olympia, Greece|Olympia]]. Its pottery, which resembled [[Corinthian ware]], was exported with the latter as far as [[Etruria]]. In Sicyon also the art of [[painting]] 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 of [[Sparta]]  under the [[ephor]] [[Chilon]], and the city was enrolled in the [[Peloponnesian League]]. Henceforth, its policy was usually determined either by [[Sparta]] or [[Corinth]].<ref name=EB1911/>

During the [[Persian Wars]], the Sicyonians participated with fifteen triremes in the [[Battle of Salamis]] and with 3,000 hoplites in the [[Battle of Plataea]]. On the [[Delphi]]c [[Serpent 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 the [[Battle 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 of [[Athens]] in the western seas, and was repeatedly harassed by squadrons of Athenian ships.<ref name=EB1911/> The Sicyonians fought two battles against the Athenians, first against their admiral [[Tolmides]] in 455 BC and then in a land battle against [[Pericles]] with 1000 hoplites in 453 BC.

In the [[Peloponnesian War]] Sicyon followed the lead of Sparta and Corinth. When these two powers quarrelled during the [[peace of Nicias]], it remained loyal to the Spartans.<ref name=EB1911/> At the reprise of the war, during the [[Sicilian expedition|Athenian expedition in Sicily]], the Sicyonians contributed 200 pressed hoplites under their commander Sargeus to the force that relieved [[Syracuse, Sicily|Syracuse]]. At the beginning of the 4th century, in the [[Corinthian war]], Sicyon sided again with Sparta and became its base of operations against the allied troops round Corinth.<ref name=EB1911/>

In 369 BC Sicyon was captured and garrisoned by the [[Thebes, Greece|Theban]]s in their successful attack on the Peloponnesian League.<ref name=EB1911/> From 368 to 366 BC Sicyon was ruled by [[Euphron]] who first favoured democracy, but then made himself tyrant. Euphron was killed in [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]] 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.

{{Coin image box 1 double
| header =
| image = Image:Sikyon x.jpg
| caption_left = '''[[Obverse and reverse|O:]]''' walking [[Chimera (mythology)|chimera]]; ΣΙ below
| caption_right = '''[[Obverse and reverse|R:]]'''flying [[dove]]; pellet above
| width = 300
| footer = [[silver]] [[Dram (unit)|hemidrachm]] struck in Sicyon 360–330 BC
ref.: BMC 124, Sear sg2774, SNG Cop. 64/65
| position = right
| margin = 4
}}
During the 4th century BC, the city reached its zenith as a centre of art: its school of painting gained fame under [[Eupompus]] and attracted the great masters [[Pamphilus (painter)|Pamphilus]] and [[Apelles]] as students, while [[Lysippus]] and his pupils raised the Sicyonian sculpture to a level hardly surpassed anywhere else in Greece.<ref name=EB1911/> The tyrant [[Aristratus of Sicyon|Aristratus]], a friend of the [[Philipp II of Macedon|Macedonian royal family]], had himself portrayed by the painter [[Melanthius]] aside the goddess of victory [[Nike (mythology)|Nike]] 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 celebrated [[Apelles]] and [[Pausias]].

In 323 BC [[Euphron the Younger]], a grandson of the tyrant Euphron, reintroduced a democracy, but was soon conquered by the [[Macedon]]ians during the [[Lamian War]]. When the Macedonian commander [[Alexander (son of Polyperchon)|Alexander]] was murdered in Sicyon in 314 BC, his wife [[Cratesipolis]] took control of the city and ruled it for six years, until she was induced by king [[Ptolemy I Soter|Ptolemy 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 by [[Demetrius 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 mistress [[Lamia of Athens|Lamia]], 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 commander [[Cleon of Sicyon|Cleon]] established another tyrannical regime. After some twenty years he was killed by two rivals, [[Euthydemus (tyrant)|Euthydemus]] and [[Timocleidas]], who became the new joint tyrants of Sicyon. Their rule ended, probably around the start of the [[Chremonidean 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 the [[Hieromnemos|hieromnemoi]] Sosicles and Euthydamos, known from an inscription at [[Delphi]]. The democratic government's most important achievement was the construction of the [[gymnasium (ancient Greece)|gymnasium]] which is attributed to Cleinias. During the same time [[Xenokrates 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 cognate [[Abantidas]], who established his tyranny for twelve years. In 252 BC Abantidas was murdered by two rhetoricians, [[Aristotle the Dialectician]] and [[Deinias of Argos]], and his father [[Paseas]] took over, only to be murdered after a short rule by another rival named [[Nicocles (Sicyon)|Nicocles]].

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 the [[Achaean 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 an [[Aetolia]]n raid in 241 BC and an unsuccessful siege at the hands of king [[Cleomenes 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 the [[Isthmian games]]; yet in [[Cicero]]'s time it had fallen deep into debt. Under the [[Roman empire]] it was quite obscured by the restored cities of Corinth and [[Patrae]]; in [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]]' age (150 AD) it was almost desolate.