Euphron was tyrant of the ancient Greek city of Sicyon (Sikyon), in the northern Peloponnese, from 368-366 B.C., when he was assassinated. Although his term in power was brief, he is used as the textbook demagogue tyrant, according to Oxford-trained ancient historian and senior lecturer at St. Andrew's University, Scotland, Sian Lewis, because Euphron showed long-term ambition, required mercenaries to secure his position, ruled harshly and greedily, and appropriated private and sacred funds. Our main primary source on the the assassination of Euphron is the Hellenica of the Greek writer Xenophon (fl. 4th C. B.C.). There is also a paragraph in the writing of the first century B.C. Greek historian Diodorus Siculus.
At Sicyon, as elsewhere in the Achaean cities [see geography of Greece], Thebes, an ally of Sicyon, installed harmosts as governors. Some places where Thebes held power it expelled the oligarchs who had been ruling, but this was not the case in Sicyon. Euphron, who was one of the leading men of Sicyon, established Sicyon as a democracy, with himself as the leader, in charge of the national force of, mostly, loyal mercenaries, a tyrant, and the oligarchs expelled or killed, their property helping fill Euphron's coffers.
"3 While these things were going on, Euphron of Sicyon, a particularly rash and crack-brained individual, with accomplices from Argos attempted to set up a tyranny. Succeeding in his plan, he sent forty of the wealthiest Sicyonians into exile, first confiscating their property, and, when he had secured large sums thereby, he collected a mercenary force and became lord of the city."
Diodorus Siculus XV.70
When the Arcadians, led by Aeneas of Stymphalus restored the oligarchs, Euphron had to flee, which he did -- as far a the harbor, and then surrendered that to the Spartans.
"Euphron, taking fright at these proceedings, fled for safety to the harbour-town of Sicyon. Hither he summoned Pasimelus from Corinth, and by his instrumentality handed over the harbour to the Lacedaemonians. Once more reappearing in his old character, he began to pose as an ally of Sparta. He asserted that his fidelity to Lacedaemon had never been interrupted; for when the votes were given in the city whether Sicyon should give up her allegiance to Lacedaemon, "I, with one or two others," said he, "voted against the measure; but afterwards these people betrayed me, and in my desire to avenge myself on them I set up a democracy. At present all traitors to yourselves are banished--I have seen to that. If only I could get the power into my own hands, I would go over to you, city and all, at once. All that I can do at present, I have done; I have surrendered to you this harbour." That was what Euphron said to his audience there, but of the many who heard his words, how many really believed his words is by no means evident. However, since I have begun the story of Euphron, I desire to bring it to its close."
Xenophon Hellenica 7.3
From the once mightiest military force in Greece Sparta had been so weakened that it soon lost the harbor. Athens and Sparta had entered into alliances by this time in the face of the Theban supremacy and harrassment, so it is not surprising that Athens and Sparta would both support Euphron. Athenian mercenaries restored him, but Euphron's position was insecure, so he went to Boeotia to seek Theban support.
"Faction and party strife ran high in Sicyon between the better classes and the people, when Euphron, getting a body of foreign troops from Athens, once more obtained his restoration. The city, with the help of the commons, he was master of, but the Theban governor held the citadel. Euphron, perceiving that he would never be able to dominate the state whilst the Thebans held the acropolis, collected money and set off to Thebes, intending to persuade the Thebans to expel the aristocrats and once again to hand over the city to himself."There, before he could receive support, two of the men exiled by the democratic regime in Sicyon assassinated him.
"But the former exiles, having got wind of this journey of his, and of the whole intrigue, set off themselves to Thebes in front of him.[3] When, however, they saw the terms of intimacy on which he associated with the Theban authorities, in terror of his succeeding in his mission some of them staked their lives on the attempt and stabbed Euphron in the Cadmeia, where the magistrates and senate were seated."
Although the oligarchs may have been temporarily relieved, the people of Thebes were saddened by this and worshiped him as Sicyon's second founder. They installed his son in power.
"The Thebans on hearing these pleadings decided that Euphron had only suffered the fate which he deserved. His own countrymen, however, conveyed away the body with the honours due to a brave and good man, and buried him in the market-place, where they still pay pious reverence to his memory as "a founder of the state." So strictly, it would seem, do the mass of mankind confine the term brave and good to those who are the benefactors of themselves."
The two assassins, in Thebes, were acquitted.
Secondary Sources:
- "Καὶ σαφω̑ϛ τύραννοϛ ἠ̑ν: Xenophon's Account of Euphron of Sicyon," by Sian Lewis; The Journal of Hellenic Studies Vol. 124, (2004), pp. 65-74.
- J.B. Bury A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great.
- The History of Ancient Greece, by John Gillies
