Polycrates of Argos

Polycrates of Argos, son of Mnasiades, was a Ptolemaic commander at the Battle of Raphia, as well as a governor of Cyprus and chancellor of the Ptolemaic Kingdom in the late third and early second centuries BC.

Descended from an illustrious family at Argos, Polycrates came over to the court of the Egyptian monarch Ptolemy IV Philopator, just before his campaign against Antiochus III., in 217 BC. He was of great service in drilling and encouraging the Egyptian troops, and he commanded the cavalry on the left wing at the battle of Raphia, in which Antiochus was defeated, and which secured to Ptolemy the provinces of Coele-Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine.

Although still young, Polycrates was second to no one in the king's court, says Polybius, and was accordingly appointed by Ptolemy governor of Cyprus. The duties of this office he discharged with the utmost fidelity and integrity. He thus secured the island for Ptolemy V Epiphanes, the infant son and successor of Philopator, and on his return to Alexandria about 196 BC, he brought with him a considerable sum of money for the use of the monarch. He was received at Alexandria with great applause, and forthwith obtained great power in the kingdom.

But as he advanced in years, his character changed for the worse, and he indulged in every kind of vice and wickedness. We are ignorant of his subsequent career, in consequence of the loss of the later books of Polybius, but we learn from a fragment of the historian that it was through his evil advice that Ptolemy took no part in military affairs, although he had reached the age of twenty-five.

Polycrates was married to Zeuxo of Cyrene and had three daughters: Zeuxo, Encrateia and Hermione.

Following his father's example as an athlete, Polycrates was a winner of the horse races at the Panathenaic Games from 192 to 184 BC, as were his wife and daughters. At that time, it was rare for women to participate in races. For this reason they are frequently mentioned in texts of the Hellenistic period.

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