Sicyon or Sikyon ( or ; Ancient Greek: Σικυών) was an ancient Greek city state situated in the northern Peloponnesus between Corinth and Achaea on the territory of the present-day regional unit of Corinthia. The remains lie just west of the modern village of Sikyona (previously Vasiliko). An ancient monarchy at the times of the Trojan 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.
In Archaic times it was one of the most powerful city-states of the Greek world. Sicyon was celebrated over many centuries for its contributions to ancient Greek art, producing many famous painters and sculptors. In Hellenistic times it was also the home of Aratus of Sicyon, the leader of the Achaean League.
The site is undergoing continuing archaeology under the Sikyon project.
Contents
Ancient history
The acropolis of Sicyon was built on a low triangular plateau about 3 km (two miles) from the Corinthian Gulf on which was originally located the city and port, according to ancient sources. Between the acropolis and the city lay a fertile plain with olive groves and orchards.
In 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 comprises twenty-four kings, beginning with the autochthonous Aegialeus. The penultimate king of the list, Agamemnon, compelled the submission of Sicyon to Mycenae; after him came the Dorian usurper Phalces. Pausanias shared 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 as a lost Sicyonica by the late 4th-century poet Menaechmus of Sicyon.
The community was divided into the ordinary three Dorian tribes and an equally privileged tribe of Ionians, besides which a class of serfs (κορυνηφόροι, korynēphóroi or κατωνακοφόροι, katōnakophóroi) lived on and worked the land.
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, the grandfather of the Athenian legislator Cleisthenes, who ruled from 600 to 560 BC. 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 Delphians.
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. 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.
Ancient monuments
Temple of Apollo or Artemis
Theatre
Palaestra - Gymnasium
Stadium
Bouleuterion
West stoa
South stoa
Roman baths
Medieval history
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 of Slavic groups in Greece during the 7th century. Following the Fourth Crusade, the settlement, then known as Vasilika (Basilikata), came under the control of the Principality of Achaia and became part of the prince's domain. A castle was erected atop the ruined ancient acropolis by Prince William of Villehardouin (1246–1278), to complement the defenses of Corinth. By 1369, many villages in the vicinity of Vasilika were abandoned due to the raids of Turkish pirates. Together with Corinth, Vasilika was acquired by the Florentine in Angevin service Niccolò Acciaioli, from whom it passed to Donato Acciaioli in 1362. Donato's son Angelo Acciaioli mortgaged Corinth and Vasilika to his cousin Nerio I Acciaioli, the future duke of Athens, by 1372. When Nerio died in 1394, Corinth and Vasilika were inherited by his daughter, Francesca Acciaioli, who had recently married Carlo I Tocco, the count palatine of Cephalonia and Zante. These provisions were contested by Nerio's other daughter, Bartolomea Acciaioli, and her husband, Despot Theodore I Palaiologos of the Morea. Following the ensuing conflict, Francesca and Carlo were only able to retain Vasilika and Megara, while Corinth passed to the Despot Theodore. Finally, Despot Theodore II Palaiologos of the Morea seized Vasilika in 1427, alongside other gains from the Principality of Achaia. The Ottoman 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.
A village named until 1920 Vasiliko (described by the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica as "insignificant") lies next to the site of ancient and medieval Sikyon. It is now named Sikyona, reflecting the name of the ancient city.
Mythological rulers
Kings largely according to Eusebius's chronicle and other Greco-Roman sources are:
Aegialeus
Europs
Telchis
Apis of Sicyon
Thelxion of Sicyon
Aegyrus
Thurimachus
Leucippus
Messapus
Eratus
Plemnaeus
Orthopolis
Marathonius or Coronus
Marathus
Echyreus or alternatively Coronus (which claims descent from Orthopolis according to Pausanias)
Corax
Epopeus of Sicyon
Lamedon
Sicyon
Polybus of Sicyon (succeeded by Adrastus according to Pausanias)
Inachus
Phaestus
Adrastus
Zeuxippus of Sicyon (some sources see as direct succession of Phaestus)
Pelasgus
Notable people
Ancient
Aegialeus (21st century BC) legendary founder
Tellis (8th century BC), runner (Olympic victor 708 BC)
Butades (7th century BC) sculptor
Canachus (6th century BC) sculptor
Aristocles (5th century BC) sculptor
Praxilla (5th century BC) poet
Ariphron (5th century BC) poet
Alypus (5th to 4th century BC) sculptor
Alexis (5th or 4th century BC) sculptor
Eupompus (4th century BC) painter
Pamphilus (4th century BC) painter
Melanthius (4th century BC) painter
Pausias (4th century BC) painter
Eutychides (4th century BC) sculptor
Lysippos (4th century BC) sculptor
Lysistratus (4th century BC) sculptor
Sostrates (4th century BC) pankratiast (thrice Olympic champion)
Canachus the Younger (4th century BC) sculptor
Xenokrates (3rd century BC) sculptor and art historian
Mythology: Identification with Mecone
Sicyon has been traditionally identified with the mythical Mecone or Mekone, site of the trick at Mecone carried out by Prometheus. Mecone is also described by Callimachus as "the seat of the gods", and as the place where the brother deities Zeus, Poseidon and Hades cast lots for what part of the world each would rule.
Mentions in literary works
In the 4th century BC the people of Sicyon were the subject of a popular comedy by Menander titled Sikyonioi.
William Shakespeare, in his 1606 play Antony and Cleopatra (Act I, Scene 2), notes that Marc Antony's wife, Fulvia died in Sicyon. Historically, she died there in 40 BC while in rebellion against Octavius Caesar.
Friedrich Hölderlin's novel Hyperion from 1797 starts at the "paradisiac plain of Sicyon".