Editing Polycrates (section)

===Thalassocracy===
[[File:ISLANDS off IONIA, Samos. Circa 530-528 BC.jpg|thumb|Coinage of Samos at the time of Polycrates. Circa 530-528 BC.]]
[[File:ISLANDS off IONIA, Samos. Circa 526-522 BC.jpg|thumb|Coinage of Samos at the time of Polycrates. Forepart of winged boar with lion scalp facing in dotted square within incuse square. Circa 526-522 BC.]]
Polycrates recruited an army of 1,000 [[archery|archers]] and assembled a navy of 100 [[Penteconter (ship)|penteconters]], which became the most powerful navy in the Greek world –– [[Herodotus]] says that Polycrates was the first Greek ruler to understand the importance of sea power and Thucydides includes him in his list of [[thalassocracy|thalassocracies]] in the Aegean.<ref>Herodotus 3.122; [[Thucydides]] 1.13.6</ref> With these forces he implemented a plan to bring all the Greek islands and cities of [[Ionia]] under his rule. Polycrates' rise to power took place in the period when the [[Achaemenid empire]] under [[Cyrus the Great|Cyrus]] conquered western Anatolia. In theory, the Aegean islanders had accepted Persian overlordship after Cyrus conquered [[Lydia]] in 546 BC, but in practice the political situation in the Aegean was complicated. This confusion may have contributed to Polycrates' success in projecting his power.<ref name="C131">Carty (2005), 131-5</ref>

Few specifics of Polycrates' naval activities and conquests are preserved. Herodotus refers to an attack on [[Miletus]], in which the [[Lesbos|Lesbians]] came to the aid of Miletos and Polycrates won a great naval victory, capturing and enslaving large numbers of Lesbian sailors.<ref>Herodotus 3.39</ref> The Milesians had become key Persian allies and this victory is probably identical with a victory over Persian navy mentioned in Thucydides and some other historians.<ref>Thucydides 1.13.6; Carty (2005), 133</ref> Thucydides emphasises his conquest of Delos, the key religious centre of the Aegean.<ref name="Thucydides 1.13, 3.104">Thucydides 1.13, 3.104</ref> Polycrates formed an alliance with King [[Amasis II|Amasis]] of [[Egypt]] and A. Carty suggests that Polycrates assisted Amasis in the conquest of Cyprus.<ref name="C131"/> In general, though, the ancient sources stress not specific campaigns, but wide-ranging raiding, which may have been more like [[piracy]] than campaigns of conquest. Herodotus says that he "raided everyone without any discrimination. For he said that a friend would be more appreciative if what was taken from him was returned than if it had not first been snatched away."<ref>Herodotus 3.39, [[Diodorus Siculus]], ''Bibliotheke'' 10.16.1; P. de Souza, ''Piracy in the Graeco-Roman World'' (1999), 25</ref> Aideen Carty argues that the focus of this raiding was the acquisition of slaves whom he exported to Egypt to serve as mercenaries in Amasis' army.<ref>Carty (2005) 144-8</ref>

The nature of Polycrates' navy is debated. Some scholars have conceived of his penteconters as powerful warships in a state navy which owned, crewed and operated them in accordance with Polycrates' command.<ref>L. Casson ''Ships and Seafaring in Ancient Times'' (1994) 51-3; L. Scott "Were there Polis Navies in Archaic Greece?" in G. J. Oliver et al., ''The Sea in Antiquity'' (2000) 108</ref> Other scholars consider this picture anachronistic; they present the penteconters as trading and raiding vessels that were owned privately by individual Samian aristocrats, who were essentially autonomous pirates only loosely constrained by Polycrates and the Samian state.<ref>de Souza, (1999), 284; Carty (2015) 139-41.</ref> In addition to these ships, Polycrates is said to have commissioned a new type of ship called the Samaina, a decked ship with two banks of oars, apparently a merchant galley designed for the rapid transport of goods or troops.<ref>[[Photius]] ''Lexicon'' sv. Σαμίων ὁ δῆμός; Plutarch, ''Pericles'' 26; Wallinga (1993) 95-7; De Souza (1998) 283; Carty (2005) 141-4</ref>