Sirras: Difference between revisions
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===Origin=== |
===Origin=== |
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Sirras's origin is disputed, scholars being divided on whether he was of [[Lynkestis|Lynkestian]] origin,<ref>{{harvnb|Hammond|1989|p=32}}; {{harvnb|Kapetanopoulos|1994|pp=9–14}}.</ref> or [[Ilyrians|Illyrian]] origin or of [[Upper Macedonia]]n origin with Illyrian ancestors.<ref>{{harvnb|Greenwalt|2010|p=286|ps=: "Her father was named Sirrhas (perhaps the same Sirrhas mentioned in Aristotle.), who some scholars have argued was an Illyrian by birth (thus making Eurydice an out-and-out Illyrian herself) but others that he was from one or another of the Upper Macedonian cantons but with Illyrian ancestors."}}</ref> He may have been a son of the Illyrian chieftain [[Grabos I|Grabos]].{{sfn|Heckel|2016|p=20}} |
Sirras's origin is disputed, scholars being divided on whether he was of [[Lynkestis|Lynkestian]] origin,<ref>{{harvnb|Hammond|1989|p=32}}; {{harvnb|Kapetanopoulos|1994|pp=9–14}}.</ref> or [[Ilyrians|Illyrian]] origin or of [[Upper Macedonia]]n origin with Illyrian ancestors.<ref>{{harvnb|Greenwalt|2010|p=286|ps=: "Her father was named Sirrhas (perhaps the same Sirrhas mentioned in Aristotle.), who some scholars have argued was an Illyrian by birth (thus making Eurydice an out-and-out Illyrian herself) but others that he was from one or another of the Upper Macedonian cantons but with Illyrian ancestors."}}</ref> He may have been a son of the Illyrian chieftain [[Grabos I|Grabos]].{{sfn|Heckel|2016|p=20}} |
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[[N. G. L. Hammond]] opposes the Illyrian theory, and reinterpretes the sources made it probable that Sirras belonged to the [[Dorian|Doric Greek]] [[Bacchiadae]] clan of Lynkestis. However, it is suggested that the Bacchiadae were possibly not among the native Lynkestians and were generally considered strangers by the citizens; [[Herodotus]] noted that the Bacchiadae family practiced ''[[endogamy]]''. Therefore, Arrhabaios' daughter, Irras, had to presumably marry a male member of the Bacchiadae, and Sirras was perhaps her cousin.{{sfn|Hammond|1966|p=244}}{{sfn|Cabanes|1988|pp=92–93}} |
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===Early life=== |
===Early life=== |
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Revision as of 12:44, 10 January 2024
| Sirras | |
|---|---|
| Reign | c. 423–393 BC |
| Died | After 390 |
| Consort | Irra of Lyncestis |
| Ancient Greek | Σίρρας |
Sirras or Sirrhas (Ancient Greek: Σίρρας; d. 390 BC) was either a prince, royal member and perhaps prince-regent of Lynkestis (Lyncestis) in Upper Macedonia, or an Illyrian chieftain or king. He participated in the Pelopponesian War in the Illyrian-Lynkestian coalition against Sparta and Macedon, that defeated the Macedonians. He became the son-in-law of the Macedonian King Arrhabaeus (fl. 423–393 BC) after marrying his daughter Irra. He also participated in the war between an Illyrian-Lynkestian coalition against Macedon under king Archelaus, who attempted again, unsuccessfully, the invasion of Lynkestis.
Sirras' daughter Eurydice married Amyntas III, king of Macedon. Notably, among Sirras' grand-children was Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great.
Name
The name 'Sirras' is typically Macedonian given the characteristic doubling of the r (Greek: ρ). The ending in -as (-ας) is also common in Macedonian names.[1]
Biography
Origin
Sirras's origin is disputed, scholars being divided on whether he was of Lynkestian origin,[2] or Illyrian origin or of Upper Macedonian origin with Illyrian ancestors.[3] He may have been a son of the Illyrian chieftain Grabos.[4]
N. G. L. Hammond opposes the Illyrian theory, and reinterpretes the sources made it probable that Sirras belonged to the Doric Greek Bacchiadae clan of Lynkestis. However, it is suggested that the Bacchiadae were possibly not among the native Lynkestians and were generally considered strangers by the citizens; Herodotus noted that the Bacchiadae family practiced endogamy. Therefore, Arrhabaios' daughter, Irras, had to presumably marry a male member of the Bacchiadae, and Sirras was perhaps her cousin.[5][6]
Early life
Sirras married in c. 430 BC the daughter of the Lynkestian king Arrhabaeus, which is regarded to have been a political marriage to strengthen the Illyrian-Lynkestian alliance, in order to counterbalance the power of the Macedonian king Perdiccas.[7][8]
Pelopponesian War
Sirras took part in the Pelopponesian War as an ally of Athens, on the side of Arrhabaeus I of Lyncestis against Perdiccas of Macedonia.[9] In 423 BC Arrhabaeus threw off the Lower Macedonian yoke and became an ally of Sirras.[10] This was reinforced when Sirras married the daughter of Arrhabaeus. At first Sparta avoided involvement in Macedon's war with Arrhabaeus, but in 423 BC they joined an expedition which ended with a retreat by the Macedonians and a brilliantly contrived escape of the Spartans.
After an initial success against Arrhabaeus, Perdiccas persuaded his allies to await the arrival of Illyrian mercenaries. It has been claimed that the Illyrians were under the command of Sirras but this is not supported in historiography (Thucydides did not mention Sirras). Rather the Illyrians opted instead to join the army of Arrhabaeus as they were now allies.[11] The Spartan general, Brasidas who came to support the Macedonians in their advance into the remote regions of Lyncestis, was abandoned by the Macedonians but was able to extract his army of 4,000 from Illyrian encirclement.[12] Thucydides stated that the fear inspired by their warlike character made both Greek armies think it best to retreat. The young Spartans were clearly shaken by the fearsome appearance of the Illyrian forces.[13]
Thucydides reports Brasidas saying that the Illyrians may terrify those with an active imagination, they are formidable in their outward bulk, their loud yelling is unbearable and the brandishing of their weapons in the air has a threatening appearance, but when it comes to real fighting with an opponent who stands his ground they are not what they seemed; they have no regular order that would make them ashamed of deserting their positions when hard pressed; with them flight and attack are equally honourable, and afford no test of courage; their independent mode of fighting never leaving anyone who wants to run away without a fair excuse of doing so.[14]
Thucydides incidentally never makes any mention of Sirras. Basing himself on Aristotle's example of Sirras and Arrhabaeus,[15] N.G.L Hammond concludes that Sirras was a regent to the minor king Arrhabaeus,[16] although Aristotle's quote can also be used to support the case that Sirras was a strategos and Arrhabaeus the king, as Kapetanopoulos argues.[1]
War against Archelaus I of Macedon
At the end of the 5th century BC, Sirras was once again at war with Macedonia over a claim on Lyncestis. Around the end of the reign of Archelaus I of Macedon, ca. 400/399 BC, a new war developed between the two kings over Lyncestis. As in earlier times, Arrhabaeus and Sirras acted together. The results of this war are not known, but later events show that no change happened to the status quo.
Family
Sirras' daughter, Eurydice, married King Amyntas III of Macedon in around 390 BC, probably in a Macedonian effort to strengthen the alliance with Illyrians[4] or to detatch the Lynkestians from their historical alliance with the Illyrians,[17][18][19] after he was defeated by Illyrians or an Illyrian-Lynkestian coalition in 393 BC.[20][21] One of the sons from this marriage was the future Philip II of Macedon.
References
- ^ a b Kapetanopoulos 1994, p. 10.
- ^ Hammond 1989, p. 32; Kapetanopoulos 1994, pp. 9–14.
- ^ Greenwalt 2010, p. 286: "Her father was named Sirrhas (perhaps the same Sirrhas mentioned in Aristotle.), who some scholars have argued was an Illyrian by birth (thus making Eurydice an out-and-out Illyrian herself) but others that he was from one or another of the Upper Macedonian cantons but with Illyrian ancestors."
- ^ a b Heckel 2016, p. 20.
- ^ Hammond 1966, p. 244.
- ^ Cabanes 1988, pp. 92–93.
- ^ Heckel 2016, p. 20: "The alliance with the Illyrians was strengthened by political marriage, with Sirrhas marrying a daughter of Arrhabaios; the offspring of this union was Eurydike, who later married Amyntas III and became the mother of Philip II and his brothers (Strabo 7.7.8 C326)."
- ^ Whitehorne 2002: "Eurydice, the mother of Philip II of Macedon, was the offspring of another daughter of Arrhabaeus whom he had married to a chieftain called Sirras (Strabo 7.326C). Sirras himself was most probably an Illyrian, and the marriage, made c. 430 BC, probably represents an earlier accommodation that Arrhabaeus had been obliged to make at that time with his Illyrian neighbours to offset the power of Perdiccas.
- ^ Cleopatras By John Edwin George Whitehorne[page needed]
- ^ Neritan Ceka (2005). The Illyrians to the Albanians.[page needed]
- ^ Joseph Roisman, Ian Worthington. A Companion to Ancient Macedonia. p. 283.
- ^ Hammond 1966[page needed]
- ^ John Wilkes. The Illyrians. pp. 117–8.
- ^ Thucydides. History of the Pelopponessian War, 4.126.
- ^ Aristot. Pol. 5.1311b | http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:abo:tlg,0086,035:5:1311b
- ^ N.G.L.Hammond and G.T. Griffith, A History of Macedonia II, Oxford, 1979, 15 & 139, "Rulers of Lyncus"
- ^ Roisman 2011, p. 152.
- ^ Worthington, Ian (2008). PHILLIP II of Macedonia. New Haven and London: Yale. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-300-12079-0.
- ^ Psoma 2011, p. 117
- ^ Carney 2019, pp. 27–28; Heckel, Heinrichs & Müller 2020, pp. 87, 273; King 2017, pp. 57, 64; Carney & Müller 2020, p. 391; Müller 2021, p. 36; Palairet 2016, p. 29.
- ^ "Philip II of Macedonia". The Ancient World, Volume I. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
Bibliography
- Carney, Elizabeth D. (2019). Eurydice and the Birth of Macedonian Power. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-028054-3.
- Carney, Elizabeth D.; Müller, Sabine (2020). The Routledge Companion to Women and Monarchy in the Ancient Mediterranean World. Routledge. ISBN 9780429783982.
- Chrystal, Paul (15 May 2016). In Bed with the Ancient Greeks. Amberley Publishing Limited. pp. 133–. ISBN 978-1-4456-5413-3.
- Greenwalt, William S. (2010). "Macedonia, Illyria, and Epirus". In Roisman, Joseph; Worthington, Ian (eds.). A Companion to Ancient Macedonia. Oxford, Chichester, & Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 279–305. ISBN 978-1-4051-7936-2.
- Hammond, Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière (1989). The Macedonian State: Origins, Institutions, and History. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-814883-6.
- Heckel, Waldemar (2016). Alexander's Marshals: A Study of the Makedonian Aristocracy and the Politics of Military Leadership. Routledge. ISBN 978-1317389224.
- Heckel, Waldemar; Heinrichs, Johannes; Müller, Sabine, eds. (2020). Lexicon of Argead Makedonia. Frank & Timme GmbH. ISBN 978-3732904051.
- Kapetanopoulos, Elias (1994). "Sirras" (PDF). The Ancient World. XXV (1). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-10-21. Retrieved 2015-06-01.
- King, Carol (2017). Ancient Macedonia. Routledge. ISBN 978-1351710329.
- King, Karol J. (2024). "Macedonia". In Ogden, Daniel (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Alexander the Great. Cambridge University Press. pp. 147–164. ISBN 9781108887427.
- Lane Fox, Robin J. (22 June 2011). Brill's Companion to Ancient Macedon: Studies in the Archaeology and History of Macedon, 650 BC - 300 AD. BRILL. pp. 221–. ISBN 978-90-04-20923-7.
- Müller, Sabine (2017). Die Argeaden: Geschichte Makedoniens bis zum Zeitalter Alexanders des Großen. Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh. ISBN 978-3657777686.
- Müller, Sabine (2021). "Political Marriage in Antiquity". In Mohammed, Jowan A.; Jacob, Frank (eds.). Marriage Discourses: Historical and Literary Perspectives on Gender Inequality and Patriarchic Exploitation. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. pp. 25–50. ISBN 9783110751451.
- Palairet, Michael (2016). Macedonia: A Voyage through History. Vol. 1, (From Ancient Times to the Ottoman Invasions). Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 9781443888431.
- Psoma, S. (2011). "The Kingdom of Macedonia and the Chalcidic League". In Lane Fox, R. (ed.). Brill's Companion to Ancient Macedon: Studies in the Archaeology and History of Macedon, 650 BC – 300 AD. Leiden: Brill. pp. 113–136. ISBN 978-90-04-20650-2.
- Roisman, Joseph (2011). "Classical Macedonia to Perdiccas II". In Roisman, Joseph; Worthington, Ian (eds.). A Companion to Ancient Macedonia. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 145–165. ISBN 978-1-4443-5163-7.
- Whitehorne, John (2002). Cleopatras. Routledge. ISBN 1134932154.
- Worthington, Ian (2008). Phillip II of Macedonia. New Haven and London: Yale. ISBN 978-0-300-12079-0.
- Worthington, Ian (2008). Philip II of Macedonia. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300120790.