Polycrates

Polycrates (; ), son of Aeaces, was the tyrant of Samos from the 540s BC to 522 BC. He had a reputation as both a fierce warrior and an enlightened tyrant.

== Sources == The main source for Polycrates' life and activities is the historian Herodotus, who devotes a large section of book 3 of his Histories to the rise and fall of Polycrates (3.39-60, 3.120-126). His account was written in the third quarter of the 5th century BC, nearly a century after Polycrates' death, was based mostly on oral traditions and incorporates many folk-tale elements. Furthermore, Herodotus creatively shaped his account of Polycrates in order to make general moral points and to comment on the imperialism of the Athenian empire in his own day. Some poetry from Polycrates' time comments on him in passing and there is a smattering of references to Polycrates in other literary sources ranging in date from the 4th century BC to the Roman Imperial period. These sources preserve useful information but tend to assimilate Polycrates to a stereotypical model of the tyrannical ruler, which may be anachronistic.