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Poliorcetes and Cratesipolis: A Note on Plutarch, Demetr. 9.5-7

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 May 2015

Pat Wheatley
Pat Wheatley*
Affiliation:
University of Otago
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Extract

In chapter nine of his Life of Demetrius, Plutarch records an amorous interlude between Demetrius the Besieger and Cratesipolis, the widow of Polyperchon's son, Alexander. Plutarch is our sole source for this incident. Perhaps he was struck—as we can hardly fail to be—by a sense of whimsy in the story of a liaison between lovers named ‘She Who Rules the City’ and ‘The Besieger of Cities’. There is nothing especially unusual about the affair itself, as Demetrius is remembered as a prodigal womaniser, but the historical context, timing and circumstances are bizarre, and warrant investigation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antichthon , Volume 38 , 2004 , pp. 1 - 9
Copyright
Copyright © Australasian Society for Classical Studies 2004

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References

1 Or ‘She who has (acquired) power over the city’. R.M. Geer, the Loeb editor of Diodorus (Vol X, 12), gives ‘conqueror of the city’; cf. Andrei, O., Vite parallele Plutarco: Demetrio e Antonio (Milan 1989) 141 Google Scholar: ‘conquistatrice di cittá’. Hoffmann, O., Die Makedonen, ihre Sprache und ihr Volkstum (Göttingen 1906) 219 Google Scholar, suggests that ‘Cratesipolis’ was a nickname earned by her ruthless takeover of Sicyon in 314/13 (Diod. 19.67.1-2), and that her birth-name was lost in transmission after this; cf. Geer 12; contra G.H. Macurdy, ‘The Political Activities and the Name of Cratesipolis’, AJP 50 (1929) 277 Google Scholar. The name, not always a woman's, is attested in inscriptions from Eretria, Syros, Delphi and Larisa: see LGPN I and IIIB, s.v.; and Macurdy 277-8 for comparisons with other Macedonian names for women such as Nicesipolis, Cleopatra, and Stratonice.

2 Plut, . Demetr. 1.8 Google Scholar, 16.6, 19.4-5, 24.1, 27.1-10; Synkrisis 4.1 Google Scholar and 4; Athenaeus, , Deip. 13. 577c–fGoogle Scholar.

3 Siege of Megara: Diod. 20.46.3; Diog. Laert. 2.115; Plut, . Demetr. 9.8–10 Google Scholar; Hal, Dion.. Din. 3 Google Scholar (= Philochorus, FGrH 328 F 66). The precise timing of events during the Antigonid exped-ition to Greece in 307 is unclear; for a reconstruction with earlier bibliography, see Wheatley, P.V., ‘The Genesis of a King: the Early Life of Demetrius Poliorcetes, 336-306 B.C.’ (diss. University of Western Australia 1997) 171-7.Google Scholar

4 Plut, . Demetr. 9.5: Google Scholar . On Cratesipolis, see Diod. 19.67.1-2; 20.37.1; Polyaenus, , Strat. 8.58 Google Scholar; with Stähelin, F., RE xi, 2 (1922)Google Scholar, s.v. no. 2, col. 1643; Macurdy (n. 1) 271-8; Dreyer, B., Der Neue Pauly 6 Google Scholar, col. 815.

5 Beloch, K.J., Ghechische Geschichte IV 2 (Berlin 1927) 444 Google Scholar, accepts Plutarch's anecdote and uses it to postulate that Patrae was controlled by Polyperchon in 307: ‘Wenn auf die Erzahlung Plutarchs (Demetr. 9) über Demetrios' Besuch bei Kratesikleia [sic] uberhaupt Gewicht zu legen ist, so ware die Gegend um Patrae bereits im Sommer 307 in Polyperchons Gewalt gewesen’; Roussel, P., Histoire Grecque IV (Paris 1945) 329 Google Scholar, n. 72: ‘mais peut etre authentique’; Manni, E., Demetrio Poliorcete (Rome 1951) 24 Google Scholar: ‘ma I'episodio, anche se va considerato reale, non ebbe conseguenze’; id. Plutarchi: Vita Demetri Poliorcetis (Florence 1953) 19 Google Scholar; Flacèliere, R. and Chambry, É., Plularque vies XIII (Budé, ed., Paris 1977) 193-4Google Scholar: ‘Même pour rendre hommage à une beauté célèbre distance de Mégare à Patras devait paraître longue …’; Amantini, L. Santi et al., Plutarco. Le vite di Demetrio e di Antonio (Milan 1995) 332 Google Scholar: ‘oggi Patrasso, citta dell'Acaia, sullo lonio, abbastanza lontana da Megara’. Andrei (n. 1) 58-9 and 141, makes no comment on the anecdote's historicity; nor does Macurdy (n. 1) 276-7. For a critical view of the historical context: Wheatley, ‘The Genesis’ (n. 3) 175-6; id. ‘The Date of Polyperchon's Invasion of Macedonia and Murder of Heracles’, Antichthon 32 (1998) 21-2Google Scholar. For useful comments on the political context: Marasco, G., ‘Studi sulla politica di Demetrio Poliorcete’, AMArc ser. III, vol. 8, fasc. 2 (1984) 82-3Google Scholar; cf. id. ‘Introduzione alia biografia plutarchea di Demetrio’, Sileno 9 (1983) 45 Google Scholar.

6 Such as Pelling, C.B.R., ‘Synkrisis in Plutarch's Lives’, in Miscellanea Plutarchea (Atti del I convegno di studi su Plutarco, Roma, 23 novembre 1985), Quaderni del Giornale filologico ferrarese 8, ed. Brenk, F. and Gallo, I. (Ferrara 1986) 92-3Google Scholar; Duff, T.E., Plutarch's Lives. Exploring Virtue and Vice (Oxford 1999) 125, 279 Google Scholar. These, it must be acknowledged, are literary treatments, but historically-oriented works have also generally overlooked the peculiarity of the passage (see above, n. 5).

7 This statement has long been a cornerstone for scholars, but see now the compelling analysis of Duff, Plutarch's Lives (n. 6) 14-22, who asserts that it should be regarded as specific to that pair of Lives. For a list of Plutarch's comments on the historical aspects of his own work, see Duff 18, n. 14.

8 Plut, . Demetr. 9.9–10 Google Scholar. This incident is pegged securely to Megara, 307, and is attested widely in the ancient source tradition: Diog. Laert. 2.115-16; Plut, . Mor. 5f and 475c Google Scholar; Seneca, , Ep. 9.18–19 Google Scholar; Constant. 5.6–7 Google Scholar; with Billows, R.A., Antigonos the One-Eyed (Berkeley 1990) 149 Google Scholar, n. 27. The classic example of this ‘conqueror meets philosopher’ motif is that of Alexander and Diogenes ( Plut, . Alex. 14. 1–5 Google Scholar; Val. Max. 4.3, ext. 4a); cf. also Alexander's meeting with the Indian sophist, Calanus ( Arrian, , Anab. 7.2.2–3.6 Google Scholar). I thank the anonymous reader for Antichthon for raising this point.

9 By e.g. Schubert, R., Die Quellen zur Geschichte der Diadochenzeit (Leipzig 1914) 282 Google Scholar. Sweet, W. E., ‘Sources of Plutarch's Demetrius’, CW 44 (1951) 180 Google Scholar; Kebric, R.B., In the Shadow of Macedon: Duris of Samos (Wiesbaden 1977) 57-8Google Scholar; Hornblower, J., Hieronymus of Cardia (Oxford 1981) 225-6Google Scholar; Agostinetti, A. Simonetti, ‘Presenze femminili nei libri XVIII-XX della Biblioteca stonca di Diodoro Siculo’, Acme 41 (1988) 37 Google Scholar; cf. Andrei, Vite parallele Plutarco (n. 1) 58-9 and 141; and Geiger, J., ‘Plutarch on Hellenistic Politics: The Case of Eumenes of Cardia’, in Teoria e prassi politico nelle opere di Plutarco (Atti del V Convegno plutarcheo, Certosa di Pontignano, 7-9 giugno 1993), eds. Gallo, I. and Scardigli, B. (Naples 1995) 173-85Google Scholar; OCD 3 s.v. Duris; Duff, Plutarch's Lives (n. 6) 101. On Duris' work, the Makedonika (FGrH 76), see Kebric; Billows, Antigonos (n. 8) 333-6; and now Gattinoni, F. Landucci, Duride di Samo (Rome 1997)Google Scholar.

10 Professor Heckel rightly warns me not to underestimate the importance of the Polyperchon-Alexander-Cratesipolis axis in the Peloponnese. Some political motivation for Demetrius' tryst cannot be ruled out (see Marasco, ‘Studi sulla politica di Demetrio’ [n. 5]), but by 307, with the death of Alexander and neutralising of Polyperchon (on which see Wheatley, ‘The Date of Polyperchon's Invasion’ [n. 5]), this power bloc was surely reduced to a rump.

11 Johann Friedrich Salomon Kaltwasser, 1752-1813. Born at Gotha, he taught at the local Gymnasium for 39 years, and published prolifically, notably German translations of Plutarch. His translation of the Lives (10 vols. Magdeburg 1799-1806, also published in Vienna and Prague 1805-6) has notes, where he must expound his emendation (the work has proved inaccessible from New Zealand). This emendation has been observed from time to time by various scholars, including the Teubner and Budé editors of the Demetrius, and most recently Dreyer, Der Neue Pauly (n. 4), who attests Pagae as the site of the tryst without comment.

12 Paus. 1.41.8, 1.44.4, 9.19.2; Thuc. 1.103.4, 111.2, 115.1: ; Strabo 8.1.3, 8.6.22, 9.1.2, 9.2.25; Meyer, E., RE 18.2 (1942)Google Scholar, col. 2284-6, s.v.; Freitag, K., Der Neue Pauly 9 Google Scholar, col. 143, s.v.; Goette, H.R., Athens, Attica and the Megarid. An Archaeological Guide (London 2001)312-13Google Scholar.

13 Diod. 19.67.1-2; 20.37.1-2; Polyaenus, , Strat. 8.58 Google Scholar. She handed this city and Corinth to Ptolemy Soter in 308 (the year is fixed by his celebration of the Isthmian games: Suda Δ 431, s.v. ; for background, see Bosworth, A.B., ‘Ptolemy and the Will of Alexander’, in Alexander the Great in Fact and Fiction, eds. Bosworth, A.B. and Baynham, E.J. (Oxford 2000) 215-17CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Later in that year, probably hearing that Antigonus was returning to the Levant from his abortive campaign against Seleucus, Ptolemy garrisoned the cities and hurried back to protect Egypt; see Wheatley, , ‘Antigonus Monophthalmus in Babylonia, 310-308 B.C.’, JNES 61 (2002) 45-6Google Scholar. In this context, it is certainly possible that Cratesipolis was living in retirement nearby in the area of Pagae.

14 Plut, . Demetr. 1.5 Google Scholar: cf. Mor. 552c-d; Plato, , Rep. 491e, 495b Google Scholar. For analysis of these passages and the concept of the ‘deterrent’ life, see Russell, DA., Plutarch (London 1973) 135 Google Scholar; Andrei, Vite parallele (n. 1) 37-42; Duff, Plutarch's Lives (n. 6) 45-9, 53-65 and via index.

15 It is, of course, possible to argue that, by asserting that the troops remained , Plutarch is implying Demetrius actually left the region. However, the territorial term could be applied with more precision (‘in the vicinity of the city of Megara’). Moreover, if Plutarch already found in his own sources, he could well have inserted this rider himself.

16 Plut, . Demetr. 23.3 Google Scholar; cf. Diod. 20.100.5-6; with Gullath, B., Untersuchungen zur Geschichte Boiotiens in der Zeit Alexanders und der Diadochen (Frankfurt 1982) 179-81Google Scholar; Billows, Antigonos (n. 8) 169-72. The capture of Cenchreae, Panactum, and Phyle may well have provided an alternative scenario for the Cratesipolis affair if Pagae is accepted, as Demetrius' forces are likely to have been in the Megarid at this time, although Cenchreae itself may have been taken by sea.

17 Diod. 20.73-6; 20.96.1-2.

18 Polyaenus, , Strat. 4.7.3 Google Scholar, trans. Krentz and Wheeler.

19 Demetrius' actual itinerary on this campaign after Corinth and Sicyon is unclear. Diodorus (20.103.4-7) has him first advancing westward into Achaea, but provides no details after events at Arcadian Orchomenus (see below). Plutarch ( Demetr. 25.1–3 Google Scholar) supplies different details, but no clear itinerary; he lists the freeing of Acte (the eastern coastline of the Argolid: Strabo 8.8.5), Arcadia, Argos, Sicyon and Corinth all at once. But he asserts that the garrisons of the cities were paid off, whereas from other sources we know that he took them by force or trickery: Diod. 20.102.2-103.4; Polyaenus, , Strat. 4.7.3 and 8 Google Scholar; Athen, . Deip. 10.415a Google Scholar (an otherwise unattested anecdote from a Demetrian siege of Argos which should probably be placed at this point). Andrei, Vite parallele (n. 1) 183 notes the problem; Billows, Antigonos (n. 8) 171-2; and Wehrli, C., Antigone et Démétrios (Geneva 1968)Google Scholar 65 and 149 tend to follow Plutarch, and do not mention the sieges of Bura, Scyrus and Orchomenus. Diodorus is in general the better organised account, and here 1 have preferred his sequence: it seems to me that there was plenty of time for Demetrius to campaign in Achaea, possibly Elis, and Arcadia before arriving at Argos for the Heraea in June or July—a fixed point. Overall, this matter is beyond the scope of the present note and merits a separate study.

20 Diod. 20.103.4. On Bura, or Boura (possibly modern Kastro), see Diod. 15.48.3; Strabo 3.18; Hdt. 1.145; Lauffer, S., Griechenland. Lexikon der historischen Stätten (Munich 1989), 160.Google Scholar

21 Diod. 20.103.4. The manuscript has ; Petrus Wesseling suggested in his 1746 edition. The Teubner editor (Fischer) concurred in 1906, and the suggestion was noted by R.M. Geer, the Loeb editor, in 1954. Wesseling based his amendment on Stephanus of Byzantium, who records a settlement of this name in Arcadia: . Maenalus was an ancient city in the homonymous region immediately to the west and southwest of Mantineia (Paus. 8.3.4; 8.27.2-3; 8.36.7-8; Thuc. 5.64.3). Parrhasia was the name of the district some 30 kilometres away, to the west of Megalopolis (Paus. 6.8.2; 8.27.2 and 4; 8.38.2-3; Thuc. 5.33.1), thus Stephanus' assertion is unhelpful in pinpointing the location of Scyrus/Scirus. However, this may indicate that Demetrius campaigned further south into the Peloponnese at this time than is generally thought (there was a river Scyrus between Megalopolis and Messene: Paus. 8.35.1).

22 IG IV2. I 68 V, lines 136-7; Billows (n. 8) 172. If Demetrius entered Elis it could be hypo-thesised that he proceeded up the Alphaeus valley into the Parrhasian/Maenalian region near Megalopolis, though this is an extremely difficult route. Diodorus takes him straight from Scyrus / Scirus to Orchomenus (see below), but if Scyrus/Scirus was in the Parrhasian / Maenalian region, then he may have approached Orchomenus from the south on his way to the Argolid ( Plut, . Demetr. 25.1–3)Google Scholar.

23 Diod. 20.103.5-6. On Strombichus, see Schoch, P., RE 4A, 1 (1931)Google Scholar, col. 371, s.v. 1; Tataki, A.B., Macedonians Abroad (Athens 1998) 434 Google Scholar. Demetrius' treatment of Strombichus makes a striking contrast with Ptolemy's treatment of Andronicus under very similar circumstances at Tyre in 312 (Diod. 19.86.2). The executions may have been a deliberate act of terror, designed to discourage resistance from other phrourarchoi, but the incident is noteworthy in that Demetrius was not known early in his career for conducting reprisals. However, his behaviour appears to deteriorate in the 290s, or so Plutarch, our only literary source, would have us believe: Demetr. 33.5 Google Scholar; 36.11-12; 40.3-4.

24 Diod. 20.103.5: .

25 Plut, . Demetr. 33.3–4 Google Scholar. The year of this siege is unclear, depending on whether Demetrius sailed from Asia to Greece in 296 or early 295; for various interpretations, see Tarn, W.W., Antigonos Gonatas (Oxford 1913) 13 and 68 Google Scholar; Wehrli (n. 19) 162; Will, E., CAH VII, 1 105 Google Scholar; Walbank, F.W., A History of Macedonia III, (Oxford 1988) 211 Google Scholar; Habicht, C., Athens from Alexander to Antony (Cambridge, Mass. 1997) 86-7Google Scholar; and now the meticulous reconstruction of Dreyer, B., Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des spdtklassischen Athen (Stuttgart 1999) 37–42 Google Scholar, with chronological tables at 75 and 422. Plutarch's wording probably indicates that Demetrius took a land route into the Peloponnese (so Walbank 211, n.9), which would certainly entail passing through the Megarid, but cf. Dreyer 38-9. Polyaenus, , Strat. 4.7.5 Google Scholar, recording Demetrius' capture of Aegina and Salamis, should probably be placed at this time, and supplies another potential context for the Cratesipolis incident.

26 Plut, . Demetr. 35.1–2 Google Scholar. Again, the chronology is imprecise, but the Spartan campaign is generally pegged to Demetrius' accession to the throne of Macedonia in autumn 294. For a good, source-based reconstruction, see Walbank, History of Macedonia (n. 25) 212 and 218; Will (n. 25) 105; but cf. Ferguson, W.S., ‘Lachares and Demetrius Poliorcetes’, CP 24 (1929) 20ff Google Scholar; Wehrli, Antigone (n. 19) 165; Habicht, Athens from Alexander (n. 25) 87 and 89. Dreyer, Untersuchungen (n. 25) 76, places it in early summer, 294.

27 Diod. 19.67.1. He goes on (67.2) to relate her ruthless suppression of the Sicyonian revolt and crucifixion of thirty prisoners after her husband's murder—perhaps an understandable reaction under the circumstances, and within the scope of the meaning of ; see Macurdy, ‘The Political Activities’ (n. 1) 273-4. The description recalls that of Demetrius' principal wife, Phila: Diod. 19.59.3-4; Hornblower, Hieronymus (n. 9) 225-6.

28 Plut, . Demetr. 2.2–3 Google Scholar; 20.2; Diod. 19.81.3-4 = Suda A 429 s.v. 20.92.3-4.

29 Macurdy, ‘The Political Activities’ (n. 1) 277, is the sole scholar to point out that there is no evidence that Cratesipolis actually met Demetrius at all, while, at the other extreme, Ogden, D., Polygamy, Prostitutes and Death (London 1999) 218 Google Scholar, raises the possibility that she was in fact functioning as a courtesan (rejected by Heckel, W., BMCR 2001.03.02)Google Scholar. Thus it is a moot point whether Demetrius was sitting alone in his tent awaiting the woman, and realised that soldiers were arriving instead, or whether he was already engaged in the business of seduction, and was caught in the act.

30 Plut, . Demetr. 2.3 Google Scholar; 19.4-5; Synkrisis 3.1; Diod. 20.92.4; but cf. Polyaenus, , Strat. 4.7.3 and supra.Google Scholar

31 So Pelling, ‘Synkrisis in Plutarch’ (n. 6) 90; id. Plutarch. Life of Antony (Cambridge 1988) 19–20; Duff, Plutarch's Lives (n. 6) 278-81.Google Scholar

32 I am very grateful to Professors Waldemar Heckel and Brian Jones for reading earlier drafts of this paper; and the anonymous reader for Antichthon, whose remarks were especially helpful and perceptive.