Duris of Samos
Encyclopedia
Duris of Samos; probably born around 350 BC
; died after 281 BC
) was a Greek
historian
and was at some period tyrant
of Samos
.
, and was the brother of Lynceus of Samos
. He had a son, Scaeus, who won the boys' boxing at the Olympian Games "while the Samians were in exile", that is, before 324 BC
; from 352 to 324 Samos was occupied by Athenian cleruchs who had expelled the native Samians. Duris therefore may well have been born at some date close to 350 BC
, and, since his main historical work ended with the death of Lysimachus
in 281 BC, died at an unknown date after that.
Many 20th century works state that Duris was a pupil of Theophrastus
at Athens. There is no evidence for this claim other than a conjectural emendation (by Adamantios Korais
) of the text of the Deipnosophistae
of Athenaeus
. The manuscript text says not that Duris studied under Theophrastus, but that his brother Lynceus and Lynceus's correspondent Hippolochus did so.
The only recorded fact about Duris's public life is that he was "tyrant" or sole ruler of Samos. How he attained this position, for how long he held it, and what events took place under his rule, are unknown.
ia from the battle of Leuctra
(371 BC) down to the death of Lysimachus. This work, like all his others, is lost; over thirty fragments are known through quotations by other authors, including Plutarch
. It was continued in the Histories of Phylarchus
. Other works by Duris included a life of Agathocles of Syracuse, which was a source for books 19-21 of the Historical Library of Diodorus Siculus
. Duris also wrote historical annals of Samos arranged according to the lists of the priests of Hera
; and a number of treatises on literary and artistic subjects.
accords him qualified praise as an industrious writer. Plutarch
used his work but repeatedly expresses doubt as to his trustworthiness. Dionysius of Halicarnassus
speaks disparagingly of his style. Photius regards the arrangement of his work as altogether faulty. By contrast with recent predecessors such as Ephorus, Duris served as the exemplar of a new fashion for "tragic history" which gave entertainment and excitement greater importance than factual reporting. In Plutarch's "Life of Pericles" a telling example is Duris's elaborate (and, according to Plutarch, exaggerated) description of cruelty and extensive destruction at Samos when Athenian forces, led by Pericles, subdued the island.
Recent critics, believing that Duris was a pupil of Theophrastus, attempted either to demonstrate that "tragic history" agreed with teachings of the Peripatetic school or to analyse Duris's motives for taking a different line from his supposed teachers. The debate was inevitably inconclusive.
350 BC
Year 350 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Laenas and Scipio...
; died after 281 BC
281 BC
Year 281 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Barbula and Philippus...
) was a Greek
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
and was at some period tyrant
Tyrant
A tyrant was originally one who illegally seized and controlled a governmental power in a polis. Tyrants were a group of individuals who took over many Greek poleis during the uprising of the middle classes in the sixth and seventh centuries BC, ousting the aristocratic governments.Plato and...
of Samos
Samos Island
Samos is a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of Asia Minor, from which it is separated by the -wide Mycale Strait. It is also a separate regional unit of the North Aegean region, and the only municipality of the regional...
.
Personal and political life
Duris claimed to be a descendant of AlcibiadesAlcibiades
Alcibiades, son of Clinias, from the deme of Scambonidae , was a prominent Athenian statesman, orator, and general. He was the last famous member of his mother's aristocratic family, the Alcmaeonidae, which fell from prominence after the Peloponnesian War...
, and was the brother of Lynceus of Samos
Lynceus of Samos
Lynceus of Samos brother of the historian Duris of Samos , was a classical Greek author of comedies, letters and humorous anecdotes. He lived in the late 4th and early 3rd centuries BC and was a pupil of Theophrastus . His works, especially his letters and the essay Shopping for Food, show a...
. He had a son, Scaeus, who won the boys' boxing at the Olympian Games "while the Samians were in exile", that is, before 324 BC
324 BC
Year 324 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Dictatorship of Cursor...
; from 352 to 324 Samos was occupied by Athenian cleruchs who had expelled the native Samians. Duris therefore may well have been born at some date close to 350 BC
350 BC
Year 350 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Laenas and Scipio...
, and, since his main historical work ended with the death of Lysimachus
Lysimachus
Lysimachus was a Macedonian officer and diadochus of Alexander the Great, who became a basileus in 306 BC, ruling Thrace, Asia Minor and Macedon.-Early Life & Career:...
in 281 BC, died at an unknown date after that.
Many 20th century works state that Duris was a pupil of Theophrastus
Theophrastus
Theophrastus , a Greek native of Eresos in Lesbos, was the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. He came to Athens at a young age, and initially studied in Plato's school. After Plato's death he attached himself to Aristotle. Aristotle bequeathed to Theophrastus his writings, and...
at Athens. There is no evidence for this claim other than a conjectural emendation (by Adamantios Korais
Adamantios Korais
Adamantios Korais or Coraïs was a humanist scholar credited with laying the foundations of Modern Greek literature and a major figure in the Greek Enlightenment. His activities paved the way for the Greek War of Independence and emergence of a purified form of the Greek language, known as...
) of the text of the Deipnosophistae
Deipnosophistae
The Deipnosophistae may be translated as The Banquet of the Learned or Philosophers at Dinner or The Gastronomers...
of Athenaeus
Athenaeus
Athenaeus , of Naucratis in Egypt, Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourished about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century AD...
. The manuscript text says not that Duris studied under Theophrastus, but that his brother Lynceus and Lynceus's correspondent Hippolochus did so.
The only recorded fact about Duris's public life is that he was "tyrant" or sole ruler of Samos. How he attained this position, for how long he held it, and what events took place under his rule, are unknown.
Writings
Duris was the author of a narrative history of events in Greece and MacedonMacedon
Macedonia or Macedon was an ancient kingdom, centered in the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula, bordered by Epirus to the west, Paeonia to the north, the region of Thrace to the east and Thessaly to the south....
ia from the battle of Leuctra
Battle of Leuctra
The Battle of Leuctra was a battle fought on July 6, 371 BC, between the Boeotians led by Thebans and the Spartans along with their allies amidst the post-Corinthian War conflict. The battle took place in the neighbourhood of Leuctra, a village in Boeotia in the territory of Thespiae...
(371 BC) down to the death of Lysimachus. This work, like all his others, is lost; over thirty fragments are known through quotations by other authors, including Plutarch
Plutarch
Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
. It was continued in the Histories of Phylarchus
Phylarchus
Phylarchus was a Greek historical writer whose works have been lost, but not before having been considerably used by other historians whose works have survived.-Life:Phylarchus was a contemporary of Aratus, in the 3rd century BC. His birthplace is doubtful...
. Other works by Duris included a life of Agathocles of Syracuse, which was a source for books 19-21 of the Historical Library of Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian who flourished between 60 and 30 BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily . With one exception, antiquity affords no further information about Diodorus' life and doings beyond what is to be found in his own work, Bibliotheca...
. Duris also wrote historical annals of Samos arranged according to the lists of the priests of Hera
Hera
Hera was the wife and one of three sisters of Zeus in the Olympian pantheon of Greek mythology and religion. Her chief function was as the goddess of women and marriage. Her counterpart in the religion of ancient Rome was Juno. The cow and the peacock were sacred to her...
; and a number of treatises on literary and artistic subjects.
List of Works
For the surviving fragments see the editions by Müller and Jacoby.- Histories (also listed as Macedonica and Hellenica; 33 fragments)
- On Agathocles (also listed as Libyca; 13 fragments)
- Annals of Samos (22 fragments)
- On Laws (2 fragments)
- On Games (4 fragments)
- On Tragedy (and perhaps On Euripides and Sophocles; 2 fragments)
- On Painters (2 fragments)
- On Sculpture (1 fragment)
Later Opinions
Of those later authors who knew Duris's work, few praise it. CiceroCicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
accords him qualified praise as an industrious writer. Plutarch
Plutarch
Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
used his work but repeatedly expresses doubt as to his trustworthiness. Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Dionysius of Halicarnassus was a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Caesar Augustus. His literary style was Attistic — imitating Classical Attic Greek in its prime.-Life:...
speaks disparagingly of his style. Photius regards the arrangement of his work as altogether faulty. By contrast with recent predecessors such as Ephorus, Duris served as the exemplar of a new fashion for "tragic history" which gave entertainment and excitement greater importance than factual reporting. In Plutarch's "Life of Pericles" a telling example is Duris's elaborate (and, according to Plutarch, exaggerated) description of cruelty and extensive destruction at Samos when Athenian forces, led by Pericles, subdued the island.
Recent critics, believing that Duris was a pupil of Theophrastus, attempted either to demonstrate that "tragic history" agreed with teachings of the Peripatetic school or to analyse Duris's motives for taking a different line from his supposed teachers. The debate was inevitably inconclusive.
Editions of the fragments
- C. MüllerKarl Wilhelm Ludwig MüllerKarl Wilhelm Ludwig Müller is best known for his still-useful Didot editions of fragmentary Greek authors, especially the monumental five-volume Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum , which is not yet completely superseded by the series Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker begun by Felix...
, Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum vol. 2 (Paris, 1848) pp. 466-488. [Greek with Latin translation and commentary] - F. JacobyFelix JacobyFelix Jacoby was a German classicist and philologist. He is best known among classicists for his highly important work Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, a collection of text fragments of ancient Greek historians...
, Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker vol. 2A pp. 1136-1158 [Greek text]; vol. 2C pp. 115-131 [German commentary]
Modern scholarship
- J. P. Barron, "The Tyranny of Duris of Samos" in Classical Review new series vol. 12 (1962) pp. 189-192.
- C. O. Brink, "Tragic History and Aristotle's School" in Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society vol. 186 (1960) pp. 14-19.
- A. DalbyAndrew DalbyAndrew Dalby is an English linguist, translator and historian who has written articles and several books on a wide range of topics including food history, language, Classical texts, and Wikipedia.-Education and early career:...
, "The Curriculum Vitae of Duris of Samos" in Classical quarterly new series vol. 41 (1991) pp. 539-541. - R. B. Kebric, In the Shadow of Macedon: Duris of Samos. Wiesbaden, 1977.
- R. B. Kebric, "A Note on Duris in Athens" in Classical Philology vol. 69 (1974) pp. 286-287.
- F. Landucci Gattinoni, Duride di Samo. Roma, 1997.
- L. Okin, Studies on Duris of Samos. University of Michigan dissertation, 1974.
- L. Okin, "A Hellenistic Historian Looks at Mythology" in Panhellenica (Lawrence, Kansas, 1980).
- P. Pédech, Trois historiens méconnus: Théopompe, Duris, Phylarque. Paris, 1989.
- E. Schwartz, "Duris (3)" in Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft: neue BearbeitungPauly-WissowaThe Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft, commonly called the Pauly–Wissowa or simply RE, is a German encyclopedia of classical scholarship. With its supplements it comprises over eighty volumes....
(Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, 1894-1980) vol. 5 pt 2 cols 1853-1856. - F. W. WalbankF. W. WalbankFrank William Walbank, CBE was a scholar of ancient history, particularly the history of Polybius. He was born in Bingley, Yorkshire and died in Cambridge.-Biography:...
, "History and Tragedy" in Historia vol. 9 (1960) pp. 216-234.
Other encyclopedias
- M. von Albrecht, "Duris (1)" in Der kleine Pauly ed. Konrat Ziegler, Walther Sontheimer (Munich: Artemis, 1975).
- D. Bowder, "Duris of Samos" in Who Was Who in the Greek World (Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1982) pp. 101-102.
- "Duris of Samos" in The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. (2008).
- J. Hazel, "Duris (2)" in J. Hazel, Who's Who in the Greek World (London, 1999) p. 89.
- R. Schmitt, "Duris of Samos" in Encyclopædia IranicaEncyclopædia IranicaEncyclopædia Iranica is a project whose goal is to create a comprehensive and authoritative English language encyclopedia about the history, culture, and civilization of Iranian peoples from prehistory to modern times...
.