Bacchiad

History

In 657 BCE, the Bacchiadae were expelled in turn by the tyrantCypselus, who had been polemarch. The exiled Bacchiadae fled to Corcyra (a colony of Corinth) and to Magna Graecia, traditionally to found Syracuse in Sicily, and to Etruria, where Strabo reports that Demaratus ruled at Tarquinia. The royal line of the Lynkestis of Macedon was also of Bacchiad descent. The foundation myths of Corcyra, Syracuse, and Megara Hyblaea contain considerable detail about the Bacchiadae and the expeditions of the Bacchiad Archias of Corinth, legendary founder of Syracuse in 734–33 BCE, and Philolaos, lover of Diocles of Corinth, victor at Olympia in 728 BCE and a nomothete (lawgiver) of Thebes.