Ly'cophron
5. A son, apparently, of Jason, and one of the brothers of Thebe, wife of Alexander, the tyrant of Phlerae, in whose murder he tool part together with his sister and his two brothers, Tisiphonus and Peitholaus. On
Alexander's death the power appears to have been wielded mainly by Tisiphonus, though Diodorus says that he and Lycophron made themselves joint-tyrants, with the aid of a mercenary
force, and maintained their ascendancy by cruelty and violence. (
Xen. Hell. 6.4.
ยง 37; Con.
Narr. 50;
Diod. 16.14;
Plut. Pel. 35; Clint.
F. H. vol. ii. App. Ch. 15.) In B. C. 352, by which time it seems that Tisiphonus was dead, Philip of Macedon, on the application of the Aleuadae and their party, advanced into Thessaly against Lycophron, who was now chief ruler.
The latter was aided by the Phocians, at first under Phayllus, without success, and then with better fortune under Onomarchus, who defeated Philip in two battles and drove him back into Macedonia ; but soon after Philip entered Thessaly again, and (Onomarchus, having also returned front Boeotia to the assistance of Lycophron, was defeated and slain. Lycophron, and his brother Peitholaus, being now left without resource, surrendered Pherae to Philip and withdrew from Thessaly with 2000 mercenaries to join their Phocian allies under Phayllus.
An antithetic sarcasm, quoted by Aristotle, seems to imply that they did not give their services for nothing.
In the hostilities between Sparta and Megalopolis, in this same year (B. C. 352), we find among the forces of the former 150 of the Thessalian cavalry, who had been driven out from Pherae with Lycophron and Peitholaus. (
Diod. 16.35-
37,
39;
Paus. 10.2;
Just. 8.2; Dem.
Olynth. ii. p. 22; Isocr.
Phil. p. 86b; Arist.
Rhet. 3.9.8.) From the downfall of Lycophron to the battle of Cynoscephalae, in B. C. 197, Thessaly continued dependent on the kings of Macedonia.
