Abstract
The paper presents a critical investigation of a wide-spread hypothesis that Stasanor the Solian (a prominent soldier and statesman of the time of Alexander and the Diadochi) was a member of the royal house from Cyprian Soli. In fact, this opinion has no reasonable arguments. Ancient authors mention nothing about Stasanor’s descent. Our knowledge about Solian dynasty is very scarce and we are not able to denominate all its members or to determine the grade of their kinship. The ethnonym Solian, added to Stasanor’s name in narrations of the division of Alexander’s empire in Babylon and Triparadisus, is not connected with royal dignity: theuse of this epithet refl ects stylistic features of the primary sources – offi cial documents where the distinction between Greeks (mentioned with ethnonym / native city-state name) and the Macedonians (without it) was drawn. As for the name Stasanor itself, it belonged to the large group of names with the root Stas- (Stes-). These names were not only widespread in ancient Cyprus, but also specifi c for the local onomasticon. But we cannot trace any connection between the name Stasanor (likewise other names of this group) and social or political status of its bearers. All these facts and considerations allow us to conclude that the hypothesis of Stasanor’s royal origin, despite of its enormous popularity among scholars, cannot be verifi ed.
Keywords
Stasanor, Cyprus, Soli, Hellenism, Diadochi, dynastic history, prosopography, onomastics
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