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PERIANDER (Gr. IIepiavSpos)

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 145 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PERIANDER (Gr. IIepiavSpos) , the second See also:tyrant of See also:Corinth (625–585 B.c.). In contrast with his See also:father Cypselus, the founder of the See also:dynasty, he is generally represented as a cruel See also:despot, or at any See also:rate as having used all possible devices for keeping his See also:city in subjection. Among numerous anecdotes the following is characteristic. Periander, on being consulted by the tyrant See also:Thrasybulus of See also:Miletus as to the best See also:device for maintaining himself in See also:power, by way of reply led the messenger through a cornfield, and as he walked struck off the tallest and best-grown ears (a See also:legend applied to See also:Roman circumstances in See also:Livy i. 54). It seems, however, that the prevalent See also:Greek tradition concerning him was derived from the versions of the Corinthian See also:aristocracy, who had See also:good reasons for giving a prejudiced See also:account, and the conflicting See also:character of the various legends further shows that their See also:historical value is slight. A careful sifting of the available See also:evidence would rather tend to represent Periander as a ruler of unusual probity and insight, and the exceptional firmness and activity of his See also:government is beyond dispute. His See also:home See also:administration was so successful that he was able to dispense with See also:direct See also:taxation. He fostered See also:wealth by the steady encouragement of See also:industry and by drastic legislation against idleness, luxury and See also:vice; and the highest prosperity of the Corinthian handicrafts may be assigned to the See also:period of his See also:rule (see CORINTH). At the same See also:time he sought to check excessive See also:accumulation of wealth in individual hands and restricted the influx of See also:population into the See also:town. Employment was found for the See also:proletariat in the erection of temples and of public See also:works.

Periander further appears as a See also:

patron of literature, for it was by his invitation that the poet See also:Arlon came to Corinth to organize the dithyramb. He devoted no less See also:attention to the increase of Corinthian See also:commerce, which in his days plied busily on both eastern and western seas. With this end in view he established colonies at Potidaea and See also:Apollonia in See also:Macedonia, at Anactorium and Leucas in See also:north-western See also:Greece, and he is said to have projected a See also:canal through the See also:Isthmus, In Greece proper he conquered See also:Epidaurus, and with the help of his See also:fleet of triremes brought the important trading centre of Corcyra under his See also:control, while his See also:interest in the Olympian festival is perhaps attested by a See also:dedication which may be ascribed to him—the famous " See also:chest of Cypselus." He cultivated friendly relations with the tyrants of Miletus and Mytilene, and maintained a connexion with the See also:kings of See also:Lydia, of See also:Egypt and, possibly, of See also:Phrygia. In spite of these varied achievements Periander never entirely conciliated his subjects, for he could not See also:trust himself without a bodyguard. Moreover his See also:family See also:life, according to all accounts, was unfortunate. His sons all died or were estranged from him, and the See also:murder of his last remaining See also:child See also:Lycophron, the See also:governor of Corcyra, is said to have broken his spirit and hastened on his See also:death. Periander was reckoned one of the seven sages of Greece, and was the reputed author of a collection of See also:maxims (`TiroOijicac) in 2000 verses. The letters ascribed to him by See also:Diogenes Laertius are undoubtedly See also:spurious. See also:Herodotus iii. 48–53, v. 92; See also:Aristotle, Politics, v. 6, 10–12; Heracleides Ponticus in C. lVliiller's Frag. hist. graec. ii.

212 ; Nicolaus Damascenus, ibid., iii. 393; Diogenes Laertius, De vitis clarorum philosophorum, i. ch. 7. (M. O. B.

End of Article: PERIANDER (Gr. IIepiavSpos)

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