Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/203

PERIANDER. TODJection, and we are told, on the authority of Timaeus, that he took part with Pittacus and the Mytilenaeans in their war against Athens (b, c. 60G) for the possession of Sigeium and the sur- rounding toast. If, however, he was at first a party to the contest, he seems to have acted sub- sequently as a mediator. (Strab. xiii. p. 600; Herod. V. 94, 95 ; comp. Mlill. ad Aesch. Eum. § 42 ; Clint. F. H. sub anno G06.) Another mode by which he strengthened himself was his alliance with tyrants in other cities of Greece (Miletus, e.g. and Epidaurus), and even with bar- barian kings, as with Alyattes of Lydia. On the west of Greece, as Miiller remarks {Dor. i. 8. § 3), the policy of the Cypselidae led them to attempt the occupation of the coast of the Ionian sea as far as Illyria, and to establish a connection with the barbarous nations of the interior. In accordance with this policy, Periander kept up a considerable navy, and is said to have formed the design of cutting through the Isthmus of Corinth and thus opening a readier communication between the eastern and western seas ; and we find, too, that Apollonia on the Macedonian coast was founded by the Corinthians in his reign. (Strab. vii. p. 316 ; Thuc. i. 26 ; Plin. H. N. iii.23.) Such a policy, combined with the natural advantages of its situation, stimulated greatly the commerce of Corinth, and we hear accordingly that the harbour and market-dues were so considerable, that Pe- riander req^uired no other source of revenue. The construction of splendid works dedicated to the gods {Kv<^ei5wv dva6TJij.aTa, Arist PoL v. 11), would be recommended to him as much by his own taste and love of art as by the wish to drain the stores of the wealthy. Generally, indeed, we find liim, like so many of the other tyrants, a liberal and discriminating patron of literature and philo- sophy ; and Arion and Anacharsis were in favour at his court. Diogenes Laertius tells us that he wrote a didactic poem (viroOrJKai), which ran to the length of 2000 verses, and consisted in all pro- bability of moral and political precepts ; and he was very commonly reckoned among the Seven Sages, though by some he was excluded from their number, and Myson of Chenae in Laconia was substituted in his room. The letters, which we find in Diogenes Laertius. from Periander to his brother sages, inviting them to Corinth, and from Thrasybulus to Periander, explaining the act of cutting off the tops of the corn, are obvious and clumsy fabrications. (Herod, i. 20, 23, 24 ; Ael. V. H. ii. 41 ; Gell. xvi. 19 ; Plut. Sol. 4, Conv. VII. Sap. ; Diod. Fragm. b. ix ; Plat. Protay. p. 343 ; Clem. Alex. Strom, p. 351 ; Heracl. Pont. 5.) The private life of Periander is marked b}' great misfortune, if not by the dreadful criminality which his enemies ascribed to him. He married Melissa, daughter of Procles, tyrant of Epidaurus, having fallen in love with her, according to one account, from seeing her in a light dress, after the Pelopon- nesian fashion, giving out wine to her father's labourers. (Pythaen. ap. Aih. xiii. p. 589, f.) She bore him two sons, Cypselus and Lycophron, and was passionately beloved by him ; but he is said to have killed her by a blowj during her pregnancy, having been roused to a fit of anger by the calum- nies of some courtesans, whom, on the detection of their falsehood, he afterwards caused to be burnt alive. His wife's death embittered the remainder of his days, partly through the remorse which he PERIBOEA. 191 felt for the deed, and which he seems to have tried to quiet by superstitious rites, partly through the alienation of his younger son Lycophron, inex- orably exasperated by his mother's fate. The young man's anger had been chiefly excited by Procles, and Periander in revenge attacked Epi- daurus, and, having reduced it, took his father-in- law prisoner. His vengeance was roused also against the Corcyraeans by their murder of Lyco- phron, and he sent 300 Corcyraean boys to Alyattes, king of Lydia, to be made eunuchs of ; but they were rescued on their way by the Samians, and Periander is said to have died of despondency, at the age of 80, and after a reign of 40 years, ac- cording to Diogenes Laertius. He was succeeded by a relative, Psammetichus, son of Gordias, — names which have been thought to intimate the maintenance by the Cypselidae of hospitable rela- tions with the princes of Egypt and Phrygia, Foy Gordias, however, some would substitute Gorgus (the son or brother of Cypselus), whom Plutai'ch calls Gorgias ; but this conjecture we need not hesitate to reject. Aristotle, if we follow the re- ceived text, assigns to the tyranny of Periander a duration of 44 jaKvs, ; but the amount of the whole period of the dynasty, as given by him, does not accord with his statement of the length of the several reigns {Pol. v. 12, ed. Bekk. v. 9, ed. Gottling). To make Aristotle, therefore, agree with himself and with Diogenes Laertius, Sylburg and Clinton would, in different ways, alter the reading, while Gottling supposes Psammetichus, on the ground of his name, to have been not of the blood of the Cypselidae, but a barbarian, to whom Periander entrusted the command of his mercena- ries, and who seized the government and held it for three years ; and these years he considers Aristotle to have omitted in stating the entire pe- riod of the dynasty. Bat this is a most far- fetched and improbable conjecture. In Diogenes Laertius there is a very childish story, not worth repeating here, which relates that Periander met his end by violence and voluntarily. (Herod, iii. 48— 53,v. 92 ; Suid.s.u. U^piav^pos ; Clint. F. H. sub annis 625, 585 ; Plut. de Herod. Mai. 22.) 2. A tyrant of Ambracia, was contemporary with his more famous namesake of Corinth, to whom he was also related, being the son of Gorgus, Avho was son or brother to Cypselus. The establishment of a branch of the family in Ambracia will be seen to have been quite in accordance with the ambitious policy of the Cypselidae in the west of Greece, as mentioned above, Periander was deposed by the people, probably after the death of the Corinthian tyrant (b. c. 585). The immediate occasion of the insurrection, according to Aristotle, was a gross insult offered by hira to one of his favourites. (Arist. PoL v. 4, 10, ed. Bekk. ; Ael. V. H. xii. 35 ; Perizon. ad loc. ; Diog. Laert. i. 98 ; Menag. ad loc; Clinton, F. H. sub anno 612; Miiller, LKjr. i. 6. § 8, 8. § 3, iii. 9.%Q.) [E. E,] PERIANDER {Uepiavhpos), a Greek physician in the fourth century B. c. He enjoyed some re- putation in his profession, but was also fond of writing poor verses, which made Archidamus, the son of Agesilaus, ask him how he could possibly wish to be called a bad poet rather than an accom- plished physician. (Plut. Apophthegm. Lacon. vol. ii. p. 125, ed Tauchn.) [ W. A. G.] PERIBOEA {TiepiSoia). 1. The wife of Icanvid, and mother of Penelope. [Icakius.]