Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

​Periander, son of Cypselus, was a Corinthian, of the family of the Heraclidae. He married Lyside, whom he himself called Melissa, the daughter of Procles, tyrant of Epidaurus, and of Eristheneia, daughter of Aristocrates and sister of Aristodemus, who ruled over almost the whole of Arcadia, as Heraclides Ponticus says in his work On Rule. By her he had two sons, Cypselus and Lycophron; the younger was intelligent, but the elder was witless. In course of time, in a fit of rage, having struck his pregnant wife with a footstool or kicked her, he killed her, having been persuaded by the slanders of his concubines, whom he later burned alive. He banished his son, whose name was Lycophron, to Corcyra, because he was mourning for his mother. But when he was already

​advanced in old age, he sent for him in order that he might succeed to the tyranny; but the Corcyraeans anticipated this and put the young man to death. Enraged at this, he sent their children to Alyattes for castration; but when the ship put in at Samos, the youths supplianted Hera and were rescued by the Samians. Periander died of despondency, being already eighty years of age. Sosicrates says that he died forty-one years before Croesus, prior to the forty-ninth Olympiad. Herodotus in his first book says that he was a guest-friend of Thrasybulus, tyrant of Miletus.

​Aristippus in the first book of his work On the Luxury of the Ancients says of him that his mother Crateia, having fallen in love with him, had intercourse with him in secret, and he took pleasure in it; but when it became known, he became harsh to everyone because of his grief at the disclosure. Ephorus also relates that he vowed, if he won the four-horse chariot race at Olympia, to dedicate a golden statue. Having won, and being in want of gold, he saw the women adorned for a local festival, stripped them of all their adornments, and sent the dedicated offering. Some say that, wishing his grave not to be known, he devised the following contrivance: he ordered two young men, pointing out a certain road, to go out by night and kill and bury whoever met them; then he ordered four others to go after these and kill and bury them; and again a greater number after these. And in this way he himself met the first two and was killed. The Corinthians inscribed this upon a cenotaph for him:

“Periander, prince of wealth and wisdom, this his fatherland Corinth, a sea-neighboring land, holds in its bosom.” There is also an epigram of our own: “Let not the failure to obtain something ever grieve you; rather take joy equally in all that God gives. For even the wise Periander expired in despondency, because he did not obtain the deed that he desired.” To him also belongs the saying: “Do nothing for the sake of money; for one ought to seek legitimate gain.” He also composed precepts to the extent of two thousand verses. He said that those who intend to hold a tyranny safely should be guarded by goodwill, not by arms. And once, on being asked why he remained tyrant, he said: “Because both stepping down voluntarily and being deposed carry danger.” He also used to say: Rest is a fine thing; rashness is perilous; sordid gain is bad; democracy is better than tyranny; pleasures are perishable, but honors are immortal.