previous next


Chilon was ephor at Sparta about 560; Sosicrates said of him πρῶτος εἰσηγήσατο ἐφόρους τοῖς βασιλεῦσι παραζευγνύναι (Diog. Laert. i. 68); this is taken by some (e. g. Niese in P. W. s. v. Chilon) to mean that he established the ephorate; but more probably it only implies that he greatly increased its power. A fragment of a second century author (Rylands Papyri, No. 18) says of him with King Anaxandridas that τυραννίδας κατέλυσαν; it goes on to mention Hippias of Athens and Aeschines of Sicyon, apparently as put down by these two (cf. Plut. de Mal. H. 21, and App. XVI, § 10); but the fragment breaks off suddenly. This tradition may well be true in the main, though the chronology is inaccurate. For his connexion with the Lycurgean discipline cf. c. 65 n. He was reckoned as one of the Seven Sages (cf. 27. 2 n.), and Plut. (Mor. 35 F) says a collection of his pithy sayings was extant. Cf. vii. 235. 2 for his practical wisdom.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: