Phīdon
（
Φείδων).
1.
The son of Aristodamidas, and king of Argos. He restored the supremacy of Argos over
Cleonae, Phlius, Sicyon, Epidaurus, Troezen, and Aegina, and aimed at extending his dominions
over the greater part of the Peloponnesus. The Pisans invited him (B.C. 748) to aid them in
excluding the Eleans from their usurped presidency at the Olympic Games, and to celebrate
them jointly with themselves. The invitation quite fell in with the ambitious pretensions of
Phidon, who succeeded in dispossessing the Eleans and celebrating the games along with the
Pisans; but the Eleans not long after defeated him, with the aid of Sparta, and recovered
their privilege. Thus apparently fell the power of Phidon; but as to the details of the
struggle we have no information. The most memorable act of Phidon was his introduction of
copper and silver coinage, and a new scale of weights and measures, which, through his
influence, became prevalent in the Peloponnesus, and ultimately throughout the greater
portion of Greece. The scale in question was known by the name of the Aeginetan, and it is
usually supposed that the coinage of Phidon was struck in Aegina; but there seems good reason
for believing that what Phidon did was done in Argos, and nowhere else—that
“Phidonian measures” probably did not come to bear the specific name of
Aeginetan until there was another scale in vogue, the Euboic, from which to distinguish
them—and that both the epithets were derived, not from the place where the scale
first originated, but from the people whose commercial activity tended to make them most
generally known—in the one case the Aeginetans, in the other case the inhabitants
of Chalcis and Eretria.
2.
An ancient Corinthian legislator of uncertain date.
