A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

690 CHARONDAS.
CHARON (Xdpwv), a distinguished Theban,
who exposed himself to much danger by concealing
Pelopidas and his fellow-conspirators in his house,
when they returned to Thebes with the view of
delivering it from the Spartans and the oligarchical
government, B. c. 379. Charon himself took an
active part in the enterprise, and, after its success,
was made Boeotarch together with Pelopidas and
Mellon. (Xen. Hell. v. 4. ~ 3; Plut. Pelop. 7-13,
de Gen. Soc. passim.) [E. E.]
CHARON (Xdpwv), literary. 1. A historian of
Lampsacus, is mentioned by Tertullian (de Anim. 46)
as prior to Herodotus, and is said by Suidas (s. v.)
according to the common reading, to have flourished
(7yevoY/'eos) in the time of Dareius Hystaspis, in
the 79th Olympiad (B. c. 464); but, as Dareius
died in B. c. 485, it has been proposed to read 40'
for oO' in Suidas, thus placing the date of Charon
in 01. 69 or B. c. 504. He lived, however, as late
as B. c. 464, for he is referred to by Plutarch
( Them. 27) as mentioning the flight of Themistocles
to Asia in n. c. 465. We find the following list of
his works in Suidas: 1. AO0iosrsid. 2. I6epouLad.
3. 'EAA,uca. 4. HIepI Aatukicou. 5. ALvifvd.
6. "OpoL AnaaKtnqvv, a work quoted by Athenaeus
(xi. p. 475, c.), where Schweighaeuser proposes to
substitute Spot (comp. Diod. i. 26), thus making its
subject to be the annals of Lampsacus. 7. npuTraives s) "ApXovres o 'rTSv AaIrSKaiovoiWV, a chronological work. 8. K7oeLs 7ro'Acwv. 9. KpTLKId.
10. I-spirAovs 6 EaCTOs TW 'HpaIcAEihw o r0-T wv.
The fragments of Charon, together with those of
Hecataeus and Xanthus, have been published by
Creuzer, Heidelberg, 1806, and by Car. and Th.
Miiller, Fragm. Histor. Graec. Paris, 1841. Besides the references above given, comp. Plut. de
Mul. Virt. s. v. Aap-sarbn; Strab. xiii. p. 583;
Paus. x. 38; Athen. xii. p. 520, d.; Ael. V.H. i. 15;
Schol. ad Apoll. Rhod. ii. 2, 479; Voss. de Hist.
Graec. b. i. c. 1; Clint. Fast. sub annis 504, 464.
2. Of Carthage, wrote an account of all the tyrants of Europe and Asia, and also the lives of
illustrious men and women. (Suid. s. v.; Voss. de
Hist. Graec. p. 415, ed. Westermann.)
3. Of Naucratis, was the author of a history of
the Alexandrian and Egyptian priests, and of the
events which occurred under each; likewise of a
treatise on Naucratis, and other works. (Suid.s.v.)
The Charon who was a friend of Apollonius Rhodius, and wrote a historical commentary on his
Argonautica, has been identified by some with the
historian of Naucratis, by others with the Carthaginian. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. b. iii. c. 21; Voss.
de Hist. Graec. pp. 20, 138, 144, 415, ed. Westermann; Schol. ad Apoll. Rhod. ii. 1054.) [E. E.]
CHARONDAS (Xapdvas), a lawgiver of Catana, who legislated for his own and the other
cities of Chalcidian origin in Sicily and Italy.
(Aristot. Polit. ii. 10.) Now, these were Zancle,
Naxos, Leontini, Euboea, Mylae, Himera, Callipolis, and Rhegium. He must have lived before the
time of Anaxilaus, tyrant of Rhegium, i. e. before
B. c. 494, for the Rhegians used the laws of Charondas till they were abolished by Anaxilaus, who,
after a reign of eighteen years, died B. c. 476.
These facts sufficiently refute the common account
of Charondas, as given by Diodorus (xii. 12): viz.
that after Thurii was founded by the people of the
ruined city of Sybaris, the colonists chose Charondas, "the best of their fellow-citizens," to draw up
a code of laws for their use. For Thurii, as we

CHAROPS.
have seen, is not included among the Chalcidian
cities, and the date of its foundation is B. c. 443.
It is also demonstrated by Bentley (Phalaris, p.
367, &c.), that the laws which Diodorus gives as
those drawn up by Charondas for the Thurians
were in reality not his. For Aristotle (Polit. iv.
12) tells us, that his laws were adapted to an aristocracy, whereas in Diodorus we constantly find
him ordering appeals to the 8Jacos, and the constitution of Thurii is expressly called 7roxiLrvega.
8s/pospariKo'v. Again, we learn from a happy correction made by Bentley in a corrupt passage of
the Politics (ii. 12), that the only peculiarity in
the laws of Charondas was that he first introduced
the power of prosecuting false witnesses (iriososmks).
But it is quite certain that this was in force at
Athens long before the existence of Thurii, and
therefore that Charondas, as its author, also lived
before the foundation of that city. Lastly, we are
told by Diogenes Labrtius, that Protagoras was the
lawgiver of Thurii. (See Wesseling's note on Diodorus, 1. c., where Bentley's arguments are summed
up with great clearness.) Diodorus ends the account of his pseudo-Charondas by the story, that
he one day forgot to lay aside his sword 'before he
appeared in the assembly, thereby violating one of
his own laws. On being reminded of this by a
citizen, he exclaimed, pd A?' d,\ad espto ip ronjoo-w,
and immediately stabbed himself. This anecdote
is also told of Diocles of Syracuse, and of Zaleucus,
though Valerius Maximus (vi. ~ 5) agrees with
Diodorus in attributing it to Charondas. The story
that Charondas was a Pythagorean, is probably an
instance of the practice which arose in later times
of calling every distinguished lawgiver a disciple
of Pythagoras, which title was even conferred on
Numa Pompilius. (Comp. lamblich. Vit. Pythag.
c. 7.) Among several pretended laws of Charondas
preserved by Stobaeus, there is one probably authentic, since it is found in a fragment of Theophrastus. (Stob. Serm. 48.) This enacts, that all
buying and selling is to be transacted with ready
money, and that the government is to provide no
remedy for those who lose their money by giving
credit. The same ordinance will be found in Plato's Laws. The laws of Charondas were probably
in verse. (Athen. xiv. p. 619.) The fragments of
the laws of Charondas are given in Heyne's Opuscula, vol. ii. p. 74, &c. [G. E. L. C.]
CHAROPS (Xapo',), bright-eyed or joyfullooking, a surname of Heracles, under which he
had a statue near mount Laphystion on the spot
where he was believed to have brought forth
Cerberus from the lower world. (Paus. ix. 34.
~ 4.) There are also two mythical beings of this
name. (Hornm. Od. xi. 427; Hornm. Hymn. in Mere.
194; Hygin. Fab. 181.) [L. S.]
CHAROPS (Xapo*4). 1. A chief among the
Epeirots, who sided with the Romans in their war
with Philip V., and, by sending a shepherd to
guide a portion of the Roman army over the
heights above the position of the Macedonians,
enabled Flamininus to dislodge Philip from the
defile which he had occupied in Epeirus, B. c. 198.
(Polyb. xvii. 3, xviii. 6, xxvii. 13; Liv. xxxii. 6,
11; Plut. Flam. 4.) In B. c. 192, Charops was
sent by his countrymen on an embassy to Antiochus the Great, who was wintering at Chalcis in
Euboea. He represented to the king that the
Epeirots were more exposed to the attacks of the
Romans than any of the inhabitants of the rest of