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

190 PERIANDER. PERIANDER.
in debauchery and sloth, virtually ruled the em- proceeded to rid himself of the most powerful nobles
pire. Having, however, rendered himself obnoxious in the state. If we may believe another statement,
to the soldiery, he was delivered up to them, and which we find in Diogenes Lairtius (i. 96; comp.
put to death, together with his wife and children, Parthen. Am. Aff 17), the horrible consciousness
ill A. D. 186 or 187. The narrative of Dion Cas- of incest with his mother (which some versions of
sius, who states that his death was demanded by the story represented as involuntary on his part)
a deputation of fifteen hundred dartmen, despatched altered his kindly nature to misanthropic cruelty.
for this special purpose from the turbulent army in Aristotle, without mentioning any change in the
Britain, and that these men, after having marched character and conduct of Periander, merely speaks
unmolested through France and Italy, on their of hiIn as having been the first in Greece who reapproach to Rome, overawed the prince, although duced to a system the common and coarser arts of
his own guards were far more numerous, is so tyrant-craft; and, accordingly, in two passages of
improbable that we call scarcely give it credit. the Politics (iii. 13, v. 10, ed. Bekk.), he alludes
Moreover, Dion represents the character of Peren- to the above-mentioned suggestion of cutting off
nis ill a very different light from that in which it is the nobles, as having been made by Periander to
exhibited by other historians. Although he admits Thrasybulus. If we may depend at all on the
that Perennis procured the death of his colleague statements in Diogenes Laertius, we may believe
Paternus, in order that he might rule with un- that, while Periander would gladly have trusted
divided sway, he would yet depict him as a man for his security rather to the affection than the
of pure and upright life, seeking nought but the fears of his subjects, he was driven to tyrannical
prosperity and safety of his country, which were expedients by what he considered a constraining
utterly neglected by Cominodus, while Herodian political necessity; and it is far from improbable
and Lampridius charge him with having encou- that, while the arts which win the favour of the
raged the emperor in all his excesses, and urged people were less carefully cultivated by him than
him on in his career of profligacy. (Dion Cass. by his father Cypselus, who had risen to power by
lxxii. 9, 10; Herodian. i. 8, 9; Lamprid. Commod. popular aid, so the commons, on their side, not
5, 6.) [W. R.] having now so lively a sense of the evils of oliPEREUS (rlspEss), a son of Elatus and Lao- garchy, would begin to look with dislike on the
dice, and brother of Stymphalus, was the father of rule of an individual. But, whatever might have
Neaera. (Apollod. iii.. 9 1; Pans. viii. 4. ~ 3; been their dispositions towards him, he contrived
comp. ELATUS and NEAERA.) [L. S.] with great ability to keep rebellion in check, proPE'RGAMOS (I'Fpya/uos), an engraver on tecting his person by a body-guard of mercenaries,
precious stones, whose name occurs on a stone in and directing, apparently, his whole policy, domesthe collection of Prince Poniatowski, engraved tic as well as foreign, to the maintenance of his
with the portrait of Nicomedes IV. kiing of Bithy- power. The citizens of noblest rank or feeling
nia; whence it may be inferred that the artist were kept down or put out of the way, and comlived about the time of Augustus. There is another mon tables, clubs, and public education were supgem ascribed to him by Bracci and Stosch, but in pressed,-actions prompted, not, as Miiller supposes
this case the true reading of the name is doubtful. (Dor. i. 8. ~ 3), by the wish of utterly eradicating
(Visconti, Oper. Var. vol. ii. p. 360; R. Rochette, the peculiarities of the Doric race, but rather by
Lettre a' M. Sc/sorn, p. 147, 2nd ed.; comp. PYG- that of crushing high spirit and mutual confidence
MON.) [P. S.] among his subjects. To the same end we may
PE'RGAMUS (IIf'pyapos), a son of Pyrrhus refer also his expulsion of many of the people from
and Andromache. In a contest for the kingdom the city, as we are told by Diogenes Laiirtius, on
of Teuthrania, he slew its king Areins, and then the authority of Ephorus and Aristotle, by the
named the town after himself Pergamus, and in it latter of whom such a measure is indeed mentioned
he erected a sanctuary of his mother. (Paus. i. 11. in the Politics (v. 10. ed. Bekk.), but not expressly
~ 1, &c.) [L. S.] as one of the devices of Periander. Again, while
PERIANDER (lEpiLaavspos). 1. A son of he made it part of his system to prevent the accuCypselus, whom he succeeded as tyrant of Corinth, mulation of wealth to any dangerous extent by
probably about B. C. 625. By his bitterest oppo- individuals, he placed checks at the same time on
nents his rule was admitted to have been mild and habits of wasteful extravagance, and instituted a
beneficent at first; and, though it is equally cer- court for the punishment of those who squandered
tain that it afterwards became oppressive, we must their patrimony, probably because he knew that such
remember that his history has come down to us persons are often the readiest for innovation (Arist.
through the hands of the oligarchical party, which Pol. v. 6). The story of his stripping the Corinsucceeded to power on the overthrow of the Cypse- thian women of their ornaments is variously given in
lidae, and that suspicion therefore attaches to much Herodotus and in Diogenes La'rtius from Ephorus;
of what is recorded of him. In the speech which and it seems doubtful whether we should regard it
Herodotus (v. 92) puts into the mouth of Sosicles, as one of his measures for diminishing the resources
the Corinthian delegate at Sparta, and which is of powerful families, or as a perverted account of a
couched in the language of a strong partisan, the sumptuary law. It may also have been as part of
change in question is absurdly ascribed to the ad- his policy for repressing the excess of luxury and
vice of Thrasybulus, tyrant of Miletus, whom Pe- extravagance that he commanded the procuresses
riander had consulted on the best mode of main- of Corinth to be thrown into the sea. Being postaining his power, and who is said to have taken sessed, as Aristotle tells us, of considerable military
the messenger through a corn-field, cutting off, as skill, he made his government respected abroad,
he went, the tallest ears, and then to have dis- and so provided more effectually for its security at
missed him without committing himself to a verbal home. Yet very little is recorded of his expedianswer. According to the story, however, the tions. Besides his conquest of Epidauirus, menaction was rightly interpreted by Periander, who tioned below, we know that he kept Corcyra iin