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

234 PHALANTHUS. PHALARIS.
rians the town of Ialysus inll Rhodes, being en- colony by a sedition. He ended his days in exile,
couraged by an oracle, which had declared that he but, when he was at the point of death, he desired
should not be driven from the land till white crows the Brundusians to reduce his remains to dust and
should appear and fishes be found in bowls. Iphi- sprinkle it in the agora of Tarentum; by which
clus, the Greek leader, having heard this, some- means, he told them, Apollo had predicted that
what clumsily fulfilled the conditions of the pro- they might recover their country. The oracle,
phecy by whitening some crows with chalk and however, had named this as the method of securing
introducing a few small fish into the bowl which Tarentum to the Partheniae for ever. (Strab. vi.
held Phalanthus's wine. The latter accordingly pp. 278 —280, 282; Just. iii. 4, xx. 1; Paus. x.
was terrified into surrender, and evacuated the 10; Arist. Pol. v. 7, ed. Bekk.; Diod. xv. 66;
island after a futile attempt, wherein he was out- Dion. Hal. Fragm. xvii. 1, 2; Hor. Carm. ii. 6;
witted by Iphiclus, to carry off a quantity of trea- Serv. ad Virg. Aen. iii. 551; Heyne, Excurs. xiv.
sure with him. (Ergias, ap. At/i. viii. pp. 360, e, f, ad Virg. 1. c.; Clint. F. H. vol. i. p. 174, vol. ii.
361, a, b.) [E. E.] p. 410, note u; Thirlwall's Greece, vol. i. p. 352,
PHALANTHUS (dhAavOos), a Lacedaemo- &c.; Muill. Dor. i. 6. ~ 12, 7. ~ 10, iii. 5. ~ 7,
nian, son of Aracus, was the founder of Tarentum 6. ~ 10.) [E. E.]
about B. C. 708. The legend, as collected from PHA'LARIS (,a''Aapi3), ruler of Agrigentum
Justin, and from Antiochus and Ephorus in Strabo, in Sicily, has obtained a proverbial celebrity as a
is as follows. When the Lacedaemonians set forth cruel and inhuman tyrant. But far from the notoon their first Messenian war, they bound them- riety thus given to his name having contributed to
selves by an oath not to return home till they had our reaf knowledge of his life and history, it has
brought the contest to a successful issue. But only served to envelope every thing connected with
nine years passed away, and in the tenth their him in a cloud of fable, through which it is scarcely
wives sent to complain of their state of widowhood, possible to catch a glimpse of truth. The period at
and to point out, as its consequence, that their which he lived has been the subject of much discountrv would have no new generation of citizens pute, and his reign has been carried back by some
to defend it. By the advice therefore of Aracus, writers as far as the 31st Olympiad (B. C. 656),
the young men, who had grown up since the be- but there seems little doubt that the statement of
ginning of the war, and had never taken the oath, Suidas, who represents him as reigning in the 52d
were sent home to become fathers of children by Olympiad, is in the main correct. Eusebius in one
the Spartan virgins; and those who were thus passage gives the older date, but in another assigns
born were called rIapOevau (sons of the maidens). the commencement of his reign to the third year
According to Theopompus (ap. Ath. vi. D. 271, c, d; of the 52d Olympiad (B. c. 570); and this is concomp. Casaub. ad loc.), the widows of those who firmed by statements which represent him as conhad fallen in the Messenian war were given as temporary with Stesichorus and Croesus. (Suid. s. v.
wives to -Helots; and, though this statement more I ldXaps; Euseb. C/lron. an. 1365, 1393, 1446;
probably refers to the second war, it seems likely Syncell. p. 213, d. ed. Paris; Oros. i. 20; Plin.
that the Partheniae were the offspring of some H. N. vii. 56; Arist. RMet. ii. 20; Diod. Exc. Vat.
marriages of disparagement, which the necessity of pp. 25, 26; Bentley, Dissertation on the Epistles of
the period had induced the Spartans to permit. Phlaltris; Clinton, F. H. vol. i. p. 236, vol. ii. p. 4.)
The notion of Manso, that the name was given in There seems no doubt that he was a native of
derision to those who had declined the expedition, Agrigentum, though the author of the spurious
shrinking from war like maidens, seems less de- epistles ascribed to him represents him as born in
serving of notice. As they grew up, they were the island of Astypalaea, and first arriving in Sicily
looked down upon by their fellow-citizens, and as an exile. Concerning the steps by which he
were excluded from certain privileges. Indignant rose to power we are almost wholly in the dark.
at this, they formed a conspiracy under Phalan- Polyaenus indeed tells us that he was a farmer of
thus, one of their number, against the government, the public revenue, and that under pretence of
and when their design was detected, they were constructing a temple on a height which comallowed to go forth and found a colony under his manded the city, he contrived to erect a temporary
guidance and with the sanction of the Delphic god. citadel, which he occupied with an armed force,
Pausanias tells us that Phalanthus, when setting and thus made himself master of the sovereignty.
out on this expedition, was told by an oracle from But this story has much the air of a fable, and it
Delphi, that he would find a territory and a city is clearly implied by Aristotle (Pol. v. 10) that he
in that place where rain should fall on him under was raised by his fellow-citizens to some high
a clear sky (ahOpa). On his arrival in Italy, he office in the state, of which he afterwards availed
conquered the barbarians in battle, but was unable himself to assume a despotic authority. Of the
to take any of their cities or their land. Wearied events of his reign, which lasted according to Euseout with his fruitless efforts, and cast down under bins sixteen years, we can hardly be said to know
the belief that the oracle had meant to express an anything; but a few anecdotes preserved to us by
impossibility, he was lying one day with his head Polyaenus (v. 1.), the authority of which it is diffion his wife's lap, as she strove to cbmfort him, cult to estimate, represent him as engaged in frewhen suddenly, feeling her tears dropping on him, quent wars with his neighbours, and extending his
it flashed upon his mind that, as her name was power and dominion on all sides, though more
Aethra (AYOpa), the mysterious prediction was at frequently by stratagem than open force. It would
length fulfilled. On1 the succeeding night he cap- appear from Aristotle (Rhet. ii. 20), if there be no
tured Tarentum, one of the largest and most mistake in the story there told, that he was at one
flourishing towns on the coast. The mass of the time master of Himera as well as Agrigentum;
inhabitants took refuge, according to Justin, in but there certainly is no authority for the stateBrundusium, and hither Phalanthus himself fled ment of Suidas (s. v. ba'AapcL), that his power exafterwards, when he was driven out from his own tended over the whole of Sicily. The story told