Perĭander

, a tyrant of Corinth, son of Cypselus. The first years of his government were mild and popular, but he soon learnt to become oppre ive, when he had consulted the tyrant of Sicily, about the surest way of reigning. He received no other answer but whatever explanation he wished to place on the Sicilian tyrant’s having, in the presence of his me enger, plucked, in a field, all the ears of corn which seemed to tower above the rest. Per i an der understood the meaning of this answer. He immediately surrounded himself with a numerous guard, and put to death the richest and most powerful citizens of Corinth. He was not only cruel to his subjects, but his family also were objects of his vengeance. He committed incest with his mother, and put to death his wife Meli a, upon false accusation. He also banished his son Lycophron to the island of Corcyra, because the youth pitied and wept at the miserable end of his mother, and detested the barbarities of his father. Per i an der died about 585 years before the christian era, in his 80th year, and by the meanne of his flatterers, he was reckoned one of the seven wise men of Greece. Though he was tyrannical, yet he patronized the fine arts; he was fond of peace, and he showed himself the friend and the protector of genius and of learning. He used to say that a man ought solemnly to keep his word, but not to hesitate to break it if ever it clashed with his interest. He said also, that not only crimes ought to be punished, but also every wicked and corrupt thought. Diogenes Laërtius in Lives .— Aristotle , bk. 5 , Politics .— Pausanias , bk. 2 .――A tyrant of Ambracia, whom some rank with the seven wise men of Greece, and not the tyrant of Corinth.――A man distinguished as a physician, but contemptible as a poet. Plutarch. — Lucan.