Editing Phalaris

{{Short description|Sicilian despot,  570 to 554 BC}}
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[[File:Pierre Woeiriot Phalaris.jpg|thumb|right|264px|Renaissance copperplate engraving depicting Phalaris condemning the sculptor Perilaus to the [[Bronze Bull]]]]
'''Phalaris''' ({{langx|el|Φάλαρις}}) was the [[tyrant]] of Akragas (now [[Agrigento]]) in [[Sicily]] in [[Magna Graecia]], from approximately 570 to 554 BC.

==History==
{{see|Brazen bull}}
Phalaris was renowned for his excessive cruelty. Among his alleged atrocities is [[human cannibalism|cannibalism]]: he was said to have eaten suckling babies.<ref>{{cite web |author1=[[Tatian]] |title=Address to the Greeks |at=ch.&nbsp;34 |url=https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0202.htm |website=New Advent |access-date=11 August 2023}}</ref>

Another expression of his sadistic brutality is that he supposedly ordered a sculptor named Perilaus to make him a [[brazen bull|brazen hollow bull]]. The bull could hold a man and was used as an execution machine. The condemned person was placed inside, then the bull was closed and a fire lit underneath. The sculpture was made in such a way that, while the condemned met a horrible death in the burning furnace, their cries were said to sound like the bellowing of a bull.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bVWcAQAAQBAJ&dq=the%20first%20important%20Sicilian%20tyrant%20(%20c.570%20%E2%80%93%20c.549%20)%20.%20Of%20Rhodian%20descent%20(%20see%20RHODES%20)%20%2C%20he%20exploited%20a%20building%20contract%20on%20the%20acropolis%20to%20acquire%20a%20body%20of%20adherents%20%2C%20seized%20the%20...&pg=PA1120 | title=The Oxford Classical Dictionary | isbn=978-0-19-954556-8 | last1=Hornblower | first1=Simon | last2=Spawforth | first2=Antony | last3=Eidinow | first3=Esther | date=29 March 2012 | publisher=Oxford University Press }}</ref>

Phalaris was entrusted with the building of the temple of [[Atabyrius|Zeus Atabyrius]] in the [[citadel]] and took advantage of his position to make himself tyrant.<ref>[[Aristotle]], ''Politics'', v. 10</ref> Under his rule, Agrigentum seemed to have attained considerable prosperity. He supplied the city with water, adorned it with fine buildings, and strengthened it with walls. On the northern coast of the island, the people of [[Himera]] elected him [[general]] with absolute power, in spite of the warnings of the [[poet]] [[Stesichorus]].<ref>Aristotle, ''Rhetoric'', ii. 20</ref> According to the ''[[Suda]]'' he succeeded in making himself master of the whole of the island.

He was at last overthrown in a general uprising headed by [[Telemachus (Acragas)|Telemachus]], the ancestor of [[Theron of Acragas]] (tyrant c. 488–472 BC), and burned in his own brazen bull. [[Pindar]], who lived less than a century afterwards, expressly associates this instrument of [[torture]] with the name of the tyrant,<ref>Pindar, ''Pythian 1''</ref> while Lucian mentions it in two satirical dialogues, "Phalaris A" and "Phalaris B", he wrote about the tyrant.

There was certainly a brazen bull at Agrigentum that was carried off by the Carthaginians to [[Carthage]].  This is said to have been later taken by [[Scipio Africanus]] and restored to Agrigentum circa 200 BC. However, it is more likely that it was [[Scipio Aemilianus]] who returned this bull and other stolen works of art to the original Sicilian cities, after his total destruction of Carthage circa 146 BC, which ended the [[Third Punic War]].{{cn|date=April 2023}}

==Pseudo-epistles==
{{main|Epistles of Phalaris}}
Despite his cruelties, Phalaris gained in medieval times a certain literary fame as the supposed author of an epistolary corpus.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/epistlesphalari00phalgoog A digitised 1706 translation of the Epistles] at archive.org. Retrieved 14 March 2024.</ref> In 1699, [[Richard Bentley]] published an influential ''Dissertation on the Epistles of Phalaris'', in which he proved that the epistles were misattributed and had actually been written around the 2nd century AD.<ref>{{cite web |title=Epistles of Phalaris |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100321398 |website=Oxford Reference |access-date=18 March 2024 |language=en}}</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/drrichardbentle00bentgoog 'Dissertation on the Epistles of Phalaris'], archive.org. Retrieved 14 March 2024.</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{1911|wstitle=Phalaris|volume=21|page=345}}

== External links ==

* [https://www.livius.org/articles/person/phalaris/ Phalaris], Livius.org
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20070405201701/http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/2567.html Phalaris]}} in the [[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology]], ed. [[William Smith (lexicographer)|William Smith]] (archived version)
* [http://lucianofsamosata.info/PhalarisI.html Phalaris I] & [http://lucianofsamosata.info/PhalarisII.html Phalaris II] by Lucian at [http://lucianofsamosata.info/ Lucian of Samosata Project]
* [http://lucianofsamosata.info/wiki/doku.php?id=phalaris:phalaris-the-source-material Phalaris – The Source Material] (references by ancient authors)

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[[Category:Ancient Acragantines]]
[[Category:Cannibals]]
[[Category:Sicilian tyrants]]
[[Category:Inventors killed by their own invention]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Year of death unknown]]