Chaeron of Megalopolis

For other uses, see Chaeron

Chaeron of Megalopolis was the man who, shortly before the birth of Alexander, 356 BC, was sent by Philip to consult the Delphic oracle about the snake which he had seen with Olympias in her chamber and the peculiar dream he had had in which supposedly "a thunderbolt fell into her womb [and]..much fire sprung up". (Plutarch. Alex. 2,3.) It was perhaps this same Chaeron who, in the speech attributed by some to Demosthenes, is mentioned as having been made tyrant of Pellene by Alexander (comp. Fabric. Bibl. Grace, b. ii. ch. 26), and of whom we read in Athenaeus (xi. p. 509) as having been a pupil both of Plato and Xenocrates. He is said to have conducted himself very tyrannically at Pellene, banishing the chief men of the state, and giving their property and wives to their slaves. Athenaeus, in a cool and off-hand way of his own, speaks of his cruelty and oppression as the natural effect of Plato's principles in the "Republic" and the Laws.

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This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).