Phalaris of Acragas

Reading notes

• On the Ends of Good and Evil §4.64 as blind in mind as Phalaris

  Phalaris, the cruel tyrant of Acragas notorious for roasting victims in a bronze bull, is the type of the utterly wicked man. Cicero ridicules the Stoic view that Plato, before attaining wisdom, was no less blind in mind than such a monster.

• On Duties §2.26 Phalaris

  Tyrant of Acragas (Agrigentum) in Sicily in the sixth century BC, byword for cruelty (the brazen bull in which he roasted victims). The people of Agrigentum rose against him en masse.

• Tusculan Disputations §2.17 if the wise man is in the bull of Phalaris

  Phalaris, the 6th-century tyrant of Acragas (Agrigentum) in Sicily, notorious for roasting victims alive inside a hollow bronze bull. It became the standard philosophical example of extreme torture used to test the Stoic claim that the sage is happy even under torment.

• Tusculan Disputations §5.75 the bull of Phalaris

  Phalaris, tyrant of Acragas (6th cent. BC), notorious for roasting victims alive inside a hollow bronze bull whose bellowing imitated their screams. It serves Cicero as the extreme test case for whether the happy life can endure torture.