person
Philoxenus of Cythera
Philoxenus
also: Philoxenus
Philoxenus of Cythera (c. 435-380 BC), celebrated dithyrambic poet at the Syracusan court who, in the famous anecdote, chose to be sent back to the tyrant Dionysius I's quarry-prison rather than praise his bad verses. Cicero invokes him in Att. 4.6 as the type of the man who refuses to flatter power.
Reading notes
- Ad Atticum 4.6 §2 Philoxenus
Philoxenus of Cythera, the dithyrambic poet, who (in the famous anecdote) chose to be sent back to the Syracusan quarry-prison rather than praise the bad verses of the tyrant Dionysius I. Cicero says he 'forgives' him, half-wishing he himself could refuse to flatter.