# Cylonian
## English
### Alternative forms

* Kylonian

### Etymology

From Cylon +‎ -ian.

### Adjective

Cylonian (not comparable) (Ancient Greece)
* Of or relating to Cylon of Athens, an Athenian noble who attempted a coup in either 636 BCE or 632 BCE.
** 1683, Plutarch, “The Life of Solon”, in Thomas Creech, transl., Plutarchs Lives. Translated from the Greek […], volume I, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 289:Now the Cylonian villany had a long while diſtur’d the Commonwealth, even from that time when Megacles the Archon perſwaded the conſpiratours with Cylon that took ſanctuary in Minerva’s Temple, to ſtand to a fair trial; […]
** 1892, John Henry Wright, “The Date of Cylon”, in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, volume III, Boston, Mass.: Ginn & Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, section III (The Story of Cylon: Our Sources of Information), page 27:The first of the Cylonian glosses of Suidas (s.v. Κυλώνειον ἄγος) has a marked resemblance to the item from the Heracleidean Excerpts (i.e. ultimately Aristotle’s Respub. Ath.); while the other gloss (s.v. Περικλῆς), rewritten in the light of the former, has a Thucydidean foundation which is discernible in the Scholia cited: […]
** 1987, Ian Morris, “Introduction: the argument”, in Burial and Ancient Society: The Rise of the Greek City-State (New Studies in Archaeology), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 25:The surviving portion of the Constitution of Athens begins with the aftermath of the Cylonian conspiracy (an incident also mentioned by Herodotus, Thucydides and Plutarch).
** 2013, Renaud Gagné, “Alcaeus”, in Ancestral Fault in Ancient Greece, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, chapter 4 (Sympotic theologies: Alcaeus, Solon, and Theognis), footnote 84, page 222:Again, the parallel with the Cylonian story is worth noting, considering how important a role the theme of stoning plays in the Alcmaeonid traditions; […]
* Of or relating to Cylon of Croton, a leading citizen of Croton who led a revolt against the Pythagoreans, probably around 509 BCE.
** 1971, G[erhard] J[ean] D[anie͏̈l] Aalders, “Political Thought and Political Programs in the Platonic Epistles”, in Pseudepigrapha I: Pseudopythagorica — Lettres de Platon, Littérature pseudépigraphique juive, Vandœuvres-Genève: Fondation Hardt, published 1972, →OCLC, page 171:Anyhow it is chronologically impossible that the Archippus of this letter is the same as the Pythagorean who together with Lysis survived the Cylonian slaughter.
** 2005, Christoph Riedweg, translated by Steven Rendall, Christoph Riedweg, and Andreas Schatzmann, “Fifth century b.c.e.”, in Pythagoras: His Life, Teaching, and Influence, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, →ISBN, “Chronology” section, page 136:ca. 500 (?) Cylonian rebellion against Pythagoras (proceeding from the Crotonian upper class) ➛ Pythagoras’ emigration to Metapontum
** 2016, Leonid Zhmud, “The Papyrological Tradition on Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans”, in Christian Vassallo, editor, Presocratics and Papyrological Tradition: A Philosophical Reappraisal of the Sources; Proceedings of the International Workshop Held at the University of Trier (22–24 September 2016), Berlin: De Gruyter, published 2019, →ISBN, part II (Pythagoreanism and Beyond), page 117:Our first evidence concerns the dramatic episode in Pythagoras’ life when he left Croton because of the Cylonian revolt.

### Noun

Cylonian (plural Cylonians) (Ancient Greece)
* A follower of Cylon of Athens, an Athenian noble who attempted a coup in either 636 BCE or 632 BCE.
** 1610, [Robert Glover], translated by Tho[mas] Milles et al., “Of the First Greeke Nobility”, in The Catalogue of Honor or Tresury of True Nobility, Peculiar and Proper to the Isle of Great Britaine […], London: […] William Iaggard, →OCLC, page 4:Solon (the diſcord betwixt the common ſort, and them of the richer ſort of the people being appeaſed) after the ſlaughter of the Cylonians, reſtored vnto his Countrey, the Democraticall or Popular Gouernement, the Oligarchie or Gouernment of ſome few, being quite taken away.
** 1982, Jean-Pierre Vernant, anonymous translator, “The Crisis of the City: The Earliest Sages”, in The Origins of Greek Thought, London: Methuen & Co. Ltd, →ISBN, page 76:In the line of these purifying sages, the figure of Epimenides stands out in particularly bold relief. Plutarch called him a sage in divine matters, with the sophia given to “the enraptured and the initiate”; it was he they called to Athens to drive off the miasma that had settled over the city after the slaughter of the Cylonians.
** 2009, Robin Waterfield, “The Rise and Fall of Alcibiades”, in Why Socrates Died: Dispelling the Myths, London: Faber and Faber, →ISBN, “The War Years” section, page 87:The coup failed to garner the local support Cylon had hoped for, and he abandoned the Acropolis once he and his supporters had been promised fair treatment. But an Alcmaeonid archon had some of the Cylonians summarily executed.
* A follower of Cylon of Croton, a leading citizen of Croton who led a revolt against the Pythagoreans, probably around 509 BCE.
** 1603, Plutarch, “The Contradictions of Stoicke Philosophers”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield, →OCLC, page 1075, lines 46–49:But I meane not hereupon to ſtand, nor to diſcourfe at large, but to let paſſe what vanity there was in him, to compare the accidents which befell to ſome good and vertuous perſons, as for example, the condemnation of Socrates, the burning of Pythagoras quicke by the Cylonians, […]
** 1603, Thomas North, transl., “The Life of Epaminondas”, in The Liues of Epaminondas, of Philip of Macedon, of Dionysius the Elder, and of Octavius Cæsar Augustus: Collected out of Good Authors. […] (The Liues of the Noble Grecians and Romaines, […]), London: […] Richard Field, →OCLC, page 2:When the colledges and companies of the Pythagorian Philoſophers that were diſperſed through the cities of Italie, were baniſhed by the faction of the Cylonians: […]
** 1872, Friedrich Ueberweg, translated by Geo[rge] S[ylvester] Morris, “Pythagoras of Samos and the Pythagoreans”, in History of Philosophy, from Thales to the Present Time. […] (Theological and Philosophical Library: […]), volume I (History of the Ancient and Mediæval Philosophy), New York, N.Y.: Scribner, Armstrong & Co., […], part I (The Philosophy of Antiquity), “First Period of Greek Philosophy” section, “Second Division: Pythagoreanism” subsection, page 46:In Crotona, as it appears, the partisans of Pythagoras and the “Cylonians” were, for a long time after the death of Pythagoras, living in opposition as political parties, till at length, about a century later, the Pythagoreans were surprised by their opponents while engaged in a deliberation in the “house of Milo” (who himself had died long before), and, the house being set on fire and surrounded, all perished, with the exception of Archippus and Lysis of Tarentum.
** 1997, Clifford A[lan] Pickover, “Notes”, in The Loom of God: Mathematical Tapestries at the Edge of Time, New York, N.Y.: Plenum Trade, →ISBN, page 271:“Cylonians” were the followers of the mighty Cylon of Croton who, in 490 B.C., chased Pythagoras out of Croton to Metapontum where he later died.
** 2018 March 11, Eugene Afonasin, Anna Afonasina, “Pythagoras Traveling East: An Image of a Sage in Late Antiquity”, in Archai: On the Origins of Western Thought, number 27, Brasília: University of Brasília, published 2019 September 1, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC:The same is true in the case of the list of the survived disciples: Lysis and Archippus are indeed known to escape the peril (Aristoxenus apud Iamb. VP 249-251 [fr. 18 Wehrli]), while already in Herodotus (4.95) Zamolxis (Zalmoxis) is reported to be a personal servant of Pythagoras, who is known, being freed, to leave his master and, upon returning back to his homeland, to spread the Pythagorean wisdom among the Thracians. In a sense, he had also escaped from the hands of the Cylonians, which may explain the confusion.