Cleander

• a favorite of the emperor Commodus, Lampr. Comm. 6, 7.

(Κλέανδρος).

1. Tyrant of Gela, which had been previously subject to an oligarchy. He reigned for seven years, and was murdered B. C. 498, by a man of Gela named Sabyllus. He was succeeded by his brother Hippocrates, one of whose sons was also called Cleander. The latter, together with his brother Eucleides, was deposed by Gelon when he seized the government for himself in B. C. 491. (Hdt. 7.154, 155; Aristot. Pol. 5.12, ed. Bekk.; Paus. 6.9.)

2. An Aeginetan, son of Telesarchus, whose victory in the pancratium at the Isthmian games is celebrated by Pindar. (Isthm. viii.) The ode must have been composed very soon after the end of the Persian war (B. C. 479), and from it we learn that Cleander had also been victorious at the Ἀλκαθοῖα at Megara and the Ἀσκληπιεῖα at Epidaurus. (See Dict. of Ant. on the words.)

3. A Lacedaemonian, was harmost at Byzantium in B. C. 400, and promised Cheirisophus to meet the Cyrean Greeks at Calpe with ships to convey them to Europe. On their reaching that place, however, they found that Cleander had neither come nor sent; and when he at length arrived, he brought only two triremes, and no transports. Soon after his arrival, a tumult occurred, in which the traitor Dexippus was rather roughly handled, and Cleander, instigated by him, threatened to sail away, to denounce the army as enemies, and to issue orders that no Greek city should receive them. [Dexippus.] They succeeded, however, in pacifying him by extreme submission, and he entered into a connexion of hospitality with Xenophon, and accepted the offer of leading the army home. But he wished probably to avoid the possibility of any hostile collision with Pharnabazus, and, the sacrifices being declared to be unfavourable for the projected march, he sailed back to Byzantium, promising to give the Cyreans the best reception in his power on their arrival there. This promise he seems to have kept as effectually as the opposition of the admiral Anaxibius would permit. He was succeeded in his government by Aristarchus. (Xen. Anab. 6.2.13, 4. §§ 12, 18, 6.6. §§ 5-38, 7.1. §§ 8, 38, &c., 2.5, &c.)

4. One of Alexander's officers, son of Polemocrates. Towards the winter of B. C. 334, Alexander, being then in Caria, sent him to the Peloponnesus to collect mercenaries, and with these he returned and joined the king while he was engaged in the siege of Tyre, B. C. 331. (Arr. Anab. 1.24, 2.20; Curt. 3.1.1, 4.3.11.) In B. C. 330 he was employed by Polydamas, Alexander's emissary, to kill Parmenion, under whom he had been left as second in command at Ecbatana. (Arr. Anab. 3.26; Curt. 7.2. §§ 19, 27-32 ; Plut. Alex. 49; Diod. 17.80; Just. 12.5.) On Alexander's arrival in Carmania, B. C. 325, Cleander joined him there, together with some other generals from Media and their forces. But he was accused with the rest of extreme profligacy and oppression, not unmixed with sacrilege, in his command, and was put to death by order of Alexander. (Arr. Anab. 6.27; Diod. 17.106; Plut. Alex. 68; Curt. 10.1. §§ 1-8; Just. 12.10.)

5. A collector of proverbs, is quoted by the Scholiast on Theocritus. (Idyll. 5.21 ἔντι μὲν οὐδὲν ἱερόν.) [E.E]

a Phrygian slave, brought to Rome as a porter. He chanced to attract the attention and gain the favour of Commodus, who elevated him to the rank of chamberlain, and made him his chief minister after the death of Perennis. [Perennis.] Being now all-powerful, he openly offered for sale all offices, civil and military, and the regular number of magistrates was multiplied to answer the demand, so that on one occasion twenty-five consuls were nominated in a single year (it is believed to have been A. D. 185, or, according to Tillemont, 189), one of whom was Septimius Severus, afterwards emperor. The vast sums thus accumulated were however freely spent, partly in supplying the demands of the emperor, partly in his own private gratifications, partly in relieving the wants of friends, and partly in works of public magnificence and utility. But fortune, which had raised him so rapidly, as suddenly hurled him down. A scarcity of corn having arisen, the blame was artfully cast upon the favourite by Papirius Dionysius, the praefectus annonae. A tumult burst forth in the circus, a mob hurried to the suburban villa of Commodus, clamouring for vengeance, and the emperor giving way to the dictates of his natural cowardice, yielded up Cleander, who was torn to pieces, and his whole family and nearest friends destroyed. (D. C. 72.12, 13; Herodian. 1.12, 10 ; Lamprid. Commod. 6, 7, 11.) [W.R]

an architect, who constructed some baths at Rome for the emperor Commodus. (Lamprid. Comm. 100.17; Osann, Kunstblatt, 1830, N. 83.) [L.U]

(Κλέανδρος). (1) A tyrant of Gela, who reigned B.C. 504-498 and was succeeded by his brother Hippocrates, whom Gelon deposed in B.C. 491.

(2) A Phrygian slave, the favourite of the emperor Commodus (q.v.), and torn in pieces by the Roman mob during a bread-riot.

• guardian of Philopoemen: Paus. 8.49.2