The Letter of Chilon to Periander

The letter is headed Cheilōn to Periander. You write me of a campaign against foreigners as if you yourself would march out. I think even the household is unsafe for a man who is a monarch, and I count that tyrant happy who dies at home, of himself, by himself.

The Doric is short and pointed: ἐκστρατείαν ἐπὶ ἐκδάμως, οἰκῆα σφαλερά, and the blessing on the tyrant who does not die on campaign. It sits with the other school-letters of the Seven Sages.

One letter of the Spartan sage to the Corinthian tyrant survives under this heading; the name Chilonis belongs to a different, unverified figure.