Ethical Letters Attributed to Phalaris of Acragas

Phalaris was the tyrant of the Greek colony of Acragas in Sicily during the sixth century BCE, seizing power around 570 BCE. His reign, reportedly lasting sixteen years, was characterized by exceptional cruelty, most infamously associated with the Brazen Bull execution device. He was eventually overthrown by a popular uprising led by Telemachus. The primary historical sources are Herodotus and Polyaenus.

A collection of 148 letters attributed to Phalaris, known as the Epistles, is a later literary forgery likely composed in the second century CE. Richard Bentley definitively exposed them as pseudepigraphic in his 1699 dissertation, which marks the beginning of the letters' modern criticism.

Phalaris is historically significant as an archetypal brutal tyrant in Greek tradition, his name proverbial for cruelty. The forged letters attributed to him and their exposure by Bentley are a case study in ancient literary forgery and the history of textual criticism.