of Ephesus. After having conspiratorially destroyed the regime called that of the Basilidae,[1] he emerged as a very harsh tyrant. To the people and the [sc.] wider masses[2] he seemed to be -- and was -- a source of gratification, simultaneously buoying up their hopes with promises while distributing to them only meagre profits; at any rate, for those who enjoyed prestige and power he was completely unendurable, since he plundered and confiscated their properties. But he also did not hesitate to punish innocent people in the harshest ways and to have them killed without the slightest mercy; for his madness reached such a point; and his passion for money [was] limitless; and he was very susceptible to slanders leveled against the people close to him. That would have been sufficient for him to perish in the worst way on earth, but besides, he also showed disrespect for religion. At any rate, very many of the previously-mentioned people, whom he moved against, he killed in the temples. However he did not dare to take by force the daughter of one of these men, who had sought refuge in the sanctuary, but he had her put under constant surveillance and exhausted her to the point that [sc. only] by hanging herself did the girl escape from hunger.[3] Accordingly what followed was a community-wide plague and food-shortage; and Pythagoras, very concerned for himself, sent to Delphi and sought a solution of the misfortunes. [The Pythia] declared that he should erect a temple and take care of [burying] the dead.[4] He lived before the Persian [king] Cyrus,[5] as Baton records.