Cleobulus of Lindos

Cleobulus of Lindos was a Greek poet from Lindos, on the island of Rhodes, and one of the Seven Sages of Greece, a group of archaic figures to whom moral sayings and rules of conduct were attributed. He is traditionally dated to around 629 to 559 BC, although the ancient sources are not entirely precise about his dates. His importance rests mainly on the sayings credited to him, which sum up a practical ethics built on measure and self-mastery.

According to Plutarch and Clement of Alexandria, he ruled Lindos. Clement calls him a king and Plutarch a tyrant, a sign of how ambiguous personal power could be in that period. He is said to have studied philosophy in Egypt, though there is no firm evidence for this. The letter in which he supposedly invites Solon to take refuge in Lindos is almost certainly a later forgery. Lyric poems and riddles in hexameter are ascribed to him, as well as the inscription on the tomb of Midas, which others gave to Homer. His daughter Cleobulina also gained fame as a writer of riddles.

Among the maxims credited to him are "Moderation is the best thing", the refusal to do anything by force, the preference for listening over talking, and the view that accepting injustice is no virtue. He is said to have lived to seventy and to have been remarkable for his physical strength and good looks.

His influence lasts mainly through his place among the Seven Sages, whom later tradition gathered into collections of sayings and anecdotes. Today his name survives in the asteroid 4503 Cleobulus, discovered in 1989, and in a stone tumulus on the northern headland of Lindos bay, sometimes called his tomb.