Cleobulus was a Greek

Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...

 poet and a native of Lindos

Lindos

Lindos is an archaeological site, a town and a former municipality on the island of Rhodes, in the Dodecanese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Rhodes, of which it is a municipal unit. It lies on the east coast of the island...

, and one of the Seven Sages of Greece

Seven Sages of Greece

The Seven Sages or Seven Wise Men was the title given by ancient Greek tradition to seven early 6th century BC philosophers, statesmen and law-givers who were renowned in the following centuries for their wisdom.-The Seven Sages:Traditionally, each of the seven sages represents an aspect of worldly...

.

Life

Cleobulus was the son of Evagoras and a citizen of Lindus in Rhodes Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria

Titus Flavius Clemens , known as Clement of Alexandria , was a Christian theologian and the head of the noted Catechetical School of Alexandria. Clement is best remembered as the teacher of Origen...

 calls Cleobulus king of the Lindians, and Plutarch

Plutarch

Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...

 speaks of him as the tyrant. The letter quoted by Diogenes Laertius

Diogenes Laertius

Diogenes Laertius was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Nothing is known about his life, but his surviving Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers is one of the principal surviving sources for the history of Greek philosophy.-Life:Nothing is definitively known about his life...

, in which Cleobulus invites Solon

Solon

Solon was an Athenian statesman, lawmaker, and poet. He is remembered particularly for his efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral decline in archaic Athens...

 to Lindus as a democratic place of refuge from the tyrant Peisistratus

Peisistratus

Peisistratos or Peisistratus or Pisistratus may refer to:*Peisistratos of Athens, tyrant at various times between 561 and 528 BC*Pisistratus the younger, r...

 in Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

, is undoubtably a later forgery. Cleobulus is also said to have studied "philosophy" in Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

. He had a daughter named Cleobulina, who used to compose enigmas in hexameter verse, that were said to be of no less significance than his own. He is said to have lived to the age of seventy, and to have been greatly distinguished, for strength and beauty of person. There is a tomb of Cleobulus on Lindos.

Works

Cleobulus apparently wrote lyric poems, as well as riddles in verse. Diogenes Laertius also ascribes to him the inscription on the tomb of Midas

Midas

For the legend of Gordias, a person who was taken by the people and made King, in obedience to the command of the oracle, see Gordias.Midas or King Midas is popularly remembered in Greek mythology for his ability to turn everything he touched into gold. This was called the Golden touch, or the...

, of which Homer

Homer

In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...

 was considered by others to have been the author:

"I am a brazen maiden lying here

Upon the tomb of Midas. And as long

As water flows, as trees are green with leaves,

As the sun shines and eke the silver moon,

As long as rivers flow, and billows roar,

So long will I upon this much wept tomb,

Tell passers by, "Midas lies buried here."

Many sayings were attributed to him:

• "Ignorance and talkativeness bear the chief sway among men."
• "Cherish not a thought."
• "Do not be fickle, or ungrateful."
• "Be fond of hearing rather than of talking."
• "Be fond of learning rather than unwilling to learn."
• "Seek virtue and eschew vice."
• "Be superior to pleasure."
• "Instruct one's children."
• "Be ready for reconciliation after quarrels."
• "Avoid injustice."
• "Do nothing by force."
• "Moderation is the best thing."