CHILON  , of

Sparta, son of Damagetus, one of the Seven Sages of Greece, flourished about the beginning of the 6th century B.C . In 56o (or S56) he acted as ephor, an office which he is even said to have founded . The tradition was that he died of joy on hearing that his son had gained a prize at the Olympic games . According to Chilon, the great virtue of man was prudence, or well-grounded judgment as to future events . A collection of the sayings attributed to him will be found in F . W . Mullach, Fragmenta Philosophorum Graecorum, i.; see Herodotus i . 69; Diogenes Laertius i . 68; Pausanias iii . 16, x . 24 .