Caronda, Antichissimo legislatore d'Italia, istituiva in questa sua città nel settimo secolo avanti Cristo il primo celebrato ginnasio condotto da uomini liberi a spese dello Stato. Poche leggi dava e molte norme di pubblico e privato costume alla Sicilia e alla Magna Grecia e santificandole con l'esempio meritava gloria immortale qual fondatore austerissimo di civiltà. (Charondas, Very ancient legislator of Italy, established in his city in the seventh century BC the first celebrated gymnasium ruled by free men using State expenses. He gave few laws and many rules about public and private costume both to Sicily and Magna Graecia and sanctifying them through the examples he deserved immortal glory as a most austere founder of Civics.)

Epigraph by Mario Rapisardi at the entrance of the Roman Amphitheatre of Catania.

Charondas (Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 ) was a celebrated lawgiver of Catania

Catania

Catania is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse. It is the capital of the homonymous province, and with 298,957 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in Sicily and the tenth in Italy.Catania is known to have a seismic history and...

 in Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

. His date is uncertain. Some make him a pupil of Pythagoras

Pythagoras

Pythagoras of Samos was an Ionian Greek philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. Most of the information about Pythagoras was written down centuries after he lived, so very little reliable information is known about him...

 (c. 580 – 504 BC); but all that can be said is that he was earlier than Anaxilas of Rhegium

Anaxilas of Rhegium

Anaxilas was tyrant of Rhegium, in the southwestern tip of Italy, from 474 BC - 476 BC. He seized Zancle after Hippocrates' death and renamed it to Messana. After allying with Carthage he made peace with Gelon and his daughter married Hieron I....

 (494 – 476 BC), since his laws were in use amongst the Rhegians until they were abolished by that tyrant. His laws, originally written in verse, were adopted by the other Chalcidic

Chalcis

Chalcis or Chalkida , the chief town of the island of Euboea in Greece, is situated on the strait of the Evripos at its narrowest point. The name is preserved from antiquity and is derived from the Greek χαλκός , though there is no trace of any mines in the area...

 colonies in Sicily and Italy. According to Aristotle

Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...

 there was nothing special about these laws, except that Charondas introduced actions for perjury; but he speaks highly of the precision with which they were drawn up. The story that Charondas killed himself because he entered the public assembly wearing a sword, which was a violation of his own law, is also told of Diocles of Syracuse

Diocles of Syracuse

Diocles of Syracuse was a legislator, orator, and political and military leader in the Greek city-state of Syracuse toward the end of the 5th century BC...

 and Zaleucus

Zaleucus

Zaleucus was the Greek lawgiver of Epizephyrian Locri, in Italy, said to have devised the first written Greek law code, the Locrian Code.Although the Locrian code distinctly favored the aristocracy, Zaleucus was famous for his conciliation of societal factions. No other facts of his life at all...

. The fragments of laws attributed to him by Stobaeus

Stobaeus

Joannes Stobaeus , from Stobi in Macedonia, was the compiler of a valuable series of extracts from Greek authors. The work was originally divided into two volumes containing two books each...

 and Diodorus are of late (neo-Pythagorean) origin. Charondas is said to have commanded that if the nearest relative of an epikleros

Epikleros

Epikleros was the term used to describe an heiress in ancient Athens, and in other ancient Greek city states. It denoted a daughter of a man who had no male heirs. In Sparta they were called patroiouchoi , as they were in Gortyn...

(something close to an heiress) did not wish to marry her, he was required to provide a dowry.