A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Κάδμος), the son of Scythes, a man renowned for his integrity, was sent by Gelon to Delphi, in B. C. 480, with great treasures, to await the issue of the battle between the Greeks and Persians, and with orders to give them to the Persians if the latter conquered, but to bring them back to Sicily if the Greeks prevailed. After tho

defeat of Xerxes, Cadmus returned to Sicily with the treasures, though he might easily have appropriated them to his own use. (Hdt. 7.163, 164.) Herodotus calls Cadmus a Coan, and states further, that he received the tyranny of Cos from his father, but gave the state its liberty of his own accord, merely from a sense of justice; and that after this he went over to Sicily and dwelt along with the Samians at Zancle, afterwards called Messene. Müller (Dor. 1.8.4, note q.) thinks that this Cadmus was the son of the Scythes, tyrant of Zancle, who was driven out by the Samians (B. C. 497), and who fled to the court of Persia, where he died. (Hdt. 6.23.) In reply to the objection, that Herodotus speaks of Cadmus having inherited the tyranny from his father, but of Scythes having died in Persia, Müller remarks that the government of Cos was probably given to his father by the Persians, but that he notwithstanding continued to reside in Persia, as we know was the case with Histiaeus. If this conjecture is correct, Cadmus probably resigned the tyranny of Cos through desire of returning to his native town, Zancle. He was accompanied to Sicily by the poet Epicharmus. (Suidas, s. v. Ἐπίχαρμος.)