Cleon of Gordiucome

Who is Cleon of Gordiucome?

Cleon of Gordiucome, or Cleon the Mysian, was a 1st-century BC brigand-king in Asia Minor.

Cleon made a reputation for himself with robbery and marauding warfare in and around Olympus, long occupying the fortress called by ancient geographers Callydium or Calydnium. He at first courted the favor of Mark Antony, and was awarded a good deal of land in exchange. In 40 BC Cleon's forces harried an invading body of Parthians led by Labienus.

Around the time of the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, Cleon switched sides to that of Augustus. In exchange for services rendered in the wars against Mark Antony, Augustus appointed Cleon the priest of the goddess Bellona in the temple-state of Comana and sovereign, therefore, of the surrounding country. Cleon added what he had been given by Augustus to what he had received from Mark Antony and styled himself a dynast. Under Augustus he also founded the city of Juliopolis out of the town of his birth, Gordiucome. Strabo mentions that Cleon was a priest of Jupiter Abrettenus, and ruler of Morene, a region of Mysia noticed by no other writer.

Cleon's rule was unsuccessful and exceedingly brief; he died only one month after his appointment.