411 REFERENCE · Wiktionary
Skytalism
Reference material by Wiktionary contributors. This retains its source identity and is not 411 news reporting.
English
Etymology
From en grc σκυταλισμός clubbing, from grc σκυτάλη or grc σκύταλον club + grc -ισμός -ism: forming abstract nouns. Equivalent to en skytale ism.
Proper noun
en historical en Scytalism.
1852, George Grote, History of Greece, Vol. X, pp. 4256:
But the city where intestine commotion took place in its most violent form was Argos... This gloomy series of events was termed the Skytalism, or Cudgelling, from the instrument (as we are told) by which these multiplied executions were consummated; though the name seems more to indicate an impetuous popular insurrection than deliberate executions... We are told that the assembled Athenian people, when they heard the news of the Skytalism at Argos, were so shocked at it, that they caused the solemnity of purification to be performed round the assembly.
en 1877 Charles Sankey https://www.cristoraul.org/ENGLISH/readinghall/THIRDMILLENNIUMLIBRARY/HISTORY-OF-GREECE/PDF/The-Spartan-and-Theban-supremacies.pdf The Spartan and Theban Supremacies 189 ‘Skytalism’ at Argos... The excitement of the people was inflamed by the harangues of demagogues, and the mob, arming itself with cudgels, commenced a general massacre.
2024, Vassilios P. Vertoudakis, "Fake News and Misinformation during War or Civil Conflict...", Fake News in Ancient Greece..., pp. 213 ff.:
The events of the so-called Skytalism, narrated by Diodorus Siculus, constituted unprecidented incidents of violence...
Related terms
en skytale