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# The Syracusan moneylender Timon and the finances of the Delian sanctuary in the 2nd century BC
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/poznakomilsia-s-interesnym-personazhem/
- Published: 2022-08-03T12:51:17.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T19:04:47.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Faith, The East, Observations, Society, People

Met an interesting character. Timon of Syracuse lived on Delos in the 2nd century BC and was a moneylender. The very sacred island on which Apollo was born proved quite conducive to the growth of commerce and the financial sector. Among Timon's borrowers, we know, was the federation of the islanders. Besides moneylending proper, he acted as an intermediary for the temple treasury in its settlements with the temple's debtors, the city and its lenders. It turns out that Delos was not only one of the most important pan-Hellenic sanctuaries: the Delian sanctuary was also one of the largest moneylending enterprises of the Hellenistic East, holding through its loans a considerable number of communities and big dealers under its control, and the Delian temple capital carried quite substantial political weight. The spiritual is all very well, but nobody has abolished money either