Psaumis of Camarina


Psaumis of Camarina was the tyrant and re-founder of Camarina and a charioteer who won the Olympic four-horse chariot race in the 82nd Olympiad. He probably had already won the two-mule chariot race in the previous edition of the 81st Olympiad and he also competed unsuccessfully in the mounted-horse race. He was the son of Akron, according to one of the odes written about him.
A pair of odes attributed to Pindar celebrate his victory, but these may actually be the work of a Sicilian imitator of Pindar.
The fourth ode provides the most biographical information
Camarina was destroyed and re-founded several times in antiquity. Its third re-foundation with Psaumis as oecist must have been around the same time as his Olympic victory, as one of the odes refers to it as "his new-found abode" and alludes to rapid growth occurring there as the city re-built. According to Thucydides, the settlers came from nearby Gela.