Only rarely is the island mentioned by ancient authors.
In the Battle of Salamis (480 BCE), Herodotus records that Kythnos contributed a trireme and a penteconter, and this contribution is commemorated on the base of a golden tripod at Delphi (Herodotus, Bk viii, 46).

Innumerable sources repeat, without providing a citation, that Aristotle praised the government of Kythnos in his "Constitution of Kythnos."
Exactly what he wrote is difficult to ascertain, since all of his essays on the constitutions of 158 city-states are lost except for the one on Athens. (
Possibly, the origin of the quote is from the 2nd century lexicographer Harpocration.
See Smith, 1854.
The entry on Kythnos is under the spelling "Cythnus").
Only rarely is the island mentioned by ancient authors. In the Battle of Salamis (480 BCE), Herodotus records that Kythnos contributed a trireme and a penteconter, and this contribution is commemorated on the base of a golden tripod at Delphi (Herodotus, Bk viii, 46).
Innumerable sources repeat, without providing a citation, that Aristotle praised the government of Kythnos in his "Constitution of Kythnos." Exactly what he wrote is difficult to ascertain, since all of his essays on the constitutions of 158 city-states are lost except for the one on Athens. (Possibly, the origin of the quote is from the 2nd century lexicographer Harpocration. See Smith, 1854. The entry on Kythnos is under the spelling "Cythnus").
Kythnos