(l.c.) implies that he did not belong to that
branch; that he did not belong to the Alcmaeonidae is clear from the historical relations
between that family and Peisistratus; and we nowhere hear that the latter was connected with
the Paeonidae, the only other branch of the Neleidae who came to Attica. Hippocrates (probably
through some intermarriage or other) belonged to the house of the Philaidae (Hipparch. p. 288.
b. It is through an oversight that Plutarch speaks of the deme of the
Philaidae, which did not then exist). Intermarriages with the descendants of Melanthus would
be sufficient to account for the claim which Peisistratus is represented as making (in the
spurious letter in Diogenes Laertius, 1.53), to be considered as a member of the family of
Codrus, even if the statement that he did so deserves any credit. The mother of Peisistratus
(whose name we do not know) was cousin german to the mother of Solon (Heracleides Ponticus ap.
HIPPOCRATES], for the former, who was ephor in
Peisistratus grew up equally distinguished for personal beauty and for mental endowments.
The relationship between him and Solon naturally drew them together, and a close friendship
sprang up between them, which, as was to be expected under such circumstances between Greeks,
soon assumed an erotic character (Plt. Sol. 1.). On the occasion of the
successful attempt made by Solon to induce the Athenians to renew their struggle with the
Megarians for the possession of Salamis, Peisistratus greatly aided his kinsman by his
eloquence. The decree prohibiting further attempts upon the island was repealed, and an
expedition led against it by Solon, again assisted by his young relative, who distinguished
himself by his military ability, and captured Nisaea (Solon. 8, 12.
After the legislation of Solon, the position of parties at Athens was well calculated to
favour the ambitious designs of Peisistratus. The old contests of the rival parties of the
Plain, the Highlands, and the Coast, had been checked for a time by the measures of Solon, but
their rivalry had not been removed; and when Solon, after the establishment of his
constitution, retired for a time from Athens, this rivalry broke out into open feud. The party
of the Plain, comprising chiefly the landed proprietors, was headed by Lycurgus; that of the
Coast, consisting of the wealthier classes not belonging to the nobles, by Megacles, the son
of Alcmaeon; the party of the Highlands, which aimed at more of political freedom and equality
than either of the two others, was that at the head of which Peisistratus placed himself, not
because their wishes and feelings corresponded with his own, but because they seemed the most
likely to be useful in the furtherance of his designs; and indeed his lead of this faction
seems to have been a mere pretext, to render it less obvious that he had in reality attached
to himself a large party among the poorer class of citizens (ad Il. xxiv. extr.), was always accompanied by
two or three youths, with a purse of money to supply forthwith the wants of any needy citizen
whom they fell in with. His military and oratorical (Brut. 7.27, 10.41; Solon. 29, declared of him that, had it not been for
his ambition, Athens had not a more excellent citizen to show), backed by considerable powers
of simulation, had led many of the better class of citizens, if not openly to become his
partisans, at least to look upon him with no unfavourable eye, and to regard his domination as
a less evil than the state of faction and disturbance under which the constitution was then
suffering. Solon, on his return, quickly saw through the designs of Peisistratus, who listened
with respect to his advice, though he prosecuted his schemes none the less diligently.
(According to Isocrates, Panath. p. 263, ed. Steph. one part of his
procedure was to procure the banishment of a considerable number of influential citizens who
were likely to oppose his plans.) Solon next endeavoured to arouse the people, by speeches and
poetical compositions (Plut. Solon. 30;
The first usurpation of Peisistratus lasted but a short time (s. v.
Strateg. 1.21.1, where there is a good deal of
blundering). "This story," lentarks Bishop Thirlwall (Hist. of Grecce,
vol. ii. p. 60), "would indeed be singular, if we consider the expedient in the loght of a
stratagem, on which the confederates relied for overcoming the resitaince which they might
otherwise have expected from their adversaries. But it seems quite as likely that the pageant
was only designed to add extraordinary solemnity to the entrance of Peisistratus, and to
suggest the reflection, that it was by the especial favour of heaven that he had been so
unexpectedly restored." It is said that Phya was given in marriage to Hipparchus (Athen. l.c.). Peisistratus nominally performed his part of the contract with
Megacles; but not choosing to have children by one of a family which was accounted accursed,
treated his wife in the most odious manner. She complained to her mother of the indignity to
which she was exposed; and Megacles and the Alcmaeonidae, incensed at the affront, again made
common cause with Lycurgus, and Peisistratus was a second time compelled to evacuate Athens
(Chro. Olymp. 54.
3, and Hieronymus, that Peisistratus went into Italy, is doubtless a blunder. Vater
conjectures that the name Italy has been substituted by mistake for that of some place in
Attica, perhaps Icaria, and that the statement refers to the first exile of Peisistratus.) His
property was again offered for sale (
On reaching Eretria Peisistratus deliberated with his sons as to the course he should
pursue. The advice of Hippias, that he should make a fresh attempt to regain his power, was
adopted. Contributions were solicited from the cities which were in his interest. Several
furnished him with large sunis. Thebes especially surpassed all the rest in the amount of
money which she placed at his disposal. With the funds thus raised he procured mercenaries
from Argos. Ten years elapsed before his preparations were complete. At last, however, with
the forces which he had raised, a Naxian named Lygdamis having also of his own accord brought
him both money and a body of troops, he crossed into Attica, and lauded at Marathon. Here his
friends and partisans flocked to his standard. His antagonists, who had viewed his proceedings
with great indifference, when they heard that he was advancing upon Athens hastily marched out
to meet him. The two armies encamped not far from each other, near the temple of Athene at
Pallene, and Peisistratus, seizing the opportunity with which the remissness of his
antagonlists furnished him, and encouraged by the soothsayer Amphilytus of Acharnae, fell
suddenly upon their forces at noon, when, not expecting any thing of the kind, the men had
betaken themselves after their meal to sleep or play, and speedily put them to flight. He
then, with equal wisdom and moderation, refrained from pursuing the fugitives with his troops,
but sent forward his sons on horseback, who, having overtaken the flying Athenians, told them
they had nothing to fear if they would disperse quietly to their homes. The majority obeyed
these directions, and Peisistratus entered Athens without opposition (Strat. 1.21.1. The
account of the latter, however, is full of blunders). Lygdamis was rewarded for his zealous
co-operation by being established as tyrant of Nxos, which island Peisistratus conquered. [LYGDAMIS.]
Having now become tyrant of Athens for the third time Fasti Hellen. vol. ii. p. 203) assigns six
years for the first period of government, one for the second, and ten for the third. In doing
this he assumes that Hippias was born in the first year of the tyranny of Peisistratus, and
that it was in the first period of his rule that Croesus sent to Greece to form alliances
against Cyrus. To this scheme it is objected by Vater (in Ersch and Cruber's Entycelop). art. Peisisltratus) that it is clear from the
narrative of Herodotus (Fasti Hellen. ann. B. C. 560, 546, 527, and appendix 100.2, p.
201, &c.)CIMON]. The revenues which Peisistratus needed for the pay of his
troops, were derived partly from Attica (the produce, very likely, in part at least, of the
mines at Laureion), partly from some gold mines on the Strymon. How he became possessed of
these we do not know. It is most likely that they were private property, and came into his
hands during his second exile, somehow or other through his connection with the royal family
of Macedonia, a connection of which we subsequently see a proof in the offer of the town of
Anthenmus made by Amyntas to Hippias. (Strat. 5.14) mentions some operations conducted by his son Hippias, for the suppression
of piracy.
Having now firmly established himself in the government, Peisistratus maintained the form of
Solon's institutions, only taking care, as his sons did after him (Pol.
5.12, p. 1315, ed. Bekker; Plut. Solon. 31). His government seems to have
been a wise admixture of stringelcy as regards the enforcement of the laws and the prevention
of disorders, and leniency towards isndividuals who offended him personally. (For anecdotes
illustrating this see Plutarch, Apopth.
Strut. 5.14; Solon. 31) by himself, against idleness, and compelled a large number of the poorer
class to leave A thens, and devote themselves to agricultural pursuits. (Aeliasn. V. H. 9.25; Dion Chrysost. vii. p. 258, ed. Keiske. xxv. p. 520.) The
stories of his compellings the people to wear the Catonace (Hesychius and Suidas s. v.
Lysist. 1150,
&c., Eeeles. 724 Schol. ad 1. 755; Schol. ad
Lysist. 619), probably have refereecce to this. Those who had no resources of their own
he is said to have supplied with cattle and seed. His policy taste taste combined also led him
to employ the poorer Athenians in building. Athens was inidebted to limi for many stately and
useful buildings. Among these may be mentioned a temple to the Pythian Apollo (Suidas s. v.
s. v.
Pol. 5.11), for which he employed the architects Antistates, Callaeschrus,
Antimachides, and Porinus (Vitruvius, Praef. 7.15). This temple remained
unfinished for several centuries, and was at length completed by the emperor Hadrian (s. v.
s. v.
Vatic. vii.-10.33, not. Dind. p. 31) Peisistratus, to defray these and other
expenses, exacted a tithe of the produce of the land, an impost which, so employed, answered
pretty nearly the purpose of a poor's rate. He was also (
Peisistratus likewise bestowed considerable attention upon the due performance of public
religious rites, and the celebration of festivals and processions (Epist.ap. Dictionary of Antiquities, art. Panatfheanea). He at least made considerable changes in the festival, and in particular
introduced the contests of rhapsodists. Peisistratus in various ways encouraged literature. It
was apparently under his auspices that Thespis introduced at Athens his rude form of tragedy
(F. H. sub anno), and that
dramatic contests were made a regular part of the Attic Dionysia (Bode, Gesch.
der Hellen. Dichtkunst, vol. iii. part i. p. 53; Dict. of Ant. art.
Trayoediu). "It is to Peisistratus that we owe the first written text of
the whole of the poems of Homer, which, without his care, would most likely now exist only in
a few disjointed fragments." (Respecting the services of Peisistratus in relation to the text
of Homer, and the poets who assisted him in the work, see the article HOMERUS Vol. II. p. 507, and the authorities there referred to). Peisistratus is also
said to have been the first person in Greece who collected a library, to which he generously
allowed the public access (A. Gellius, N. A. 6.17; l.c., hardly rests on
sufficient authority to deserve much notice. It was probably from his regard to religion and
literatre that many were disposed to class Peisistratus with the Seven Sages (s. v.
ad Aristoph. Pax,
1036 or 1071).
"On the whole, though we cannot approve of the steps by which he mounted to power, we must
own that he made a princely use of it, and may believe that, though under his dynasty, Athens
could never have risen to the greatness she afterwards attained, she was indebted to his rule
for a season of repose, during which she gained much of that strength which she finally
unfolded." (Thirlwall, Hist. of Greece, vol. ii. p. 65.)
Peisistratus was thrice married (including his connection with the daughter of Megacles).
The name of his first wife, the mother of Hippias and Hipparchus, we do not know. The
statement of the Scholiast on Aristophanes (Eqzuil. 447) that her name
was Myrrhine, arises probably from a confusion with the wife of Hippias. From Plutarch (Cato Major, 100.24) we learn that when Hippias and Hipparchus were grown up,
Peisistratus married Timonassa, a lady of Argolis, and had by her two sons, Iophon and
Thessalus. It is a conjecture of Vater's that Timonassa was connected with the royal house of
Macedonia. Nothing more is known of Iophon; he probably died young. Hegesistratus, a bastard
son of Peisistratus, has been already mentioned. Mention is also made of a daughter of
Peisistratus, who was forcibly carried off by a youth named Thrasybulus, or Thrasymedes, and
was afterwards married to him with the consent of her father, when, having put to sea, and
fallen into the hands of Hippias, he was brought back. (Plut. Apophth.
Fasti Hellen. vol. ii. App.
100.2), and was succeeded in the tyranny by his son Hippias (Herod. l.c.
; Cleid. l.c.) though the brothers appear to have administered the
affairs of the state with so little outward distinction, that they are frequently spoken of as
though they had been joint tyrants. (Thuc. l.c. ; Schol. ad Hipparchus (p. 229b.)
speaks of their government as a kind of golden age. There seems no reason to question the
general truth of this description, though particular exceptions may be adduced, such as the
assassination of Cimon, the father of Miltiades (CIMON). They exacted only
one-twentieth of the produce of the land to defray their expenses in finishing the buildings
s. v.
Hipparch. p. 228d.) He also arranged
the manner in which the rhapsodes were to recite the Homeric poems at the Panathenaic festival
(ibid. p. 228b). Several distinguished contemporary poets appear to have
lived at the court of the Peisistratidae under the patronage of Hipparchus, as, for example,
Simoides of Ceos (Pseudo-Plat. Hipparch. p. 228c. ; Aelian. V. H. viii. Anacreon of Teos (ibid.), Lasus of
llermione, and Onomacritus (ONOMACRITUS]. This collection of oracles
afterwards fell into the hands of Cleomenes. (
Of the particular events of the first fourteen years of the government of Hippias we know
scarcely anything. Thucydides (MILTIADES] But a
great change in the character of his government ensued upon the murder of Hipparchus (HARMODIUS and LEAENA. Hippias displayed on the occasion great presence of mind. As soon as he heard
of the assassination of his brother, instead of rushing to the scene of it, he went quietly up
to the armed citizens who were forming the procession, and, as though he intended to harangue
them, directed them to go without their arms to a spot which he pointed out. He then ordered
his guards to seize their arms, and to apprehend those whom he suspected of being concerned in
the plot, and all who had daggers concealed about them. (What Polyaenus, Oeconom. ii. p. 1347, ed. Bekker), such as having houses that were built so
as to interfere with the public convenience put up for sale; and, under pretence of issuing a
new coinage, getting the old coinage brought in at a low valuation, and then issuing it again
without alteration. Feeling himself unsafe at Athens he began to look abroad for some place of
retreat for himself and his family, in case he should be expelled from Athens. With this view
he gave his daughter Archedice [ARCHEDICE] in marriage to Aeantides,
the son of Hippoclus, tyrant of Lampsacus, an alliance which he would doubtless have thought
beneath him, had he not observed that Hippoclus was in great favour with Dareius.
The expulsion of the Peisistratidae was finally brought about by the Alcmaeonidae and
Lacedaemonians. The former, since their last quarrel with Peisistratus, had shown unceasing
hostility and hatred towards him and his successors, which the latter met by tokens of similar
feelings, insomuch that they not only demolished their houses, but dug up their tombs.
(Isocrates, de Big. 26, p. 351, ed. Steph.) The Alcmaeonidae were joined
by other Athenian exiles, and had fortified a stronghold on the frontier of Attica, named
Leipsydrion, on the heights of Parnes, above Paeonia (Aristot. apud Schol. ad
Aristoph. Lysist. 665; Suidas, s. v.
l.c.). Still they none the
more remitted their machinations against the tyrants (ALCMAEONIDAE], which they still further secured by
bribing the Pythia (de Myst. 106), and returned home; and Hippias, unable to withstand his enemies in the
field, retreated into the Acropolis. This being well supplied with stores, the Lacedaemonians,
who were unprepared for a siege, would, in the judgment of Herodotus, have been quite unable
to force Hippias to surrender, had it not been that his children fell into their hands, while
being conveyed out of Attica for greater security, and were only restored on condition that
Hippias and his connections should evacuate Attica within five days. They retired to Sigeum,
de Myst. § 78). A monument
recording the offences of the tyrants was set up in the Acropolis. (
The Spartans before long discovered the trick that had been played upon them by the
Alemaeonidae and the Delphic oracle; and their jealousy of the Athenians being stimulated by
the oracles, collected by IIipparchus, which Cleomenes found in the Acropolis, in which
manifold evils were portended to them from the Athenians, they began to repent of having
driven out their old friends the Peisistratidae, and accordingly sent for Hippias, who came to
Sparta. Having summoned a congress of their allies, they laid the matter before them, and
proposed that they should unite their forces and restore Hippias. But the vehement
remonstrances of the Corinthian deputy Sosicles induced the allies to reject the proposal.
Hippias, declining the offers that were made him of the town of Anthemus by Amyntas, and of
Iolcos by the Thessalians, returned to Sigeum (ARTAPHERNES.) He appears then with his family to have gone to the
court of Dareius (Herod. l.c.): while here they urged Dareius to inflict
vengeance on Athens and Eretria, and Hippias himself accompanied the expedition sent under
Datis and Artaphernes. From Eretria he led them to the plain of Marathon, as the most suitable
for their landing, and arranged the troops when they had disembarked. While he was thus
engaged, we are told, he happened to sneeze and cough violently, and, most of his teeth being
loose from his great age, one of them fell out, and was lost in the sand; an incident from
which Hippias augured that the expedition would miscarry, and that the hopes which he had been
led by a dream to entertain of being restored to his native land before his death were buried
with his tooth (s. v.
Hippias was in his youth the object of the affection of a man named Charmus (who previously
stood in a similar relation to Peisistratus ; Plut. Solon. 1), and
subsequently married his daughter (l.c.) Hippias was the only one of the legitimate
sons of Peisistratus who had children.
What became of Thessalus we do not know. He is spoken of as a high-spirited youth (Heraclid.
Pont. 1), and there is a story in Diodorus (Fragm. lib. x. Olymp. lxvi.)
that he refused to have any share in the tyranny of his brothers, and was held in great esteem
by the citizens.