History of the Peloponnesian War

That it was Hippias who, as eldest son, succeeded to the sovereignty I positively affirm because I know it even by tradition more accurately than others,[*](This seems to point to a near relationship of the historian with the family of the Peisistratidae, so that more exact knowledge had come to him by word of mouth (καί ἀκοῇ); cf. Marcellinus, §18, and Schol. on 1.20.2.) and anyone might be convinced of it also by this simple fact—he alone of the legitimate brothers appears to have had children, as not only the altar signifies, but also the column commemorating the wrong-doing of the tyrants that was set up on the acropolis of Athens, on which no child of Thessalus or of Hipparchus is inscribed, but of Hippias five, who were borne to him by Myrrhine daughter of Callias son of Hyperochidas; for it was natural for the eldest to marry first.

And on this same column his name is written first after his father's, this also not unnaturally, as he was the eldest after him and had been tyrant.

Nor yet again would Hippias, as it seems to me, have obtained the tyranny at once with ease, if Hipparchus had been in power when killed, and had had to establish himself therein on the same day. Nay, it was owing to the habitual fear which before that he had inspired in the citizens, and the strict discipline he had maintained in the bodyguard, that he got the upper hand with superabundant security and was at no loss, as a younger brother would have been, since in that case he would not previously have been regularly used to power.

Hipparchus, however, as it fell out, having become famous by his tragic fate, obtained in aftertime the credit also of having been tyrant.