Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

Peisistratus, the despot of the Athenians, on a time when some of his friends had revolted and taken possession of Phyle, came to them carrying a bundle of bedding. When they asked what he meant by this, he said, To persuade you and get you away from here, or, if I cannot persuade you, to stay with you; that is why I have come prepared.

It was whispered to him regarding his mother that she was in love with a certain young man, and had secret meetings with him, but that the young man was afraid and generally asked to be excused. Whereupon Peisistratus invited him to dinner, and after he had dined asked him, How was it ? And when the young man said, Very pleasant, Peisistratus said, You shall have this pleasure every day if you are agreeable to my mother.

When Thrasybulus, who was in love with the daughter of Peisistratus, kissed her one day on meeting her, Peisistratus, when incited by his wife against the man, said, If we hate them that love us, what shall we do to them that hate us ? And thereupon he gave the maiden as wife to Thrasybulus. [*](Cf. Valerius Maximus, v. 1, ext. 2. Plutarch also refers to the incident in Moralia, 457 F.)

Some revellers fell in with his wife, and did and said a good many ribald things. The next day when they besought Peisistratus with many tears, he said, As for you, do you try to conduct yourselves in a seemly manner hereafter, but as for my wife, she did not go out at all yesterday. [*](Musonius in Stobaeus, Florilegium, xix. 16, records a similar action on the part of Phocion.)

When he was bent on marrying a second wife, his children inquired whether he had any fault to find with them. By no means, he said, but only