Pisistratus directed with admirable moderation the courses of the
revolution he had produced. Many causes of success were combined in his
favour. His enemies had been the supposed enemies of the people, and the
multitude doubtless beheld the flight of the Alcmæonidæ (still odious in
their eyes by the massacre of Cylon) as the defeat of a foe, while the
triumph of the popular chief was recognised as the victory of the people.
In all revolutions the man who has sided with the people is permitted by
the people the greatest extent of license. It is easy to perceive, by the
general desire which the Athenians had expressed for the elevation of
Solon to the supreme authority, that the notion of regal authority was
not yet hateful to them, and that they were scarcely prepared for the
liberties with which they were entrusted. But although they submitted
thus patiently to the ascendency of Pisistratus, it is evident that
a less benevolent, or less artful tyrant would not have been equally
successful. Raised above the law, that subtle genius governed only by the
law; nay, he affected to consider its authority greater than his own. He
assumed no title--no attribute of sovereignty. He was accused of murder,
and he humbly appeared before the tribunal of the Areopagus--a proof not
more of the moderation of the usurper than of the influence of public
opinion. He enforced the laws of Solon, and compelled the unruly tempers
of his faction to subscribe to their wholesome rigour. The one revolution
did not, therefore, supplant, it confirmed, the other. “By these means,”
says Herodotus, “Pisistratus mastered Athens, and yet his situation was
far from secure.”
Although the heads of the more moderate party, under Megacles, had been
expelled from Athens, yet the faction, equally powerful, and equally
hostile, headed by Lycurgus, and embraced by the bulk of the nobles,
still remained. For a time, extending perhaps to five or six years,
Pisistratus retained his power; but at length, Lycurgus, uniting with
the exiled Alcmæonidæ, succeeded in expelling him from the city. But
the union that had led to his expulsion, ceased with that event. The
contests between the lowlanders and the coastmen were only more inflamed
by the defeat of the third party which had operated as a balance of
power, and the broils of their several leaders were fed by personal
ambition as by hereditary animosities. Megacles, therefore, unable to
maintain equal ground with Lycurgus, turned his thoughts towards the
enemy he had subdued, and sent proposals to Pisistratus, offering to
unite their forces, and to support him in his pretensions to the tyranny,
upon condition that the exiled chief should marry his daughter Cœsyra.
Pisistratus readily acceded to the terms, and it was resolved by a
theatrical pageant to reconcile his return to the people.[b]
[Sidenote: [550-540 B.C.]]
This was, according to Herodotus, “the most ridiculous project that was
ever imagined.” “In the Pæanean tribe was a woman named Phya,” he says,
“four cubits high, wanting three fingers, and in other respects handsome;
having dressed this woman in a complete suit of armour, and placed her
on a chariot, and having shown her beforehand how to assume the most
becoming demeanour, they drove her to the city, having sent heralds
before, who, on their arrival in the city, proclaimed what was ordered
in these terms: ‘O Athenians, receive with kind wishes Pisistratus,
whom Minerva herself, honouring above all men, now conducts back to
her own citadel.’ They then went about proclaiming this; and a report
was presently spread among the people that Minerva was bringing back
Pisistratus; and the people in the city, believing this woman to be the
goddess, both adored a human being, and received Pisistratus.”[c]
The sagacity of the Athenians was already so acute, and the artifice
appeared to Herodotus so gross, that the simple Halicarnassian could
scarcely credit the authenticity of this tale. But it is possible
that the people viewed the procession as an ingenious allegory, to
the adaptation of which they were already disposed; and that like the
populace of a later and yet more civilised people, they hailed the
goddess while they recognised the prostitute.[16] Be that as it may, the
son of Hippocrates recovered his authority and fulfilled his treaty with
Megacles by a marriage with his daughter. Between the commencement of
his first tyranny and the date of his second return, there was probably
an interval of twelve years. His sons were already adults. Partly from
a desire not to increase his family, partly from some superstitious
disinclination to the blood of the Alcmæonidæ, which the massacre of
Cylon still stigmatised with contamination, Pisistratus conducted
himself towards the fair Cœsyra with a chastity either unwelcome to her
affection, or afflicting to her pride. The unwedded wife communicated the
mortifying secret to her mother, from whose lips it soon travelled to the
father. He did not view the purity of Pisistratus with charitable eyes.
He thought it an affront to his own person that that of his daughter
should be so tranquilly regarded. He entered into a league with his
former opponents against the usurper, and so great was the danger, that
Pisistratus (despite his habitual courage) betook himself hastily to
flight--a strange instance of the caprice of human events, that a man
could with a greater impunity subdue the freedom of his country, than
affront the vanity of his wife!
Pisistratus, his sons and partisans, retired to Eretria in Eubœa: there
they deliberated as to their future proceedings--should they submit to
their exile, or attempt to retrieve their power? The counsels of his son
Hippias, prevailed with Pisistratus; it was resolved once more to attempt
the sovereignty of Athens. The neighbouring tribes assisted the exiles
with forage and shelter. Many cities accorded the celebrated noble large
sums of money, and the Thebans outdid the rest in pernicious liberality.
A troop of Argive adventurers came from the Peloponnesus to tender to
the baffled usurper the assistance of their swords, and Lygdamis, an
individual of Naxos, himself ambitious of the government of his native
state, increased his resources both by money and military force. At
length, though after a long and tedious period of no less than eleven
years, Pisistratus resolved to hazard the issue of open war. At the head
of a foreign force he advanced to Marathon, and pitched his tents upon
its immortal plain. Troops of the factious, or discontented, thronged
from Athens to his camp, while the bulk of the citizens, unaffected by
such desertions, viewed his preparations with indifference. At length,
when they heard that Pisistratus had broken up his encampment, and was
on his march to the city, the Athenians awoke from their apathy, and
collected their forces to oppose him. He continued to advance his troops,
halted at the temple of Minerva, whose earthly representative had once
so benignly assisted him, and pitched his tents opposite the fane. He
took advantage of that time in which the Athenians, during the heat of
the day, were at their entertainments, or indulging the noontide repose,
still so grateful to the inhabitants of a warmer climate, to commence his
attack. He soon scattered the foe, and ordered his sons to overtake them
in their flight, to bid them return peaceably to their employments, and
fear nothing from his vengeance. His clemency assisted the effect of his
valour, and once more the son of Hippocrates became the master of the
Athenian commonwealth.
[Sidenote: [540 B.C.]]
Pisistratus lost no time in strengthening himself by formidable
alliances. He retained many auxiliary troops, and provided large
pecuniary resources. He spared the persons of his opponents, but sent
their children as hostages to Naxos, which he first reduced and consigned
to the tyranny of his auxiliary, Lygdamis. Many of his inveterate enemies
had perished on the field--many fled from the fear of his revenge. He
was undisturbed in the renewal of his sway, and having no motive for
violence, pursued the natural bent of a mild and generous disposition,
ruling as one who wishes men to forget the means by which his power has
been attained.
It was in harmony with this part of his character that Pisistratus
refined the taste and socialised the habits of the citizens, by the
erection of buildings dedicated to the public worship, or the public
uses, and laid out the stately gardens of the Lyceum--(in after-times
the favourite haunt of Philosophy)--by the banks of the river dedicated
to Song. Pisistratus thus did more than continue the laws of Solon--he
inculcated the intellectual habits which the laws were designed to
create. And as in the circle of human events the faults of one man
often confirm what was begun by the virtues of another, so perhaps the
usurpation of Pisistratus was necessary to establish the institutions of
Solon. It is clear that the great lawgiver was not appreciated at the
close of his life as his personal authority had ceased to have influence,
so possibly might have soon ceased the authority of his code. The
citizens required repose, to examine, to feel, to estimate the blessings
of his laws--that repose they possessed under Pisistratus. Amidst the
tumult of fierce and equipoised factions it might be fortunate that a
single individual was raised above the rest, who, having the wisdom to
appreciate the institutions of Solon, had the authority to enforce them.
Silently they grew up under his usurped but benignant sway, pervading,
penetrating, exalting the people, and fitting them by degrees to the
liberty those institutions were intended to confer. If the disorders of
the republic led to the ascendency of Pisistratus so the ascendency of
Pisistratus paved the way for the renewal of the republic. As Cromwell
was the representative of the very sentiments he appeared to subvert--as
Napoleon in his own person incorporated the principles of the revolution
of France, so the tyranny of Pisistratus concentrated and embodied the
elements of that democracy he rather wielded than overthrew.
At home, time and tranquillity cemented the new laws; poetry set before
the emulation of the Athenians its noblest monument in the epics of
Homer; and tragedy put forth its first unmellowed fruits in the rude
recitations of Thespis. Pisistratus sought also to counterbalance the
growing passion for commerce by peculiar attention to agriculture, in
which it is not unlikely that he was considerably influenced by early
prepossessions, for his party had been the mountaineers attached to rural
pursuits, and his adversaries the coastmen engaged in traffic. We learn
from Aristotle that his policy consisted much in subjecting and humbling
the Pedieis, or wealthy nobles of the lowlands. But his very affection
to agriculture must have tended to strengthen an aristocracy, and his
humility to the Areopagus was a proof of his desire to conciliate the
least democratic of the Athenian courts. He probably, therefore, acted
only against such individual chiefs as had incurred his resentment, or
as menaced his power; nor can we perceive in his measures the systematic
and deliberate policy, common with other Greek tyrants, to break up an
aristocracy and create a middle class.
[Sidenote: [540-527 B.C.]]
Abroad, the ambition of Pisistratus, though not extensive, was
successful. There was a town on the Hellespont, called Sigeum, which had
long been a subject of contest between the Athenians and the Mytileneans.
Some years before the legislation of Solon, the Athenian general,
Phrynon, had been slain in single combat by Pittacus, one of the Seven
Wise Men, who had come into the field armed like the Roman retiarius,
with a net, a trident, and a dagger. This feud was terminated by the
arbitration of Periander, tyrant of Corinth, who awarded Sigeum to the
Athenians, which was then in their possession, by a wise and plausible
decree, that each party should keep what it had got. This war was chiefly
remarkable for an incident that introduces us somewhat unfavourably to
the most animated of the lyric poets. Alcæus, an eminent citizen of
Mytilene, and, according to ancient scandal, the unsuccessful lover of
Sappho, conceived a passion for military fame: in his first engagement
he seems to have discovered that his proper vocation was rather to sing
of battles than to share them. He fled from the field, leaving his
arms behind him, which the Athenians obtained, and suspended at Sigeum
in the temple of Minerva. Although this single action, which Alcæus
himself recorded, cannot be fairly held a sufficient proof of the poet’s
cowardice, yet his character and patriotism are more equivocal than his
genius. Of the last we have ample testimony,--though few remains save in
the frigid grace of the imitations of Horace. The subsequent weakness and
civil dissensions of Athens, were not favourable to the maintenance of
this distant conquest--the Mytileneans regained Sigeum. Against this town
Pisistratus now directed his arms--wrested it from the Mytileneans--and
instead of annexing it to the republic of Athens, assigned its government
to the tyranny of his natural son, Hegesistratus--a stormy dominion,
which the valour of the bastard defended against repeated assaults.
But one incident, the full importance of which the reader must wait
awhile to perceive, we shall in this place relate. Among the most
powerful of the Athenians was a noble named Miltiades, son of Cypselus.
By original descent, he was from the neighbouring island of Ægina, and
of the heroic race of Æacus; but he dated the establishment of his house
in Athens from no less distant a founder than the son of Ajax. Miltiades
had added new lustre to his name by a victory at the Olympic Games. It
was probably during the first tyranny of Pisistratus that an adventure,
attended with vast results to Greece, befell this noble. His family were
among the enemies of Pisistratus, and were regarded by that sagacious
usurper with a jealous apprehension, which almost appears prophetic.
Miltiades was, therefore, uneasy under the government of Pisistratus, and
discontented with his position in Athens.
In that narrow territory which, skirting the Hellespont, was called
the Chersonesus, or Peninsula, dwelt the Doloncians, a Thracian tribe.
Engaged in an obstinate war with the neighbouring Absinthians, the
Doloncians had sent to the oracle of Delphi to learn the result of the
contest.[b]
The Pythian answered them, “that they should take that man with them
to their country to found a colony, who after their departure from
the temple should first offer them hospitality.” Accordingly the
Doloncians, going by the sacred way, went through the territories of
the Phocians and Bœotians, and when no one invited them, turned out of
the road towards Athens. Miltiades, being seated in his own portico,
and seeing the Doloncians passing by, wearing a dress not belonging to
the country, and carrying javelins, called out to them; and upon their
coming to him, he offered them shelter and hospitality. They having
accepted his invitation, and having been entertained by him, made known
to him the whole oracle, and entreated him to obey his duty. Their words
persuaded Miltiades as soon as he heard them, for he was troubled with
the government of Pisistratus, and desired to get out of his way. He
therefore immediately set out to Delphi to consult the oracle, whether he
should do that which the Doloncians requested of him. The Pythian having
bid him do so, thereupon Miltiades, taking with him all such Athenians as
were willing to join in the expedition, set sail with the Doloncians, and
took possession of the country; and they who introduced him appointed him
tyrant.[c]
Miltiades (probably B.C. 559) first of all fortified a great part of the
isthmus, as a barrier to the attacks of the Absinthians; but shortly
afterwards, in a feud with the people of Lampsacus, he was taken prisoner
by the enemy. Miltiades, however, had already secured the esteem and
protection of Crœsus; and the Lydian monarch remonstrated with the
Lampsacenes in so formidable a tone of menace, that the Athenian obtained
his release, and regained his new principality. In the meanwhile, his
brother Cimon, (who was chiefly remarkable for his success at the
Olympic Games,) sharing the political sentiments of his house, had been
driven into exile by Pisistratus. By a transfer to the brilliant tyrant
of a victory in the Olympic chariot-race, he, however, propitiated
Pisistratus, and returned to Athens.
Full of years, and in the serene enjoyment of power, Pisistratus died
(B.C. 527). His character may already be gathered from his actions:
crafty in the pursuit of power, but magnanimous in its possession,
we have only, with some qualification, to repeat the eulogium on him
ascribed to his greater kinsman Solon--“That he was the best of tyrants,
and without a vice save that of ambition.”[b]
THE VIRTUES OF PISISTRATUS’ RULE
Pisistratus was far from overturning the constitution of Athens; rather
did Solon’s ordinances remain in full force under him. The reasonable
and necessary progress of development in the state which lay at the
root of the movement which produced Greek tyrannies, had been in every
way provided for by Solon, and consequently wise and temperate tyrants
might govern in accordance with the Solonian laws. Pisistratus honoured
the memory of his relative, with whose ideas their former intercourse
had made him familiar, and he therefore fostered and forwarded his
instructions, so far as they were consistent with his own supremacy. He
himself submitted to the laws, and is said to have appeared in person
before the Areopagus, to justify himself against a complaint, so that on
the whole his government greatly contributed to accustom the Athenians
to the laws. It must be confessed, however, that he raised the money
which he required for the maintenance of his troops, as well as for the
buildings and public festivals, by the mere right of tyranny, and by
levying a tenth on the real estate of the citizens.
His new measures and dispositions also exhibited the character of a wise
moderation, and were in harmony with Solon. Thus he insisted on the
obligation of the commonwealth to care for those who were wounded in
the wars, as well as for the families of such as had fallen in battle.
He especially took upon himself the charge of public morality, the
fostering of those good manners which consist in the respect of youth
for age and in reverence towards sacred things. He promulgated a law
against idle loitering about the streets, and, although he had himself
risen to greatness in the market through the agency of the people who had
come in from the country, still he regarded the increasing mass of the
townsfolk with anxiety. For this reason he sought to oppose a barrier
to the tendency to constitute the life of a great city, which prevailed
amongst the Ionic races, and following the precedent of Periander and
the Orthagoridæ, he made entry into the capital more difficult. He
endeavoured to raise the peasant class, which Solon had rescued, and to
encourage the taste for agriculture.
With these important dispositions, whose spirit was pre-eminently that
of Hipparchus to whom the whole civilisation of the country was so
much indebted, were also connected the great aqueducts which brought
the drinking-water from the mountains to the capital through rocky
underground conduits. That these canals might be inspected and cleaned
in every part, shafts were cut through the rock at stated intervals,
and thus light and air were introduced into the dark channels. On the
outskirts of the town the inflowing water was collected in great rock
basins, where it clarified before disseminating itself into the town and
feeding the public fountains. These wonderful works have continued in a
state of efficiency down to our own day.
Pisistratus governed Athens, but he bore no sovereign title, on the
strength of which to lay claim to unlimited supremacy. He had, in truth,
grounded his rule on force; he retained in his service a standing
army, which, dependent on him alone and uncontrolled by the vote of
the citizens, could be all the more crushingly opposed to any attempt
at a rising, since the greater part of the citizens were unarmed, the
townsfolk diminished in number, and the public interest, from political
circumstances, directed partly to rural economy, partly to the new town
institutions. The order of the officers of state remained unaltered, only
that one of them was always in the hands of a member of Pisistratus’
family, in which he managed to suppress every sign of disunion with great
skill, so that to the people the ruling house appeared united in itself
and animated by but one spirit. In this sense men spoke of the government
of the Pisistratidæ, and could not refuse recognition to the manifold
gifts which distinguished the house.
It was a wise counsel which the old state organisers gave the tyrants,
that they should bestow on their rule as much as possible the character
of ancient royalty, so that the usurping origin of their power might be
forgotten. Thus Pisistratus did not, like the Cypselidæ and Orthagoridæ,
desire to break with the past of the state, but rather to connect
himself closely with the ancient and glorious history of the country, so
that after all the evil which the party government of the nobility had
brought on Attica, she might be restored the blessing of a united rule.
Standing superior to the parties, as a relative to the ancient royal
house, he believed himself especially chosen to accomplish this end. With
this view, he lived on the citadel, near the altar of Zeus Herceios,
the family hearth of the ancient princes of the country, watching over
the turbulent citizens from the summit of the rock, which, before the
building of the Propylæa, was still more inaccessible than afterwards.
The very position of his dwelling must have drawn him into a close
relation with the goddess of the citadel and her priesthood.
The public life of the Athenians was awakened and transformed in every
direction. Athens became a new town within and without. With her new
highways and military roads, her town squares, gymnasia, fountains and
aqueducts, her new altars, temples and temple festivals, she stood out
prominently from the crowd of Greek towns, and the Pisistratidæ neglected
nothing which might contribute to lend her new importance by means of
numerous alliances with the islands and shores of the Ægean Sea.
To this end, it was not enough that the Athenians ruled in Delos, Naxos,
and at the Hellespont, but they must also appropriate to themselves the
intellectual treasures of the further coasts where the Hellenic spirit
showed itself at its best, and thus enrich their own life. For this
purpose Solon had already introduced the Homeric rhapsodies into Athens,
and ordained their public recitation at the festivals. Pisistratus joined
in these efforts, with a full appreciation of the importance of the
matter, though not with the disinterestedness of the Solonian love for
art, but designedly, and for his own advantage. For he ministered at once
to the fame of his ancestors and the splendour of his house.
These songs had hitherto been passed down by word of mouth, and the
noblest abilities of the nation had been dedicated to the preservation
of this national treasure in widely disseminated schools of bards.
Nevertheless, even with the utmost power of memory, it was unavoidable
that all kinds of confusion should be introduced into the tradition, that
the original should be disfigured, what was authentic be lost, spurious
matter creep in, and the whole, the most important collection possessed
by the Hellenic people, fall to pieces. The danger became the more
threatening, the higher rose the turbulence of the times, and the more
the individual states deviated in special directions and the interests
of modern times gained primary importance. It became, therefore, a state
obligation to meet this danger, and to take in hand the task which
individual ability had not succeeded in accomplishing; and the state was
all the more concerned in the matter since the recital of the Homeric
poems had been prescribed in the ordinances for the public festivals.
It is to the great merit of Pisistratus to have clearly recognised that
nothing could create for the Athenians a greater and more lasting renown
than could be achieved by assuming this task. He therefore summoned a
number of learned men, and commissioned them to collect and compare the
texts of the rhapsodies, to cut out what did not belong, to unite what
was scattered, and fix the Homeric epos as a whole, a great record of
national life, in a standard form. Thus Onomacritus the Athenian, Zopyras
of Heraclea, and Orpheus of Croton worked under the superintendence of
the regent; they formed a scientific commission, which had an extensive
sphere of labour; for not only were the _Odyssey_ and _Iliad_ revised,
but also that later epos, that is to say the poetic writings of the
so-called “cyclic poets,” which had come into existence as a sequel
supplementary to the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_, together with the whole
treasure of the Ionic epos, which was united under the name of Homer,
besides Hesiod and the religious poems. Pisistratus took a personal
interest in the work, and even here we can trace the character of a
tyranny in that alterations, omissions, and interpolations were made
according to his taste or policy. Thus, for example, in the catalogue of
ships the Salaminians were ranged among the Athenian levies, in order to
supply a traditional authority for an ancient claim of Athens.
The end and aim of the proceeding was completely attained. The most
important branch of the poetic art, which had developed amongst the
Hellenes, namely, the epic of the Ionic and Bœotian schools, was
transplanted to Athens. Here for the first time a Hellenic philology was
founded: for, in the work of collecting, the critical faculty was first
awakened, since the collecting involved the distinction of genuine from
spurious, ancient from modern, and, though the scientific performance
as such could not bear a very close scrutiny, yet still the treasure of
the Homeric poems received from the Athenians the first appreciation of
its national significance, and it was now that writing was for the first
time employed to secure an irreplaceable national possession against the
dangers of a merely verbal tradition. The poems were not, however, by any
means alienated from ordinary life, but were raised to a higher position
in the festivals of the town and the education of the young. The city
of Pisistratus acquired an authoritative reputation in the domain of
national poetry; through him a Homer and Hesiod came into existence which
could be read in the same form to the ends of the Greek world.
The collection and investigation went back beyond Homer to the most
ancient sources of Hellenic theology, of which the Thracian Orpheus was
regarded as the founder, and which Onomacritus now worked up into a new
system of mystic wisdom, while at the same time it was utilised to give
enhanced importance to the favourite cult of the dynasty, the worship of
Dionysus. With it was joined the collection of oracular sayings, upon
which the Pisistratidæ placed a special value, as well as the arrangement
of the historical records, especially the genealogies.
Thus Athens became a centre of scientific learning and labour. If any one
wished to gain a sight of any poem worthy of remembrance which had been
written in the Hellenic tongue, or of anything concerning the knowledge
of the gods and of ethics which had been thought out by the ancients and
handed down by tradition from former times, he must journey to Athens.
Here, on the citadel of Pisistratus, the whole treasure was united; here
the works of the nation’s poets and wise men were collected together,
carefully inscribed in rolls, well arranged, and suitably disposed.
Yet it was not enough to garner what remained from ancient times; there
was also a desire to encourage living art and to have its masters in
Athens, and specially those in the lyric art, which had succeeded the
epic, and during the age of the tyrants was in full vigour. The lyric
poets were especially qualified to enhance the brilliance of courts, and
to ennoble their feasts, and were consequently summoned from one place
to another. Thus the Pisistratidæ sent out their state ships to fetch
Anacreon of Teos, the joyous poet and comrade of Polycrates, to Athens,
and thus Simonides of Ceos and Lasus of Hermione dwelt at the tyrant’s
Court of the Muses.
But quite new germs of national poetry were also unfolded under them
and by their means. For they were already the fosterers of the worship
of Dionysus [or Bacchus], and at the latter’s festivals were developed
not only the choral dance and choral song of the Dithyrambus, which
Arion had invented and Lasus further improved, but mimic representations
were added to them, in which masked choruses appeared, and singers who
assumed a rule opposite the choruses, spoke to the latter and conducted
conversations with them. Thus an action, a drama, developed itself, and
after the thing had been invented it was freed from the bacchanalian
material and changed in contents as in masks; the whole cycle of heroic
legends was gradually drawn on for dramatic treatment, and the founder of
this Dionysian play was Thespis of Icaria.
Thus the Pisistratidæ collected the after-echoes of the epic, fostered
the existing art of song in its full blossom, and called forth by their
patronage a new and genuinely Attic branch of national art, that drama
which united both lyric and epic. Besides this the best architects,
Antistates, Callicrates, Antimachides, Porinus, and sculptors were busily
employed on the Olympieum and Hecatompedon, and the best experts of their
time at the great hydraulic constructions. The most eminent men of all
faculties learnt to know each other and interchanged their experiences.
But there was also no lack of friction and mutual jealousy, and Lasus did
not shrink from publicly reproaching Onomacritus, who had attempted to
serve his master by means of forged oracles, with abuse of the princely
confidence, and thus to bring about his banishment.
Under such conditions, where everything depended on the ambitious whims
of a self-seeking ruling family, how could it fail to happen that many
underhand transactions should take place? Even in the arrangement of the
Orphic teachings, the traces of wilful forgery were brought home to the
sycophantic Onomacritus. Nevertheless the reputation of the Pisistratidæ
still remains that of extreme integrity. They clearly recognised the
vocation of Athens to unite and cultivate everything that was of national
importance, and within a short time and by incredible industry they
attained results which have never been effaced.
To the regent himself indeed, no more than to other tyrants was granted
the peaceful enjoyment of his success; he continually felt that he trod
on the brink of a volcano. Every popular commotion, every aspiring
family, every unwonted stroke of fortune attained by an Athenian was pain
and grief to him.
This is shown by the petty and superstitious means, which this powerful
man employed to quiet his mind. He allowed himself to be pleased when
Athenians who had conquered at Olympia caused the name of Pisistratus
to be called out instead of their own, as was done by Cimon, called
Coalemos, the half-brother of Miltiades, on the occasion of his second
triumph (Ol. 63; 528 B.C.), when in recognition of this loyalty he was
recalled from banishment. With anxious care inquiries were ceaselessly
made after sayings of the gods which might give security of a long
duration for the dynasty; and since the tyrant, being himself envious
and jealous, felt that he was continually beset by the malevolence of
strangers, he had the image of a locust fastened to the wall of his
princely citadel, to serve as a defence against the evil glance of envy.
Yet in advanced years, Pisistratus might confidently expect that his son
and grandson, who were both gifted with talent for rule and took part in
the government under him, would remain true to his policy to preserve
the dynasty to which Athens was so much indebted at home and abroad. In
this hope he died at a great age, surrounded by his family. (Ol. 63,
527 B.C.). Hippias succeeded to the power of the tyranny, in accordance
with his father’s will; and the brothers, as they had promised their
father, stood firmly by one another. To the gentle and refined Hipparchus
there was no hardship in being second; he employed his position for the
exercise of the peaceful side of power.[d]
FOOTNOTES
[16] The procession of the goddess of Reason in the first French
Revolution solves the difficulty that perplexed Herodotus.
[Illustration]