THE LAST KING OF ATHENS
You remember how Cecrops came to Attica and built a city so beautiful
that the gods marvelled, and how Athene made the first olive-tree and
was therefore awarded the honour of naming the city and becoming its
patron. The olive-tree was now said to grow on a rock in the stronghold
or Acropolis of the city.
In ancient days Sparta was a more important city than the beautiful one
built by Cecrops, but little by little, as the years passed, Athens
became supreme in Greece and the most glorious city of the world.
At first Athens, like Sparta and the other States, was governed by
kings. But while Sparta continued to be a monarchy, Athens became an
oligarchy--that is, she was governed by a few, and these few were
nobles.
When Codrus, the last king of Athens, was on the throne, the State was
invaded by the Dorians. An oracle had declared that unless the Athenian
king was slain in the camp of the enemy, Athens would be taken.
Codrus loved his city and determined to save it from the enemy. So he
disguised himself as a peasant and went to the camp of the Dorians,
where he killed the first soldier he met. The comrades of the dead man
at once fell upon Codrus and, as he had hoped, he was speedily slain.
Then as the oracle had foretold Athens was saved from the enemy.
The Athenians resolved that they would no longer have kings to rule
over them, because they were sure that they could never find any worthy
to follow Codrus who had died for the sake of his country. This seems
a strange reason for which to overturn the monarchy. In most countries
it is the bad conduct of their kings which makes the people wish to get
rid of them.
As Athens would not have another king, the son of Codrus was given
neither the power nor the title of royalty. He was named merely archon,
or ruler. An archon ruled only for ten years.
Soon the Athenians determined to choose nine archons each year, for
they thought it would be well to divide the power among these men
rather than entrust it to one ruler.
The archons were obliged to consult a council of nobles before they
made a new law, while the council had to lay their plans before the
assembly of the people.
In this way Athens became before long an oligarchy governed by a few
nobles. The nobles often proved harsh rulers, taking from the people
the rights that had been theirs when Athens was a monarchy.
At length the people grew so angry that they determined to destroy the
nobles who treated them so cruelly. But as they were helpless without
a leader, they were glad to follow any ambitious noble who would place
himself at their head and lead them to fight against their oppressors.
Too often the deliverer seized the supreme power himself and oppressed
the people more than had the oligarch.
The usurper was called by the Greeks a tyrant. But the word tyrant did
not mean to them, as it means to us, a cruel man. It meant simply one
who had seized a power to which he had no real right.
Some of the tyrants were cruel, but others used the power which they
had seized for the good of the State.
The years 700 B.C. to 500 B.C. are known as the Age of the Tyrants,
because there were few States, save Sparta, which did not fall under
the power of a tyrant during those years.
Often the people learned to hate a tyrant as greatly as they had hated
the nobles under whose harsh treatment they had groaned. But it was
not easy to get rid of him, for he usually had hired soldiers to help
him to keep the citizens from rebelling. One of the wisest and best of
the tyrants was named Pisistratus, and he was a cousin of Solon, the
great lawgiver of Athens.
Solon was not a tyrant, although had he wished he might have become
one.