Pisistratus had the reputation of being an extreme democrat, and he
also had distinguished himself greatly in the war with Megara. Taking
advantage of this, he wounded himself, and by representing that his
injuries had been inflicted on him by his political rivals, he
persuaded the people, through a motion proposed by Aristion, to grant
him a bodyguard. After he had got these 'club-bearers', as they were
called, he made an attack with them on the people and seized the
Acropolis. This happened in the archonship of Comeas, thirty-one years
after the legislation of Solon. It is related that, when Pisistratus
asked for his bodyguard, Solon opposed the request, and declared that
in so doing he proved himself wiser than half the people and braver
than the rest,--wiser than those who did not see that Pisistratus
designed to make himself tyrant, and braver than those who saw it and
kept silence. But when all his words availed nothing he carried forth
his armour and set it up in front of his house, saying that he had
helped his country so far as lay in his power (he was already a very
old man), and that he called on all others to do the same. Solon's
exhortations, however, proved fruitless, and Pisistratus assumed the
sovereignty. His administration was more like a constitutional
government than the rule of a tyrant; but before his power was firmly
established, the adherents of Megacles and Lycurgus made a coalition
and drove him out. This took place in the archonship of Hegesias, five
years after the first establishment of his rule. Eleven years later
Megacles, being in difficulties in a party struggle, again opened
negotiations with Pisistratus, proposing that the latter should marry
his daughter; and on these terms he brought him back to Athens, by a
very primitive and simple-minded device. He first spread abroad a
rumour that Athens was bringing back Pisistratus, and then, having
found a woman of great stature and beauty, named Phye (according to
Herodotus, of the deme of Paeania, but as others say a Thracian
flower-seller of the deme of Collytus), he dressed her in a garb
resembling that of the goddess and brought her into the city with
Pisistratus. The latter drove in on a chariot with the woman beside
him, and the inhabitants of the city, struck with awe, received him
with adoration.