which fills just one-half of the century preceding the battle of Marathon. The despotism of Pisistratus and his son Hippias, extends, with certain intervals of exile, from 560 to 510 B.C.(19) In the first of those years, Pisistratus obtained a bodyguard by the wellknown stratagem of self-wounding, which imposed upon his countrymen, and with the assistance of his bodyguard he afterwards seized the Acropolis.(50) At a later date he recovered the supreme power by the equally successful stratagem of the personation of Minerva ;(1) he died in 527 B.C., and his eldest son Hippias succeeded to his power. In 514 B.C., the celebrated attempt of Harmodius and Aristogiton took place, which resulted in the death of Hipparchus, the younger brother of Hippias ; in 510 B.C. Hippias was ejected by the Lacedæmonians, and the Pisistratic dynasty came to an end. The ten years which ensued between the expulsion of the Pisistratidæ, and the commencement of the Ionic revolt, were marked by the party contests of Clisthenes and Isagoras, the remodelling of the Athenian tribes by Clisthenes, the interference of Cleomenes at Athens, at the instigation of Isagoras, and its defeat by the popular party; the demand of Cleomenes for the banishment of the Alemæonidæ, as being under a curse; his subsequent expedition against Athens, and its failure; and the Peloponnesian congress assembled at Sparta to decide upon the restoration of Hippias.(52)

The whole of this period is within eighty years before the birth of Herodotus, and we may reasonably assume that he would have been able, at Athens, to collect oral traditions concerning it which rested on a historical basis. The transactions

(49) Obscure as is the history of Pisistratus, I still believe that we may assume the chronological dates of his reign and that of his sons to be certain, while the details of his history are problematical. The history of the Pisistratids is very much like many portions of Roman history, where the most minute narrative sare for the most part unhistorical, while the indefinite statements are more correct;' Niebuhr, ib. p. 291.

(50) Herod. i. 59. Solon is supposed to have said that this act of Pisistratus was owing to Thespis, who had set the bad example of scenic representation; Diog. Laert. i. § 60.

(51) Herod. ib. 60.

(52) Herod. v. 66-91.

subsequent to the expulsion of Hippias were comparatively recent, and no doubt need be entertained as to the narrative of them in Herodotus being substantially veracious. His account of the rule of Pisistratus is brief, as the memory of it had doubtless grown faint in his time; but the two contrivances by which Pisistratus had acquired and recovered his power had doubtless, from their singularity, retained a hold on the public memory, and been in the main faithfully handed down by oral tradition.

A detailed account of the conspiracy of Harmodius and Aristogiton, which ended only in the assassination of Hipparchus, at the cost of their own lives, is introduced as an episode by Thucydides, on the occasion of the alarm caused by the mutilation of the Mercuries, in 415 B.C. The people (he says) knowing by tradition that the despotism of Pisistratus and his sons had been severe at its conclusion, and moreover that it had been overthrown, not by themselves and Harmodius, but by the Lacedæmonians, were in a state of constant fear, and viewed everything with suspicion.'(53) This narrative is principally introduced for the purpose of correcting a popular error which had gained prevalence among the Athenians; namely, that Hipparchus, and not Hippias, was the eldest son of Pisistratus, and that he was despot at the time when he was slain by Harmodius and Aristogiton. Thucydides affirms that he knew the truth on this matter from accurate information. (54) The celebrated attempt of Harmodius and Aristogiton preceded his own birth by forty-three years, and therefore it was barely within the memory of the preceding generation. Hermippus, a biographical writer, who flourished about 205 B.C., stated that Thucydides was connected with the family of Pisistratus;(55) if this statement was true, he may

(53) vi. 53.

(54) ὅτι δὲ πρεσβύτατος ὢν Ιππίας ἦρξεν, εἰδὼς μὲν καὶ ἀκοῇ ἀκριβέστερον alov ioxvpilopat, vi. 55. He here expressly asserts that his information was oral. This testimony of Thucydides respecting the seniority of Hippias is rejected upon insufficient grounds by Meursius, Pisistratus, c. 11. Concerning the passage of Heraclides, which appears to agree Thucydides, see Fragm. Hist. Gr. vol. ii. p. 208.

with

(55) Fragm. Hist. Gr. vol. iii. p. 48. Marcellinus, in the extant life,

have been assisted in his researches by family traditions. The interval of time was not sufficient to prevent his ascertaining the truth, and his account is confirmed by Herodotus, who designates Hippias as the despot, at the time his brother was slain, and says that he continued to hold the supreme power for four years after that event.(56)

The celebrity of the assassination of Hipparchus gave rise (as Thucydides remarks) to the belief that he, and not his brother, was the despot at the time of the event. (57) The popular scolion of the Athenians even represented the government of the Pisistratida to have been overthrown, and the democracy restored, by Harmodius and Aristogiton.(58) It is remarkable that not only Plato,(59) but Aristotle, the persistent enemy of popular errors, adopts this view;(60) whence it would seem to follow, that they

says that Thucydides was the son of Olorus, who was named from a king of Thrace, and Hegesipyle, and that he was a descendant of Miltiades. No connexion with the Pisistratida is indicated. Suidas, in v., states that Thucydides was descended from Miltiades on the father's side, and from Olorus, king of the Thracians, on the mother's.

(56) Herod. v. 55, 62. Hippias is called the successor of Pisistratus, in Athen. xiii. p. 609 D.

(57) Ἱππάρχῳ δὲ ξυνέβη τοῦ πάθους τῇ δυστυχίᾳ ὀνομασθέντα καὶ τὴν δόξαν τῆς τυραννίδος ἐς τὰ ἔπειτα προσλαβεῖν, vi. 55.

(58) Ap. Athen. xv. p. 695 A. See Schneidewin, Delec. Poes. Gr. p. 456. This song (which is older than Aristophanes, Lysist. 632), distinctly says that Hipparchus was a despot, and that Athens was restored to freedom. The epigram of Simonides, fragm. 187, ed. Schneidewin, cannot be understood as meaning that the Pisistratida were expelled by the act of Harmodius and Aristogiton. Simonides was not only a contemporary, but he was patronized by Hipparchus, and was his associate. See Plat. Hipparch. § 4, cited by Ælian, V. H. viii. 2. He must therefore have known the truth. Schneidewin supposes that this epigram was inscribed under statues erected in honour of the tyrannicides; which is not improbable.

(59) ἔργῳ δὲ τοῦτο ἔμαθον καὶ οἱ ἐνθάδε τύραννοι· ὁ γὰρ ̓Αριστογείτονος ἔρως καὶ ἡ ̓Αρμοδίου φιλία βέβαιος γενομένη κατέλυσεν αὐτῶν τὴν ἀρχήν, Sympos. § 9.

(60) μάλιστα δὲ συμβαίνει τοῖς θυμοῖς ἀκολουθεῖν διὰ τὴν ὕβριν, δι' ἣν αἰτίαν ἥ τε τῶν Πεισιστρατιδῶν κατελύθη τυραννὶς καὶ πολλαὶ τῶν ἄλλων, Pol. v. 10. Above, in the same chapter, he describes the motives of Harmodius and Aristogiton consistently with the account in Thucydides. Callisthenes, being asked by Philotas, whom the Athenians honoured most, answered, Harmodins and Aristogiton, ὅτι τὸν ἕτερον τοῖν τυράννοιν ἔκτειναν, Kai Tvρavvíða öri Karéλvoav, Arrian, Anab. iv. 10. Callisthenes was a kinsman and disciple of Aristotle.

were both unacquainted with the history of Thucydides.(1) The error which Thucydides attributes to the Athenians of his day does not go to this extent. He describes them as merely supposing that Hipparchus was the eldest son and successor of Pisistratus, and that, after the act of the tyrannicides, he was succeeded by Hippias. The author of the Platonic Dialogue of Hipparchus (which was at least a production of the Socratic school), says that Hipparchus was the eldest son of Pisistratus, that Hippias ruled after his death for three years, and that the despotism was during this latter time harsh and oppressive, whereas it had previously been distinguished by its mildness. (62) The belief that the despotism of the Pisistratidæ fell with Hipparchus implies not only an anachronism of four years, but also an ignorance of the series of transactions connected with the expulsion of Hippias by the Lacedæmonians, and the subsequent congress at Sparta, when the Lacedæmonians had repented of their act, and wished to bring about his restoration.(6) The error, however, of supposing that Hipparchus was the eldest son of Pisistratus, and that the rule of Hippias did not begin until his death (which is all that Thucydides seems to attribute to the Athenians), (4) is not very serious, when we consider that their knowledge of the events was not derived from books; and moreover, when we bear in mind that neither Pisistratus nor his sons assumed any official title or

(61) Aristotle mentions Herodotus in the Rhetoric and Poetic, and rectifies one of his physiological errors, in Hist. An. iii. 22; Gen. An. ii. 2. (Ηρόδωρος ὁ μυθολόγος is restored for Ηρόδοτος ὁ μυθολόγος, in Gen. An. iii. 5, by C. Müller, Fragm. Hist. Gr. vol. ii. p. 32); but he never alludes to Thucydides.

(62) Hipparch. § 4. Socrates says: пávтшv OV TV πаλαιv йкoνsaç öri ταῦτα μόνον τὰ ἔτη τυραννὶς ἐγένετο ἐν ̓Αθήναις, τὸν δ ̓ ἄλλον χρόνον ἐγγύς τι ἔζων 'Αθηναῖοι ὥσπερ ἐπὶ Κρόνου βασιλεύοντος.

(63) See Herod. v. 91-3; Thuc. i. 18, vi. 59. In the Lysistrata of Aristophanes (acted 411 B.C.), the Lacedæmonians boast that they liberated the Athenians from the yoke of Hippias; v. 1150-6.

(64) See i. 20, vi. 54. In vi. 53, he distinctly says that the Athenian people were aware that the despotism of the Pisistratida was overthrown by the Lacedæmonians and not by Harmodius. Thucydides does not state what Dio Chrysostom attributes to him, that the Athenians gave the highest honours to Harmodius and Aristogiton, for having liberated the city and killed the despot; Orat. xi. § 146, ed. Emper.

insignia, and that Hipparchus probably exercised a considerable power, notwithstanding his brother's seniority.(65)

An authentic reminiscence of the deed of Harmodius and Aristogiton was preserved in their statues which were erected in the Agora at Athens, after the expulsion of Hippias. These statues were carried off to Susa by Xerxes, thirty years afterwards, and were ultimately recovered and restored to the Athenians by Alexander the Great.(66)

The burning of the temple of Delphi, in 548 B.C., is an event which undoubtedly rests on good testimony. It appears to have been the result of accident, though it was also attributed to the Pisistratida; the Delphians collected funds for rebuilding the temple from all Greece, and Amasis, king of Egypt, even gave a contribution; but the Alcmæonidæ furnished important assistance by the sumptuous manner in which they executed the contract for its reconstruction. (67)

§ 8 If we cast our eyes over the corresponding period of Lacedæmonian history, we find that Anaxandrides and Ariston are the joint kings about 560 B.C., and that a war with Tegea is said to be brought in their time to a successful termination, owing to the transportation of the bones of Orestes to Sparta, in fulfilment of an oracle, of which a strange story is told by Herodotus.(6) This war had been begun in the time of the

(65) Thuc. vi. 54, states that they did not disturb the existing laws, but they took care that one of their family held one of the principal offices. Herod. v. 62-3, speaks of the Pisistratidæ as a body, after the death of Hipparchus. The Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 502, says: koivus dè távtes oi ПIεotorparidaι Túpavvo Xeyovтo. Diod. x. 39, says that Thessalus, the son of Pisistratus, declined all share in the despotism, and lived on terms of equality with the citizens: οἱ δὲ ἄλλοι, Ιππαρχος καὶ Ιππίας, βίαιοι καὶ χαλεποὶ καθεστῶτες ἐτυράννουν τῆς πόλεως. Herod. vii. 6, describes Hipparchus as expelling Onomacritus from Athens, for forging a prophecy of Musaus, as if he did it by his own authority. The story of Harmodius and Aristogiton is transferred to Phalaris, in Sicily, and its circumstances are completely altered, in Hygin. Fab. 257. p. 319.

(66) See above,

(67) Paus. x. 5, § 13; Herod. i. 50, ii. 180, v. 70, ed. Müller. Compare Grote, vol. iv. P: 160.

62; Philochor. fragm.

(68) i. 67-8. When Cimon took the island of Scyros, he removed the bones of Theseus to Athens, in obedience to the Delphic oracle; Plut. Thes. 36; Cimon, 8; Paus. iii. 3, § 7. This war, according to Mr. Clinton, had been concluded in 554 B.C.

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