Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/182

Rh UO PEISISTRATUS. into the country. The indignation of his friends was excited ; an assembly was forthwith called, in which Ariston, one of his partisans, proposed that a body-guard of fifty citizens, armed with clubs, should be granted to Peisistratus. It was in vain that Solon opposed this ; the guard was granted. Through the neglect or connivance of the people Peisistratus took this opportunity of raising a much hirger force, with which he seized the citadel B. c. 560. (Plut. Sol. 30 ; Herod, i. 5.9 ; Aristot. Fol. V. 10 ; Diog. Laert. i. 66 ; Polyaen. i. 21. § 3.) A similar stratagem had been practised by Thea- genes of Megara, and was afterwards imitated by Dionysius (Diod. xiii. 97). Megacles and the Alcmaeonidae took to flight. Solon, after another ineffectual attempt to rouse the citizens against the usurper, placed his arms in the street before his door, saying that he had done his utmost to defend his country and its laws. Peisistratus, having secured to himself the substance of power, made no further change in the constitution, or in the laws, which he administered ably and well. The first usurpation of Peisistratus lasted but a short time (Herod, i. 60 p-era oil iroXXov XPovov — ii,eavvov(ri jxiv). Before his power was firmly rooted, the factions headed by Megacles and Ly- curgus combined, and Peisistratus was compelled to evacuate Athens. As, on his second expulsion, we are distinctly told (Herod, i. 61) that he quitted Attica, the presumption is, that on the first occasion he did not. His property was confiscated and sold by auction, when the only man who ven- tured to purchase it was Callias, the son of Hip- ponicus (Herod, vi. 121). How Peisistratus em- ployed himself during his banishment, which lasted about six years, we do not know. Meantime, the factions of Megacles and Lycurgns, having accom- plished their immediate object, revived their old feuds, and Megacles, finding himself the weaker of the two, made overtures to Peisistratus, offering to reinstjite him in the tyranny, if he would connect himself with him by receiving his daughter Coe- syra (Suidas s. v. eyKeKoiavpufUu-qv) in marriage. The proposal was accepted by Peisistratus, and the following stratagem was devised for accomplishing (as Herodotus supposes) his restoration. In what was afterwards the deme Paeonia, they found a damsel named Phya, of remarkable stature and beauty (according to Athenaeus xiii. p. 609, a gar- land seller, the daughter of a man named Socrates). This woman they dressed up as Athene in a full suit of armour, and placed in a chariot, with Peisi- stratus by her side, instnicting her how she was to maintain a suitable carriage. The chariot was then driven towards the city, heralds being sent on before to announce that Athene in person was bringing back Peisistratus to her Acropolis. The report spread rapidly, and those in the city be- lieving that the woman was really their tutelary goddess, worshipped her, and admitted Peisistratus. (Herod, i. 60 ; Polyaen. Strateg. i. 21. § 1, where there is a good deal of blundering). "This story," remarks Bishop Thirlwall {Hist, of Greece, vol. ii. p. GO), " would indeed be singular, if we consider the expedient in the light of a stratagem, on which the confederates relied for overcoming the resistance which they might otherwise have expected from their adversaries. But it seems quite as likely that the pageant was only designed to add extra- ordinary solemnity to the entrance of Peisistratus, and. to suggest the reflection, that it was by the PEISISTRATUS. especial favour of heaven that he had been bo un- expectedly restored." It is said that Phya was given in marriage to Hipparchus (A then. /. c). Peisistratus nominally performed his part of the contract with Megacles ; but not choosing to have children by one of a family which was accounted accursed, treated his wife in the most odiou« manner. She complained to her mother of the in- dignity to which she was exposed ; and Megacles and the Alcmaeonidae, incensed at the affront, again made common cause with Lycurgus, and Peisistratus was a second time compelled to evacuate Athens (Herod, i. 61). This time he left Attica, and retired to Eretria in Euboea. (The very ex- traordinary statement in Eusebius, Chron. Olymp. 54. 3, and Hieronymus, that Peisistratus went into Italy, is doubtless a blunder. Vater con- jectures that the name Italy has been substituted by mistake for that of some place in Attica, perhaps Icaria, and that the statement refers to the first exile of Peisistratus.) His property was again offered for sale (okojs e/CTrtcroi, Herod, vi. 121), and again Callias, who had been one of his most active opponents, was the only purchaser. On reaching Eretria Peisistratus deliberated with his sons as to the course he should pursue. The advice of Hippias, that he should make a fresh attempt to regain his power, was adopted. Contributions were solicited from the cities which were in his interest. Several furnished him with large sums. Thebes especially surpassed all the rest in the amount of money which she placed at his disposal. With the funds thus raised he pro- cured mercenaries from Argos. Ten years elapsed before his preparations were complete. At last, however, with the forces which he had raised, a Naxian named Lygdamis having also of his own accord brought him both money and a body of troops, he crossed into Attica, and landed at Ma- rathon. Here his friends and partisans flocked to his standard. His antagonists, who had viewed his proceedings with great indifference, when they heard that he was advancing upon Athens hastily marched out to meet him. The two armies en- camped not far from each other, near the temple of Athene at Pallene, and Peisistratus, seizing the opportunity with which the remissness of his anta- gonists furnished him, and encouraged by the sooth- sayer Amphilytus of Acharnae, fell suddenly upon their forces at noon, when, not expecting any thing of the kind, the men had betaken themselves after their meal to sleep or play, and speedily put them to flight. He then, with equal wisdom and mode- ration, refrained from pursuing the fugitives with his troops, but sent forward his sons on horseback, who, having overtaken the flying Athenians, told them they had nothing to fear if they would dis- perse quietly to their homes. The majority obeyed these directions, and Peisistratus entered Athens without opposition (Herod, i. 61 — 63 ; Polyaen. Stmt. i. 21. § 1. The account of the latter, how- ever, is full of blunders). Lygdamis was rewarded for his zealous co-operation by being established as tyrant of Naxos, which island Peisistratus con- quered. [LyGDAMIvS.] Having now become tyrant of Athens for the third time*, Peisistratus adopted measures to secure to the chronology of Peisistratus. The dates of his usurpation and death may be fixed with tole-
 * There is a good deal of difficulty with regard