Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/140

Rh 130 P I S P I S writers, indeed, considered the Pisidians as the same people with the Milyans, while others regarded them as descendants of the Solymi, but Strabo speaks of the language of the Pisidians as distinct from that of the Solymi, as well as from that of the Lydians. The whole of Pisidia is an elevated region of tablelands or upland valleys in the midst of the ranges of Mount Taurus which descends abruptly on the side of Pamphylia. It contains several small lakes, but the only one of any importance is that now called the Egerdin Gol, of which the ancient name has not been preserved. It is a fresh-water lake of about 30 miles in length, situated in the north of Pisidia on the frontier of Phrygia, at an elevation of 2800 feet above the sea. The only rivers of any importance are the Oestrus and the Eurymedon, both of which take their rise in the highest ranges of Mount Taurus, and flow down through deep and narrow valleys to the plain of Pamphylia, which they traverse on their way to the sea. Notwithstanding its rugged and mountainous character, Pisidia contained in ancient times several considerable towns, the ruins of which have been brought to light by the researches of recent travellers (Arundell, Hamilton, Daniell), and show them to have attained under the Roman empire to a degree of opulence and prosperity far beyond what we should have looked for in a country of predatory mountaineers. The most important of them are Termessus, near the frontier of Lycia, a strong fortress in a position of great natural strength and commanding one of the principal passes into Pamphylia; Cremna, another mountain fortress, north of the preceding, impending over the valley of the Oestrus ; Sagalassus, a little farther north, a large town in a strong position, the ruins of which are among the most remarkable in Asia Minor; Selge, on the right bank of the Eurymedon, surrounded by rugged mountains, notwithstanding which it was in Strabo s time a large and opulent city ; and Antioch, known for dis tinction s sake as Antioch in Pisidia, and celebrated for the visit of St Paul. This was situated in the extreme north-east of the district immediately on the frontier of Phrygia, between Lake Egerdin and the range of the Sultan Dagh. Besides these there were situated in the rugged mountain tract west of the Oestrus Cretopolis, Olba or Olbasa, Pogla, Isinda, Etenna, and Conana. Pednelissus was in the upper valley of the Eurymedon above Selge. The only place in the district at the present day deserving to be called a town is Isbarta, the residence of a pasha ; it stands at the northern foot of Mount Taurus, looking over the great plain which extends from thence into Phrygia. North of this and immediately on the borders of Phrygia stood Apollonia, called also Mor- diseum. Several other towns are assigned to Pisidia by Strabo, Pliny, and Ptolemy, of which the sites have not yet been determined. We have no clue to the ethnic character and relations of the Pisidians, except that we learn from Strabo that they were distinct from the neighbouring Solymi, who were probably a Semitic race, but we find mention at an early period in these mountain districts of various other tribes, as the Cabali, Milyans, &c., of all which, as well as the neighbouring Isaurians and Lycaonians, the origin is wholly unknown, and in the absence of monuments of their language must, in all probability, ever remain so. PISISTRATUS, citizen and afterwards tyrant of Athens, was the son of Hippocrates, through whom he traced his pedigree to Neleus and Nestor, princes of Messene in the Heroic Age. A branch of the family had reigned at Athens in the persons of Codrus and his descendants. Pisistratus was second cousin to Solon, their mothers having been cousins, and the early friendship between the two men was not entirely broken off even by the wide political differences which separated them in later life. Pisistratus, who was much junior to Solon, was born about COS B.C. In his youth there was a keen rivalry between Athens and Megara, and Pisistratus as general of Athens contrived by stratagem to defeat the Megarians and capture their port Nisaia (perhaps 570 or a little later). 1 But Pisistratus was ambitious of more than military triumphs, and in the internal condition of Attica he discerned the road to power. The constitution which Solon had given to Athens a few years before (594 B.C.) was too moderate to satisfy either of the extreme parties. The wealthy nobles chafed at the political rights granted to the lower classes, while the poor were dissatis fied with what they regarded as merely a half measure of relief. The nobles themselves were divided into the parties known as the Plain (Pedieis) and the Coast (Paraloi), the former inhabiting the western lowlands of Attica, the latter the level districts on the southern and eastern coasts. 2 The former were led by the noble Lycurgus, the latter by Megacles, of the proud house of the Alcnueonidae. Pisistratus took advantage of their dissensions to form a third political party out of the men of the Mountain (Diacreis or Diacrioi), the poor cottars and shepherds of the eastern and northern hills, among whom his own estates lay. He easily won the affection of these simple Highlanders. His manners were captivat ing, his good humour imperturbable ; his purse was ever at the service of the needy ; his fields and gardens stood open for their enjoyment. Equality and fraternity, together with the maintenance of the constitution, were the watch words of this eloquent and handsome aristocrat, the people s friend. But his easy and affable deportment hid a boundless ambition. Solon detected his schemes, and warned the people against him, but in vain. One day, not long after a violent dispute with Megacles in the public assembly, Pisistratus drove into the market-place, himself and his mules bleeding from wounds which he had inflicted with his own hand, but which he pretended to have received from his political enemies. The indignant people decreed a guard for the protection of their cham pion. Of this guard the champion soon availed himself in order to seize the Acropolis and make himself master of Athens (560). Megacles and the Alcmaionidae fled, but Solon remained and continued to lift his voice against the usurper, who, however, treated the old man with the utmost deference, as a valued friend and counsellor. Solon did not long survive his country s freedom ; he died in the next year (559). The government of Pisistratus was marked by great moderation ; he maintained the existing laws, to which he exacted obedience from all, and set the example of it himself. Being once accused of 1 Herod., i. 59; Justin, ii. 8; Frontinus, iv. 7, 44. Other writers (Polyoenus, i. 20; Julian, Var. Hist., vii. 19) erroneously attribute the stratagem to Solon, and refer it to the expedition in which Solon recovered Salamis. Plutarch (Solon, 8) falls into this mistake, and adds to it the blunder of representing Pisistratus as having taken part in the expedition, which happened about 600 B.C. The two events (Solon s conquest of Salamis and Pisistratus s capture of Salamis) are distinguished by Justin (ii. 7, 8), and after him by Duucker (Gesch. des Altcrthums, vi. pp. 145, 244) and others, but they are confused by Thirlwall and Grote. From Plutarch (Solcn, 8, 9) we may infer that the confusion arose in popular tradition. The account of the stratagem itself in the Greek writers Plutarch and Polysenus differs somewhat from that in the Latin writers Justin and Frontinus. Julian follows (with some variations) the latter account. 2 The difference between the Pedieis and the Paraloi seems to have been of the nature of a local feud between two ancient districts of Attica (Schol. on Aristoph., Lys., 58 ; Strabo, ix. p. 392 ; Steph. Byz., s.w. AidKpia, Hdpaos, irfSiov ; Suidas, s.v. Ildpaoi) rather than a disagreement between two political parties. It is true that Plutarch (Solon, 13) represents the Paraloi as a moderate political party, inter mediate between the Pedieis (oligarchs) and the Diacrioi (democrats), but this has the appearance of being a mere conjecture of his own. His view is, however, accepted by Curtius and Duncktr.