Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/99

Rh Pisistratus retained power till his death in B.C. 527, he found it necessary to disarm the citizens. His son, Hippias, carried on for some years the tradition of good government. But his brother, Hipparchus, who seems to have acted as his second in command, was assassinated as he was marshalling the Panathenaic procession by Harmodius and Aristogeiton. Owing to a private grievance Hipparchus, who seems to have been haughty as well as dissolute, had inflicted a public insult on Harmodius by rejecting his sister from the chorus of maidens who formed part of the procession. Aristogeiton adopted his friend's quarrel, and both joined in the assassination (B.C. 514). Both lost their lives, but were regarded throughout Athenian history as the martyrs of liberty. Their statues stood in the agora among those of the national heroes, and their descendants enjoyed perpetual exemption from State burdens. This event changed the character of Hippias. He grew suspicious of all around him, and not only put many of the citizens to death on various pretexts, but surrounded himself with armed guards, and looked out for support from abroad, hiring mercenary troops, and making personal alliances with other tyrants, and probably with the Persian Satraps in Asia. He regarded Sigeium—the one Asiatic possession of Athens—as the private property of his family, and placed one of his brothers in command of it. These measures, and especially the hiring of troops, must have involved fresh taxation and confiscations, which added to the resentment of the people, who had al reach' been annoyed by the insolence of