Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/97

 CONSPIRACY OF KYLON. gl measure offences by a different scale ; and even to Solon, whc bad to calm the wrath of a suffering people in actual mutiny. That under this eupatrid oligarchy and severe legislation the people of Attica were sufficiently miserable, we shall presently see, when I recount the proceedings of Solon : but the age of democracy had not yet begun, and the government received its first shock from the hands of an ambitious eupatrid who aspired to the despotism. Such was the phase, as has been remarked in the preceding chapter, through which, during the century now under consideration, a large proportion of the Grecian govern- ments passed. Kylon, an Athenian patrician, who superadded to a great family position the personal celebrity of a victory at Olympia, as runner in the double stadium, conceived the design of seizing the acropolis and constituting himself despot. Whether any spe- cial event had occurred at home to stimulate this project, we do not know : but he obtained both encouragement and valuable aid from his father-in-law Theagenes of Megara, who, by means of his popularity with the people, had already subverted the Mega- rian oligarchy, and become despot of his native city. Previous to so hazardous an attempt, however, Kylon consulted the Del- phian oracle, and was advised by the god in reply, to take the opportunity of " the greatest festival of Zeus " for seizing the acropolis. Such expressions, in the natural interpretation put upon them by every Greek, designated the Olympic games in Pel- oponnesus, to Kylon, moreover himself an Olympic victor, that interpretation came recommended by an apparent peculiar pro- priety. But Thucydides, not indifferent to the credit of the oracle, reminds his readers that no question was asked nor any express direction given, where the intended " greatest festival of Zeus " was to be sought, whether in Attica or elsewhere, and that the public festival of the Diasia, celebrated periodically and solemnly in the neighborhood of Athens, was also denominated the " great- est festival of Zeus Meilichius." Probably no such exegetical eniples presented themselves to any one, until after the misera- ble failure of the conspiracy ; least of all to Kylon himself, who, at the recurrence of the next ensuing Olympic games, put him- self at the head of a force, partly furnished by Theagenes, parti; VOL. in. 4 Coc.