DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.800#0089
74 A NVJENT A THKNH.
which could have heen successful only in rude and ignorant times.
He wounded himself and his mules, and in that state drove into the
agora or market-place, where he accused the Pediad, an opposite faction
consisting of the rich proprietors of the Attic plains, of having at-
tempted his life. The Athenians, moved by his state, and by the recol-
lection of what he had done for them in war, granted his request for a
guard, which at first consisted of only fifty citizens armed with clubs.
But their number he soon increased, and then seized the Acropolis. In
order to render himself still more secure, he disarmed the people by
the following stratagem. He convoked an armed assembly at the
Anaceium, or temple of the Dioscuri, where he addressed them in so
low a tone of voice, that they requested him to proceed to the Propy-
laeum, in order that all might hear. When the assembly were all
attentive, the guards of Peisistratus seized their arms and carried
them down to the temple of Aglauros, which was situated above the
Anaceium, half way up the cliff of the Acropolis.1
Peisistratus held the tyranny thirty-three years, but with two
intervals, for he was twice driven out; so that the actual duration of
his enjoyment of supreme power was only about seventeen years.2
Once he contrived to return by conciliating the Alcmasonidae and
Megacles, whose daughter he married. On this occasion also be is
related to have practised a stratagem which could have been attempted
only with a rude and ignorant people. He dressed up a tall and hand-
some woman, named Phya, a seller of garlands, to resemble Athena,
and carried her in his chariot to Athens, when she told the Athenians
that she was bringing Peisistratus to her own Acropolis, and com-
manded them to receive him. The second time Peisistratus returned
by force of arms and with the aid of foreigners, after which he suc-
ceeded in retaining the tyranny till his death in a good old age3
(01. 63.2, b.c. 527).
Peisistratus was a genial tyrant, and on the whole ruled with
1 Poly;rn. J^trat. i. 21,2. From the arms amus means the entrance to the Acropolis,
being carried down (KarrjveyKav) we might - Herod, i. 50 sqq.; Aristot. Pol. v. 12.
perhaps infer that, by ' Propylanim,' Poly- 'J Herod, ib. c. GO; Polyam. ib. s. 1.
which could have heen successful only in rude and ignorant times.
He wounded himself and his mules, and in that state drove into the
agora or market-place, where he accused the Pediad, an opposite faction
consisting of the rich proprietors of the Attic plains, of having at-
tempted his life. The Athenians, moved by his state, and by the recol-
lection of what he had done for them in war, granted his request for a
guard, which at first consisted of only fifty citizens armed with clubs.
But their number he soon increased, and then seized the Acropolis. In
order to render himself still more secure, he disarmed the people by
the following stratagem. He convoked an armed assembly at the
Anaceium, or temple of the Dioscuri, where he addressed them in so
low a tone of voice, that they requested him to proceed to the Propy-
laeum, in order that all might hear. When the assembly were all
attentive, the guards of Peisistratus seized their arms and carried
them down to the temple of Aglauros, which was situated above the
Anaceium, half way up the cliff of the Acropolis.1
Peisistratus held the tyranny thirty-three years, but with two
intervals, for he was twice driven out; so that the actual duration of
his enjoyment of supreme power was only about seventeen years.2
Once he contrived to return by conciliating the Alcmasonidae and
Megacles, whose daughter he married. On this occasion also be is
related to have practised a stratagem which could have been attempted
only with a rude and ignorant people. He dressed up a tall and hand-
some woman, named Phya, a seller of garlands, to resemble Athena,
and carried her in his chariot to Athens, when she told the Athenians
that she was bringing Peisistratus to her own Acropolis, and com-
manded them to receive him. The second time Peisistratus returned
by force of arms and with the aid of foreigners, after which he suc-
ceeded in retaining the tyranny till his death in a good old age3
(01. 63.2, b.c. 527).
Peisistratus was a genial tyrant, and on the whole ruled with
1 Poly;rn. J^trat. i. 21,2. From the arms amus means the entrance to the Acropolis,
being carried down (KarrjveyKav) we might - Herod, i. 50 sqq.; Aristot. Pol. v. 12.
perhaps infer that, by ' Propylanim,' Poly- 'J Herod, ib. c. GO; Polyam. ib. s. 1.