PISISTRATUS, when he repudiated the daughter of Megacles, he found that not only the citizens, but even his very troops, were alienated from him by the influence, the intrigues, and the bribery of his father-in-law. He fled from Athens where he no longer could maintain his power, and retired to Eubœa. Eleven years after he was drawn from his obscure retreat, by means of his son Hippias, and he was a third time received by the people of Athens as their master and sovereign. Upon this he sacrificed to his resentment the friends of Megacles, but he did not lose sight of the public good, and while he fought the aggrandizement of his family, he did not neglect the dignity and the honour of the Athenian name. He died about 528 years before the Christian era, after he had enjoyed the sovereign power at Athens for 33 years, and he was succeeded by his son Hipparchus. Pisistratus claims our admiration for his justice, his liberality, and his moderation. If he was dreaded and detested as a tyrant, the Athenians loved and respected his private virtues and his patriotism as a fellow-citizen: and the opprobrium which generally falls on his head may be attributed not to the severity of his administration, but to the republican principles of the Athenians, who hated and exclaimed against the moderation and equity of the mildest sovereign, while they flattered the pride and gratified the guilty desires of the most tyrannical of their fellow subjects. Pisistratus often refused to punish the insolence of his enemies; and when he had one day been virulently accused of murder, rather than inflict immediate punishment upon the man who had criminated him, he went to the areopagus, and there convinced the Athenians that the accusations of his enemies were groundless, and that his life was irreproachable. It is to his labours that we are indebted for the preservation of the poems of Homer; and he was the first, according to Cicero, who introduced them at Athens in the order in which they now stand. He also established a public library at Athens; and the valuable books which he had diligently collected were carried into Persia when Xerxes made himself master of the capital of Attica. Hipparchus and Hippias the sons of Pisistratus, who had received the name of Pisistratidæ, rendered themselves as illustrious as their father; but the flames of liberty were too powerful to be extinguished. The Pisistratidæ governed with great moderation, but the name of tyrant or sovereign was insupportable to the Athenians. Two of the most respectable of the citizens, called Harmodius and Arison, conspired against them, and Hipparchus was dispatched in a public assembly. This murder was not, however, attended with any advantages; and though the two leaders of the conspiracy, who have been celebrated through every age for their patriotism, were supported by the people, yet Hippias quelled the tumult by his uncommon firmness and prudence, and for a while preserved that peace in Athens which his father had often been unable to command. This was not long to continue. Hippias was at last expelled by the united efforts of the Athenians and of their allies, and he left Attica, when he found himself unable to maintain his power and independence. The rest of the family of Pisistratus followed him in his banishment; and after they had refused to accept the liberal offers of the princes of Thessaly, and the king of Macedonia, who wished them
to settle in their respective territories, the Pisistratidæ retired to Sigeum, which their father had in the summit of his power conquered and bequeathed to his posterity. After the banishment of the Pisistratidæ, the Athenians became more than commonly jealous of their liberty, and often sacrificed the most powerful of their citizens, apprehensive of the influence which popularity and a well-directed liberality might gain among a fickle and unsettled populace. The Pisistratidæ were banished from Athens about 18 years after the death of Pisistratus.