an Athenian who early distinguished himself by his valour in the field, and by his address and eloquence at home. After he had rendered himself the favourite of the populace by his liberality and by the intrepidity with which he had fought their battles, particularly near Salamis, he resolved to make himself master of his country. Every thing seem- Pisistratus, ed favourable to his ambitious views; but Solon alone, who was then at the head of affairs, and who had lately enforced his celebrated laws, opposed him, and discovered his duplicity and artful behaviour before the public assembly. Pisistratus was not disheartened by the measures of his relation Solon, but he had recourse to artifice. In returning from his country-house, he cut himself in various places; and after he had exposed his mangled body to the eyes of the populace, deployed his misfortunes, and accused his enemies of attempts upon his life, because he was the friend of the people, the guardian of the poor, and the reliever of the oppressed, he claimed a chosen body of 50 men from the populace to defend his person in future from the malevolence and the cruelty of his enemies. The unsuspecting people unanimously granted his request, though Solon opposed it with all his influence; and Pisistratus had no sooner received an armed band on whose fidelity and attachment he could rely, than he seized the citadel of Athens, and made himself absolute. The people too late perceived their credulity; yet, though the tyrant was popular, two of the citizens, Megacles and Lycurgus, conspired together against him, and by their means he was forcibly ejected from the city. His house and all his effects were exposed to sale; but there was found in Athens only one man who would buy them. The private dissensions of the friends of liberty proved favourable to the expelled tyrant; and Megacles, who was jealous of Lycurgus, secretly promised to restore Pisistratus to all his rights and privileges in Athens, if he would marry his daughter. Pisistratus consented; and by the assistance of his father-in-law, he was soon enabled to expel Lycurgus, and to re-establish himself. By means of a woman called Phya, whose shape was tall, whose features were noble and commanding, he imposed upon the people, and created himself adherents even among his enemies. Phya was conducted through the streets of the city, and showing herself subservient to the artifice of Pisistratus, she was announced as Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, and the patroness of Athens, who was come down from Heaven to re-establish her favourite Pisistratus in a power which was sanctioned by the will of Heaven, and favoured by the affection of the people. In the midst of his triumph, however, Pisistratus found himself unsupported; and some time after, 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 Euboea. 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 sought 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 Hippas the sons of Pisistratus, who have received the name of Pisistratidae, rendered themselves as illustrious as their father; but the flames of liberty were too powerful to be extinguished. The Pisistratidae governed with great moderation, but the name of tyrant or sovereign was infupportable to the Athenians. Two of the most respectable of the citizens, called Harmodius and Aristogeiton, 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 Thrace, and the king of Macedonia, who wished them to settle in their respective territories, the Pisistratidae retired to Sigeum, which their father had in the summit of his power conquered and bequeathed to his posterity. After the banishment of the Pisistratidae, 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 Pisistratidae were banished from Athens about 18 years after the death of Pisistratus.

Pismires, are a kind of insects very common in Africa; of which there is so great a variety, and such innumerable swarms, that they destroy not only the fruits of the ground but even men and beasts in a little time as one single night; and would, without all doubt, prove more fatally destructive to the inhabitants, were they not so happily destroyed by a proportionable number of monkeys, who greedily ferret and devour them. them. For a further account of these, and some other grievous plagues with which the far greater part of the vast continent of Africa is afflicted, particularly that most horrid visitation of locusts, which fell in a year of laying waste some of the provinces, see Gaius, p. 161.