Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vvkck Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T09:08:10.462Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - The tyranny of the Pisistratidae

from PART II - THE GREEK STATES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

D. M. Lewis
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Get access

Summary

Pisistratus died in spring 527, but tyranny survived at Athens until 510. For most of these seventeen years we have no connected narrative source and a disproportionate amount of our direct evidence is concerned with one day in 514, the day on which Hipparchus was assassinated, and the implications of its events. On these, differing views were held from an early date, most strongly by Thucydides in his most combative mood. A further difficulty is caused by occasional uncertainty as to whether the sources, in statements about ‘the tyrants’ or ‘the Pisistratidae’, intend to exclude or include Pisistratus. This and other ambiguities of the evidence go to obscure the question of whether the tyranny changed its character after Pisistratus' death.

Pisistratus left three legitimate sons, Hippias, Hipparchus and Thessalus (Thuc. VI.55.1 as against Arist. Ath.Pol. 17.3). Of Thessalus little was known and the accounts of his character are contradictory and worthless (Arist. Atb.Pol. 18.2, Diod. X.17.1). There is now general agreement that Hippias and Hipparchus were well into their forties at their father's death, but no certainty is possible as to which was the elder. Thucydides (1.20.2, VI.55.1–2) was sure that it was Hippias and that the general Athenian belief, preserved only by Plato (Hipparch. 228b) and possibly by the Parian Marble (45), that it was Hipparchus was mistaken. The evidence with which he supported the oral tradition which had reached him is not convincing, and a further difficulty arises from the archon-list fragment, shortly to be considered, which shows Hippias as archon in 526/5.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adamson, P. B.The spread of rabies into Europe, and the probable origin of this disease in antiquity’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 1977 Google ScholarPubMed
Adcock, F. E. The Greek and Macedonian Art of War. Berkeley–Los Angeles, 1957 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, T. W. , Halliday, W. R. and Sykes, E. E. The Homeric Hymns. Oxford, 1936 Google Scholar
Aly, W. Volksmärchen, Sage und Novelle bei Herodot und seinen Zeitgenossen. 2nd edn ed. Huber, L. . Göttingen, 1969 Google Scholar
Amit, M. Athens and the Sea: a Study in Athenian Sea-power (Latomus Collection Latomus Latomus 74). Brussels, 1965 Google Scholar
Andrewes, A. The Greek Tyrants. London, 1956 Google Scholar
Andreyev, V. N.Some aspects of agrarian conditions in Attica in the fifth to third centuries B.C.’, Eirene 12 (1974)Google Scholar
Austin, M. M. Greece and Egypt in the Archaic age(Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society Supp 2). Cambridge, 1970 Google Scholar
Beloch, K. J. Griechische Geschichte. 4 vols, in 8. Strassburg–Berlin, 1912–27 Google Scholar
Bengtson, H. and others. The Greeks and the Persians: from the Sixth to the Fourth Centuries. London–New York, 1969 (Trans, of Griechen und Perser: die Mittelmeerwelt im Altertum. Frankfurt am Main, 1965)Google Scholar
Berve, H. Die Tyrannis bei den Griechen I–II. Munich, 1967 Google Scholar
Boardman, J. The Greeks Overseas. 2nd edn. London, 1980 Google Scholar
Boer, W. . ‘Herodot und die Systeme der Chronologie’, Mnemosyne ser. iv 20 (1967)Google Scholar
Bogaert, R. Les origines antiques de la banque de dépôt. Leiden, 1966 Google Scholar
Bol, P. C.Die Giebelskulpturen des Schatzhauses von Megara’, Athenische Mitteilungen. Mitteilungen des deutschen archäologischen Instituts, Athenische Abteilung 89 (1974)Google Scholar
Bonner, R. J. and G., Smith The Administration of justice from Homer to Aristotle I–II. Chicago, 1930–8 Google Scholar
Bowra, C. M. Greek Lyric Poetry. 2nd edn. Oxford, 1961 Google Scholar
Bowra, CM. Pindar. Oxford, 1964 Google Scholar
Breitenbach, H. R.Xenophon von Athen’ in Pauly–Wissowa–Kroll–Mittelhaus, , Real-Encyclopädie der klassischen Altertum swissen schaft. Stuttgart, 1893– ser.2, ix a 2 (1966)Google Scholar
Briant, P.Colonisation hellénistique et populations indigènes’, Klio 60 (1978)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broadhead, H. D. The Persae of Aeschylus. Cambridge, 1960 Google Scholar
Bruneau, P. and Ducat, J. Guide de Délos. Athens, 1965 Google Scholar
Buck, C. D. The Greek Dialects. 3rd edn. Chicago–London, 1955 Google Scholar
Burkert, W. Griechische Religion der archäischen und Klassischen Epoche. Stuttgart–Berlin–Cologne–Mainz, 1977 Google Scholar
Burn, A. R. Persia and the Greeks: the Defence of the West, c. 546–478 B.C. 2nd edn, with a Postscript by Lewis, D. M. . London–Stanford, 1984 Google Scholar
Burn, A. R. The Lyric Age of Greece. London, 1960 Google Scholar
Burton, R. W. B. Pindar's Pythian Odes. Essays in Interpretation. Oxford, 1962 Google Scholar
Busolt, G. Griechische Staatskunde 1II. 3rd edn. Munich, 1920–6 Google Scholar
Cadoux, T. J.The Athenian archons from Kreon to Hypsichides’, Journal of Hellenic Studies 68 (1948)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casson, L. Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World. Princeton, 1971 Google Scholar
Coldstream, J. N. Geometric Greece. London, 1977 Google Scholar
Coldstream, J. N. Greek Geometric Pottery. London, 1968 Google Scholar
Cook, R. M.A note on the absolute chronology of the 8th and 7th centuries B.C.’, Annual of the British School at Athens 64 (1969)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cook, R. M.Die Bedeutung der bemalten Keramik für den griechischen Handel’, Jahrbuch des deutschen archäologischen Instituts 74 (1959)Google Scholar
Crosby, M.The Altar of the Twelve Gods in Athens’, Hesperia Suppl. 8 (1949)Google Scholar
Davies, J. K. Athenian Propertied Families 600–300 B.C. Oxford, 1971 Google Scholar
Davison, J. A.Peisistratus and Homer’, Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 86 (1955)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Ste Croix, G. E. M. The Origins of the Peloponnesian War. London, 1972 Google Scholar
Detienne, M. and Vernant, J.-P.L es Ruses de I'Intelligence: la Métis des Grecs. Paris, 1974 (= Cunning Intelligence in Greek Culture and Society. Sussex, 1978)Google Scholar
Dinsmoor, W. B. The Architecture of Ancient Greece. 3rd edn. London, 1950 Google Scholar
Dover, K. J. Greek Homosexuality. London, 1978 Google Scholar
Drews, R.The fall of Astyages and Herodotus’ chronology of the eastern kingdoms’, Historia 18 (1969)Google Scholar
Drews, R. The Greek Accounts of Eastern History. Cambridge, Mass., 1973 Google Scholar
Edwards, G. P. The Language of Hesiod. Oxford, 1971 Google Scholar
Ehrenberg, V. From Solon to Socrates: Greek History and Civilization during the Sixth and Fifth Centuries B.C. 2nd edn. London, 1973 Google Scholar
Ehrenberg, V. Neugrüinder des Staates. Munich, 1925 Google Scholar
Finnegan, R. Oral Poetry. Cambridge, 1977 Google Scholar
Fornara, C. W. Herodotus. Oxford, 1971 Google Scholar
Forrest, W. G.The tradition of Hippias’ expulsion from Athens’, Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 10 (1969)Google Scholar
Forrest, W. G.Two chronographic notes: 1, The tenth thalassocracy in Eusebius’, Classical Quarterly NS 19 (1969)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forrest, W. G. The Emergence of Greek Democracy. London, 1966 Google Scholar
Francis, E. D.Greeks and Persians: the art of hazard and triumph’, in Ancient Persia: The Art of an Empire, ed. Schmandt-Besserat, D. , 5386. Malibu, 1980 Google Scholar
Fränkel, H. Early Greek Poetry and Philosophy. Eng. tr., Oxford, 1975 Google Scholar
Freeman, E. A. History of Federal Government in Greece and Italy. 2nd edn. London, 1893 Google Scholar
Freeman, K. Greek City-States. London, 1950 Google Scholar
Friedländer, P. Plato 2, The Dialogues, First Period. London, 1964 Google Scholar
Gernet, L. Anthropologic de la Grèce antique. Paris, 1968 Google Scholar
Gill, D.Trapezomata; a neglected aspect of Greek sacrifice’, Harvard Theological Review 67 (1974)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gomme, A. W., Andrewes, A. and Dover, K. J. A Historical Commentary on Thucydides iv. Oxford, 1945–81 Google Scholar
Gottlieb, G. Das Verhältnis der ausserherodoteischen Überlieferung zu Herodot. Bonn, 1963 Google Scholar
Graf, D. F.Greek tyrants and Achaemenid polities’, in The Craft of the Ancient Historian: Essays in Honor of Chester G. Starr, edd. Eadie, J. W. and Ober, J. , 79123. Lanham, 1985 Google Scholar
Graf, D. F.Medism: the origin and significance of the term’, Journal of Hellenic Studies 104 (1984)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graham, A. J. Colony and Mother City in Ancient Greece. Manchester, 1964. (2nd edn 1971)Google Scholar
Hammond, N. G. L.Studies in Greek chronology of the sixth and fifth centuries B.C.’, Historia 4 (1955)Google Scholar
Hammond, N. G. L. A History of Greece to 322 B.C. 2nd edn. Oxford, 1967 (3rd edn 1986)Google Scholar
Hammond, N. G. L. Atlas of the Greek and Roman World in Antiquity. New Jersey, 1983 Google Scholar
Hicks, E. L. and Hill, G. F. A Manual of Greek Historical Inscriptions. Oxford, 1901 Google Scholar
Hirsch, S. W. The Friendship of the Barbarians: Xenophon and the Persian Empire. Hanover–London, 1985 Google Scholar
Homeyer, H.Zu den Anfängen der Griechischen Biographie’, Philologus 106 (1962)Google Scholar
Hopper, R. J.The Attic silver mines in the fourth century B.C.’, Annual of the British School at Athens 48 (1953)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
How, W. W. and Wells, J. A Commentary on Herodotus. Oxford, 1912 Google Scholar
Huber, L.Herodots Homerverständis’, Synusia. Festgabe für W. Schadewaldt, edd. Flashar, H. and Gaiser, K. , 2952. Neske, 1965 Google Scholar
Immerwahr, H. R. Form and Thought in Herodotus. Cleveland, 1960 Google Scholar
Jacoby, F.Herodotos’, Pauly–Wissowa–Kroll–Mittelhaus, , Real-Encyclopädie der klassischen Altertum swissen schaft. Stuttgart, 1893– Suppl. 11 (1913) (= Griechische Historiker, 7164. Stuttgart, 1956)Google Scholar
Jacoby, F.Ktesias’, in Pauly–Wissowa–Kroll–Mittelhaus, , Real-Encyclopädie der klassischen Altertum swissen schaft. Stuttgart, 1893xi (1922) (= Griechische Historiker, 31132. Stuttgart, 1956)Google Scholar
Jacoby, F. Abhandlmgen zur griechischen Geschichtsschreibung, ed. Leiden, H. , 1956 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacoby, F. Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, 3 pts in 15 vols. Berlin, 1926; Leiden, 1943–58 3 2.Google Scholar
Jeffery, L. H.Comments on some archaic Greek inscriptions’, Journal of Hellenic Studies 69 (1949)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jeffery, L. H. Archaic Greece. London, 1976 Google Scholar
Jeffery, L. H. The Local Scripts of Archaic Greece. Oxford, 1961 Google Scholar
Jones, W. H. S. Malaria and Greek History. Manchester, 1909 Google Scholar
Kahrstedt, U. Staatsgebiet und Staatsangehörige in Athen. Stuttgart, 1934 Google Scholar
Kinzl, K. H.Herodotus-Interpretations’, Rh.Mus. 118 (1975)Google Scholar
Kinzl, K. H.Philochoros FGrHist 328 F 115 and Ephoros: observations on Schol. Pind. Pyth. 7, 9B’, Hermes 102 (1974)Google Scholar
Kirk, G. S. Homer and the Oral Tradition. Cambridge, 1976 Google Scholar
Kirk, G. S. The Nature of Greek Myths. Harmondsworth, 1974 Google Scholar
Kirk, G. S. The Songs of Homer. Cambridge, 1962 Google Scholar
Kirkwood, G. M. Early Greek Monody. Ithaca, N.Y.–London, 1974 Google Scholar
Kraay, C. M. and Emeleus, V. M. The Composition of Greek Silver Coins. Oxford, 1962 Google Scholar
Kraay, C. M.The archaic owls of Athens: classification and chronology’, Numismatic Chronicle 1956 Google Scholar
Kraay, C. M.The Asyut hoard: some comments on chronology’, Numismatic Chronicle 1977 Google Scholar
Kraay, C. M.The early coinage of Athens: a reply’, Numismatic Chronicle 1962 Google Scholar
Kraay, C. M. Archaic and Classical Greek Coins. London, 1976 Google Scholar
Lang, M.Allotment by tokens’, Historia 8 (1959)Google Scholar
Larsen, J. A. O. Greek Federal States. Oxford, 1968 Google Scholar
Larsen, J. A. O. Representative Government in Greek and Roman History. Berkeley–Los Angeles, 1955 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leahy, D. M.The Spartan embassy to Lygdamis’, Journal of Hellenic Studies 77 (1957)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, D. M. Sparta and Persia. Leiden, 1977 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Littauer, M. A. and Crouwel, J. H. Wheeled Vehicles and Ridden Animals in the Ancient Near East. Leiden, 1979 Google Scholar
Martin, R. L'urbanisme dans la Grèce antique. 2nd edn. Paris, 1974 Google Scholar
Mazzarino, S. Fra Oriente e Occidente. Florence, 1947 Google Scholar
Meiggs, R. The Athenian Empire. Oxford, 1972 Google Scholar
Meritt, B. D. , Wade-Gery, H. T. , McGregor, M. F. The Athenian Tribute Lists I–iv. Cambridge, Mass., 1939–53 Google Scholar
Miller, M.Herodotus as chronographer’, Klio 46 (1965)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, B. M.Herodotus and Samos’, Journal of Hellenic Studies 95 (1975)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Momigliano, A. D.Tradizione e invenzione in Ctesia’, in Quarto Contributo alla Storia degli Studi Classici e del Mondo Antico, 181212. Rome, 1969 Google Scholar
Momigliano, A.Eastern elements in post-exilic Jewish and Greek historiography’, in Essays in Ancient and Modern Historiography, 2535. Oxford, 1977 Google Scholar
Momigliano, A.Persian empire and Greek freedom’ in The Idea of Freedom: Essays in honour of Isaiah Berlin, ed. Ryan, A. , 13951. Oxford, 1979 Google Scholar
Momigliano, A. Alien Wisdom: the Limits of Hellenization, Cambridge, 1975 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Momigliano, A. The Development of Greek Biography. Harvard, 1971 Google Scholar
Morrison, J. S.Greek naval tactics in the 5th Century B.C.’, The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology and Underwater Exploration (1974) 3.1 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrison, J. S.Hyperesia in naval contexts in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.’, Journal of Hellenic Studies 104 (1984)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrison, J. S. and R. T., Williams Greek Oared Ships 900–322 B.C. Cambridge, 1968 Google Scholar
Morrison, J. S. and Coates, J. F. The Athenian Trireme, the History and Reconstruction of an Ancient Greek Warship. Cambridge, 1986 Google Scholar
Mossé, C. La tyrannie dans la Grèce antique. Paris, 1969 Google Scholar
Muhly, J. D. Review of a 14, Journal of New Eastern Studies 35 (1976)Google Scholar
Murray, O. Early Greece. London, 1980 Google Scholar
Myres, J. L. Herodotus: Father of History. Oxford, 1953 Google Scholar
Neugebauer, O. The Exact Sciences in Antiquity. Princeton, 1957 Google Scholar
Oliva, P. Sparta and her Social Problems. Prague, 1971 Google Scholar
Orlandini, P.Antenor’ in Enciclopedia dell'Arte Antica, Rome, 19581, 408–9. Rome, 1958 Google Scholar
Page, D. L. Sappho and Alcaeus. Oxford, 1955 Google Scholar
Parke, H. W.Polycrates and Delos’, The laws of Kleisthenes 40 (1946)Google Scholar
Parke, H. W. and Wormell, D. E. W. The Delphic Oracle. Oxford, 1956 Google Scholar
Price, M. J. and Waggoner, N. Archaic Greek Coinage: the Asyut Hoard. London, 1975 Google Scholar
Princeton Encyclopaedia of Classical Sites, ed. Stilwell, R. . Princeton, 1976 Google Scholar
Pugliese Carratelli, G.Greek inscriptions of the Middle East’, East and West 16 (1966)Google Scholar
Reinmuth, O. W.Ostrakismos’, Pauly–Wissowa–Kroll–Mittelhaus, , Real-Encyclopädie der klassischen Altertum swissen schaft. Stuttgart, 1893xxxvi. Halbband (1942)Google Scholar
Rocchi, G. D.Aristocrazia genetica ed organizzazione politica arcaica’, Parola del Passato 28 (1973)Google Scholar
Roebuck, C.The grain trade between Greece and Egypt’, Classical Philology 45 (1950)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roebuck, C.The organization of Naukratis’, Classical Philology 46 (1951)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roussel, D. Tribu et cité (Annales Littéraires de l'Université de Besançon 193). Paris, 1976 Google Scholar
Sancisi-Weerdenburg, H.The death of Cyrus: Xenophon's Cryopaedia as a source for Iranian history’, in Papers in Honour of Professor Mary Boyce, ed. Bivar, A. D. H. (Acta Iranica: Hommages et Opera Minora ii), 11. Leiden, 1985 Google Scholar
Sancisi-Weerdenburg, H. Yauna en Persai: Grieken en Perzen in een ander perspectief. Groningen, 1980 Google Scholar
Sandars, N. K. The Sea Peoples: Warriors of the ancient Mediterranean, 1250–1150 B.C. London, 1978 Google Scholar
Schoeffer, V.Δῖμοι’, Pauly–Wissowa–Kroll–Mittelhaus, , Real-Encyclopädie der klassischen Altertum swissen schaft. Stuttgart, 1893v (1905)Google Scholar
Seibert, J. Die politischen Flüchtlinge und Verbannten in der griechischen Geschichte 1–11. Darmstadt, 1979 Google Scholar
Snodgrass, A. M.The hoplite reform and history’, Journal of Hellenic Studies85 (1965)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snodgrass, A. M. Archaic Greece. London, 1980 Google Scholar
Snodgrass, A. M. The Dark Age of Greece. Edinburgh, 1971 Google Scholar
Starr, C. G. Greeks and Persians in the Fourth Century B.C. Ann Arbor, 1979 Google Scholar
Starr, C. G. The Economic and Social Growth of early Greece 8007ndash;500 B.C. New York, 1977 Google Scholar
Strasburger, H.Herodots Zeitrechnung’, Historia 5 (1956) (= Herodot, ed. Marg, W. , 688736. 2nd edn. Darmstadt, 1965)Google Scholar
Strasburger, H. Die Wesensbestimmung der Geschichte durch die antike Geschichtsschreibung (= Sitzungsberichte der Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft Goethe-Universität, J. W. , Frankfurt 5, no. 3. 1966)Google Scholar
Strassmaier, J. N.Einige chronologische Daten aus astronomischen Rechnungen’, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 7 (1892)Google Scholar
Tarn, W. W. Alexander the Great. Cambridge, 1948 Google Scholar
Traill, J. S. The Political Organization of Attica (Hesperia Supplement 14) Princeton, 1975 Google Scholar
Travlos, J.The Gymnasium of Kynosarges’, Athens Annals of Archaeology 3.1 (1970)Google Scholar
Trendall, A. D. The Red-Figured Vases of Lucania, Campania and Sicily I-II. Oxford, 1967 Google Scholar
Vansina, J. Oral Tradition. Trans. Wright, H. M. . London, 1965 Google Scholar
Vigneron, I. P. Le cheval dans l'antiquité. Nancy, 1968 Google Scholar
Wade-Gery, H. T.Miltiades’, Journal of Hellenic Studies 71 (1951) =A 62 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wade-Gery, H. T. Essays in Greek History. Oxford, 1958 Google Scholar
Wallace, W. P.The early coinages of Athens and Euboia’, Numismatic Chronicle 1962 Google Scholar
Walser, G. Hellas und Iran. Darmstadt, 1984 Google Scholar
Waters, K. H. Herodotus on Tyrants and Despots (Historia Einzelschr. 15). Wiesbaden, 1971 Google Scholar
Webster, T. B. L. Potter and Patron in Classical Athens. London, 1972 Google Scholar
West, M. L. Early Greek Philosophy and the Orient. Oxford, 1971 Google Scholar
West, M. L. Iambi et Elegi Graeci. Oxford, 1971–2 Google Scholar
White, M. E.Hippias and the Athenian archon list’, in Polis and Imperium. Studies in Honour of E. T. Salmon, ed. Evans, J. A. S. . Toronto, 1974 Google Scholar
Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, U. Pindaros. Berlin, 1922 Google Scholar
Wolf, Eric R. Peasants. Englewood Cliffs, 1966 Google Scholar
Wycherley, R. E.The Olympieion at Athens’, Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 5 (1964)Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×