- Peisistratus the tyrant of Athens
A show in the marketplace
In modern times, tyrants are understood as being terrible rulers that need to be overthrown. This was not the case in the sixth century BCE in Greece. Greek cities would frequently stagnate until a tyrant rose to power and took charge. The tyrant would do his best to satisfy all of the social classes as well as erect marvellous monuments and beautify the city. Many tyrants, however, would overstay their welcome or simply anger the wrong person and eventually get chased out of the city. One such would-be tyrant of Athens, was named Peisistratus.
He was an ambitious young man who wanted more. He had already successfully led Athenian troops into battle against Megara, Attica. Unfortunately, he had no prior political experience, and did not have enough money to buy power, and this meant that he needed to aim a bit lower to gain his support.
At the time, Athens had two main political groups: Plains, and Coast (likely made up mostly of farmers, and merchants respectively). Peisistratus began to form his own support group, the Hills whose members were mostly of the lower class. They chose to follow Peisistratus because, as a successful Athenian general, he promised them fair treatment, earning himself the nickname “The Democratic Tyrant”.
Despite Peisistratus’ group of supporters and his brilliant military record, it still was not enough to make himself the tyrant of Athens. He needed money to pay for the improvement of the city. This is where he sought an alliance with Megakles, the head of the noble Alkmaeonidae family, and the leader of the Coast group. This essentially gave him the backing of 2 out of 3 political groups as well as limited access to lots of money. Now, with just a little bit of theatre, he may be able to pull it off.
On a perfectly normal and boring day, the citizens of Athens were milling around the city conducting their usual business. It was during the archonship of Komeas (561-560 BCE) Suddenly a clearly injured Peisistratus bursts into the marketplace with his wounded mules.
“Help, you must help me! They tried to kill me! I barely escaped with my life”
Shock and horror gripped the populace as they tried to figure out what happened. Several voices spoke up to support the injured man.
“It is too dangerous for him! We must do something”
“He needs bodyguards! We must provide him with bodyguards!”
And thus, Peisistratus’ little theatre show had been sufficiently convincing. Between his self-inflicted injuries and Megakles’ agents within the crowd, he had successfully convinced the Athenians that he needed to be protected from these terribly dangerous and fictional threats. Peisistratus was granted 50 armed men and as a heartfelt thank you to the citizens for this kind gift, he proceeded to seize the acropolis, the seat of power in Athens, and proclaimed himself tyrant.
The last man who had attempted to take the acropolis to make himself tyrant, Kylon the Olympic victor, had been less than successful. Peisistratus was careful not to repeat those same mistakes. And so, after he proclaimed himself tyrant, he quickly left the acropolis with his troops so as to not risk offending both the gods and the citizens. With his new position, he trotted down the hill and set up his new office which was not on the acropolis. He had managed to proclaim himself tyrant without having the Athenians revolt. So far so good!
Now that he had the title, he needed to make sure he could keep it. This was done primarily by not angering everyone around him. He left the established constitution alone, which was a good start. He also needed to stay in Megakles’ good graces as Megakles was still the head of a powerful political group, and had powerful family connections. Megakles provided the money to keep Peisistratus’ tyranny going, but Megakles grew unhappy with Peisistratus. It is not entirely sure why, but one suggestion is that Peisistratus had made a new alliance by marrying Timonassa, the daughter of Gorgilos of Argos, who could serve as a powerful ally. Megakles was unhappy with Peisistratus trying to climb out of his pocket and so he joined forces with Lykourgos, the leader of the other major political party, and had him expelled from Athens.
First tyranny: Expelled in less than a year by his ally.
Chosen by Athena
Now that Megakles and Lykourgos had worked wonderfully together as a team to evict Peisistratus, they immediately did a very stupid thing. They immediately fought each other for power. Lykourgos gained the upper hand, leaving Megakles with no other choice than to try to undo the damage he had himself just caused.
Megakles resorted to calling back Peisistratus and offered to marry him to his own daughter, thereby solidifying their new alliance. Peisistratus agreed and now the only question was: how to get Peisistratus back as tyrant. At this point, it is not entirely sure if the populace actually believed any of this, but this is the story that was written down.
On another perfectly boring day, as the Athenian citizens scampered around the city, greatness was about to descend on them. Heralds burst into the city proclaiming that Athena herself, the glorious goddess, the namesake of the city, was coming and you are never going to guess who is with her!
Athena arrived in a chariot. She stood at about 180 cm and was clad in armour. Besides her was Peisistratus. The patron goddess of the city of Athens was bringing Peisistratus back into the city, blessing his tyranny.
The crowds were dumbstruck. Athena herself was here. The heralds were herding everybody over to see their patron deity. As everyone rushed over to watch the spectacle, some people even offered her prayers.
While scholars have stated that it was unlikely that the Greeks actually believed that it was the real immortal goddess. They argued that it was to be interpreted more as a publicity stunt to show the man in a Homeric fashion. To make him look like one of the heroes of Homer’s epic.
What had happened was that when Peisistratus and Megakles joined forces again, they came across a woman named Phye. She was beautiful and incredibly tall so they decided to dress her up like Athena and have her bring Peisistratus back into the city. And it worked. Peisistratus was welcomed back with open arms and was allowed to resume his tyranny, while Megakles resumed his role of being the man behind the curtain.
And they lived happily ever after. The end.
No, the two men fell out again.
Peisistratus who had married Megakles’ daughter was not having children with her. Of course, they were having sex, but Peisistratus refused to have sex with his wife in the “usual manner”, specifically so she would not get pregnant. Peisistratus already had children from before, so he did not need more children. Also, he believed that the Alkmaeonidae family was cursed from their actions roughly 70 years prior when they murdered the supporters of Kylon, an attempted tyrant. Their efforts had gotten them kicked out of the city, and while they were allowed to return eventually, the family still bore the stain. So, Peisistratus refused to have children from that bloodline.
The woman spoke to her mother about it, who obviously told her husband Megakles. Enraged with this insult to his family, he ran straight over to Lykourgos. Again. This time though, Peisistratus ran away before they could do anything to him.
In the span of about 4 years, Peisistratus had schemed with Megakles to make himself tyrant. Then Megakles got angry at him and went to Lykourgos for help in kicking out Peisistratus. Then Megakles got pissed because Lykourgos had more power than him and ran to Peisistratus for help. They had an even grander scheme with a woman pretending to be Athena bring Peisistratus back into the city. Eventually, Megakles got angry at Peisistratus again and joined forces with Lykourgos once more... Come on Megakles, just make up your mind already!
Second tyranny: Expelled by his ally, again.
Third time’s a charm! – No Megakles allowed
This time, Peisistratus fled to Eretria (a very different part of Greece) with the intention of gathering support there and then coming back to Athens. But instead of returning he was offered a new role, because between the military experience, and the experience of running a city, Peisistratus actually had a pretty fantastic resume in antiquity. Eretria asked him if he could be the leader of a temporary settlement in Thrace (most certainly NOT in Greece), which would allow everybody to get rich. And he did!
In 546 BCE, 10 years after he had left Athens, he was ready to go back. This time, his supporters were hardened military men from battling Thracians and he had managed to fill his pockets from extensive trade with, presumably, different Thracians. He had military support, he had money, and this time he had no need of Megakles.
As Peisistratus was making preparations, he got support from Thebes, and Naxos as well as from the Eretria region. He set out for Marathon where he was joined by some of his Athenian supporters.
He marched his army towards the city of Athens and did not meet the Athenian army until he reached the temple of Athena Pallenis. Both armies set up camp facing each other, and this is when Peisistratus spoke to the diviner Amphilytus the Arcananian. This was the diviner’s prediction:
“The cast is made, the net spread, the tunny-fish shall flash in the moonlit night”
Peisistratus heard this and immediately believed that he was going to win so he gathered up his army and attacked.
But, despite the opposing camp being right across from them, the Athenians somehow did not realize Peisistratus was about to attack. Now when a fully armoured enemy rushes at you with arms ready, and you barely have any pants on, the natural and intelligent reaction is very simply to run from the very pointy weapons. And they did. The Athenians were not ready and the soldiers fled. Peisistratus and his sons kept the Athenians scattered so they wouldn’t be able to get enough people together in a line to mount a defence. It worked. Peisistratus’ sons got on horses and told the scattered enemy soldiers not to bother because the battle was already over, the soldiers agreed and left. Peisistratus had won, this time without theatrics, and was once again the tyrant of Athens.
Having learned from his mistakes, he started by giving Naxos over to an ally, Lygdamis, to rule over. This ensured a stable ally on the outside. He also kicked out Megakles with the rest of the Alkmaeonidae and a few other threats. Megakles was NOT going to screw with him this time!
As the tyrant of Athens, Peisistratus made sure that all of the Athenians were satisfied with his work. He sanctified the island of Delos. He supported several religious festivals, expanding some of the more prominent Athenian ones. He supported sanctuaries all around Attica and had several temples built. He was even the one who ordered the construction of the temple of Artemis at Brauron. Because of his son Hipparchos’ love of literature, he also made sure to attract poets to Athens, bringing even more culture to the city.
In short, he did a lot of good for the empire. The “Democratic Tyrant” was actually good..
He ruled as tyrant until he died from sickness as an elderly man. It was during the archonship of Philoneos, in 528-527 BCE. He was succeeded by his two sons: Hippias, the eldest and wisest; and Hipparchos who was more interested in literature than in politics.
Third tyranny: Ruled Athens until his peaceful death.
Eventually, Hipparchos’ personal life would rile up the wrong feathers and ended with the outright expulsion of tyrants.
Text: Cindy G. Levesque. MENAM Archaeology. Copyright 2023.
Images: Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain
Further Readings
Adcock, F. E., 1924. The Exiles of Peisistratus. The Classical Quarterly, Jul-Oct, 18(3/4), pp. 174-181.
Aristotle, Athenian Constitution. www.perseus.com.
Camp, J. M., 2001. The Archaeology of Athens. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Cole, J. W., 1975. Peisistratus on the Strymon. Greece & Rome, Apr., 22(1), pp. 42-44.
French, A., 1959. The Party of Peisistratos. Greece & Rome, Mar, 6(1), pp. 46-57.
Herodotus, 2008. The Histories. s.l.:Oxford University Press.
Lavelle, B. M., 2005. Fame, Money and Power. Ann Arbor: The Univeristy of Michigan Press.
Plutrach, Solon. www.perseus.com.
Stanton, G. R., 1990. Athenian Politics c.800-500 BC: a Sourcebook. London and New York: Routledge.
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