special exception in favor of this respected lineage.[221] And since
the name of Hipparchus was universally notorious as the person slain,
we discover how it was that he came to be considered by an uncritical
public as the predominant member of the Peisistratid family,—the
eldest son and successor of Peisistratus,—the reigning despot,—to the
comparative neglect of Hippias. The same public probably cherished
many other anecdotes,[222] not the less eagerly believed because
they could not be authenticated, respecting this eventful period.
[220] See the words of the song:—
Ὅτι τὸν τύραννον κτανέτην
Ἰσονόμους τ᾽ Αθήνας ἐποιησάτην—
ap. Athenæum, xv, p. 691.
The epigram of the Keian Simonidês, (Fragm. 132, ed. Bergk—ap.
Hephæstion. c. 14, p. 26, ed. Gaisf.) implies a similar belief:
also, the passages in Plato, Symposion, p. 182, in Aristot.
Polit. v, 8, 21, and Arrian, Exped. Alex. iv, 10, 3.
[221] Herodot. vi, 109; Demosthen. adv. Leptin. c. 27, p. 495;
cont. Meidiam, c. 47, p. 569; and the oath prescribed in the
Psephism of Demophantus, Andokidês, De Mysteriis, p. 13; Pliny,
H. N. xxxiv, 4-8; Pausan. i, 8, 5; Plutarch, Aristeidês, 27.
The statues were carried away from Athens by Xerxês, and restored
to the Athenians by Alexander after his conquest of Persia
(Arrian, Ex. Al. iii, 14, 16; Pliny, H. N. xxxiv, 4-8).
[222] One of these stories may be seen in Justin, ii, 9,—who
gives the name of Dioklês to Hipparchus,—“Diocles, alter ex
filiis, per vim stupratâ virgine, a fratre puellæ interficitur.”
Whatever may have been the moderation of Hippias before, indignation
at the death of his brother, and fear for his own safety,[223] now
induced him to drop it altogether. It is attested both by Thucydidês
and Herodotus, and admits of no doubt, that his power was now
employed harshly and cruelly,—that he put to death a considerable
number of citizens. We find also a statement, noway improbable in
itself, and affirmed both in Pausanias and in Plutarch,—inferior
authorities, yet still in this case sufficiently credible,—that
he caused Leæna, the mistress of Aristogeitôn, to be tortured to
death, in order to extort from her a knowledge of the secrets and
accomplices of the latter.[224] But as he could not but be sensible
that this system of terrorism was full of peril to himself, so he
looked out for shelter and support in case of being expelled from
Athens; and with this view he sought to connect himself with Darius
king of Persia,—a connection full of consequences to be hereafter
developed. Æantidês, son of Hippoklus the despot of Lampsakus on
the Hellespont, stood high at this time in the favor of the Persian
monarch, which induced Hippias to give him his daughter Archedikê
in marriage; no small honor to the Lampsakene, in the estimation of
Thucydidês.[225] To explain how Hippias came to fix upon this town,
however, it is necessary to say a few words on the foreign policy of
the Peisistratids.
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