appears to have employed violence in obtaining the sovereignty,(690) which he held undisturbed, partly by creating terror through his military fame and exploits in arms, and partly by gaining the support of the people by the introduction of some democratic elements into the constitution. With regard to the latter measure, the singular alterations which he made in the tribes of Sicyon will be explained hereafter.(691) We will here only remark that Cleisthenes himself belonged to the subject tribe, which was not of Doric origin; and while he endeavoured to raise the latter, at the same time he sought to depress, and even to dishonour the Doric tribes, so that he entirely destroyed and reversed the whole state of things which had previously existed. For this reason Cleisthenes was at enmity with Argos, the chief Doric city of this district.(692) For the same reason he proscribed the worship of the Argive hero Adrastus, and favoured in its place the worship of Dionysus, a deity foreign to the Doric character; and lastly, prohibited the Homeric rhapsodists from entering the town, because Homer had celebrated Argos, and, we may add, an aristocratic form of government. These characteristic traits of a bold and comprehensive mind are gathered from the lively narrative of Herodotus. The same political tendency was inherited by his son-in-law Megacles, the husband of the beautiful Agariste, to obtain whose hand many rival youths had assembled in the palace of Cleisthenes, like the suitors of old, for that of Helen;(693) and it was particularly manifested in Cleisthenes of Athens, who changed the Athenian constitution by abolishing the last traces of separate ranks. With regard, however, to the warlike actions of Cleisthenes, he must have been very celebrated for his prowess; since in the war of the Amphictyons against Cirrha, although denounced as a stone-slinger (that is, a man of the lowest rank),(694) by the Pythian priestess, he shared the chief command of the army with the Thessalian Heraclid, Eurylochus, and helped to conquer the city.(695) This took place in the third year of the 47th Olympiad, or 592 B.C.(696) Out of the plunder of the town Cleisthenes built a portico for the embellishment of Sicyon;(697) he was also conqueror in the chariot-race at the second Pythiad (Olymp. 49. 3. 584 B.C.)(698) It may perhaps be possible from the scattered accounts concerning this prince to form a notion of his character. Cleisthenes was undoubtedly a man who was able to seize the spirit of the time, which aimed at great liberty and excitement—the very contrary of the settled composure of the Dorians; and, combining talents and versatility with the love of splendour and pageantry, ridiculed many things hitherto looked upon with awe, and set no limits to his love of change. Notwithstanding these qualities, he was, as is probable from the general testimony of Thucydides, overthrown by Sparta, perhaps soon after