In short both Plato and Aristotle regard their accounts of the tyrant’s origin as being of general application. As such they have always been accepted, and not at first sight without reason. The Platonic-Aristotelian pedigree (with an alternative) is already ascribed to the tyrant by Herodotus: “under a democracy it is impossible for corruption not to prevail ..., until some individual, championing the people (προστὰς τοῦ δήμου) blossoms out into a monarch (ρεϡτε μούναρχος = tyrant)[157].” But what are the facts? The process just described makes the early tyrant develop out of a demagogue who is usually also a general. Demagogues may have existed in Greece before tyrannies began to be established; but the evidence for their having done so is extraordinarily meagre[158], and it is highly doubtful whether Aristotle adds to it. He does not attempt a picture of a seventh or sixth century demagogue. Those of his own day secured their influence by confiscations effected through the popular courts[159]. They are essentially the product of a full-blown democracy, and pretyrannical democracies are extremely doubtful. Athens is a special and only partial case, and even there, in spite of Solon, Herodotus[160] can speak of Cleisthenes, who overthrew the tyranny, as “the man who established the democracy.” The demagogues from whom Aristotle derives his early tyrants are mainly military demagogues: “the tyrant,” he says, “is also prone to make war[161].” This statement is hardly borne out by the facts. As a body, in spite of the times they lived in, the early tyrants were remarkable for their works not of war but of peace[162]. Some of them indeed, as for instance Orthagoras and Peisistratus, are reported to have distinguished themselves as soldiers before they became tyrants. The warlike exploits of the youthful Orthagoras are discussed below[163]. He cannot have been really prone to militarism, since Aristotle declares that a successor of his altered the character of the Sicyonian tyranny by becoming warlike[164]. Peisistratus’ early feats of war are well attested. Naturally enough he made political capital out of them. “He asked of the people that he should receive from them a bodyguard, having previously distinguished himself in the expedition against Megara, when he captured Nisaea and performed other great deeds[165].” But earlier in the same chapter Herodotus has made it perfectly plain that Peisistratus was not a military despot. “Having formed designs on the tyranny he raised a third faction, and having collected partizans, and posing as a champion of the Hillmen, he devised as follows.” It was the faction of the Hillmen and not[166] the Megarean expedition, that was the stepping-stone to the tyranny. Who the Hillmen were is discussed in the chapter on Athens. It has never been suggested that they were military[167].