From Tyranny to Democracy, 546-483 prescribed sources

6.55

Hippias was Peisistratus’ eldest son, and I can confirm from the accurate information I have received that he was the one who held power. There is other evidence too: he was the only one of Peisistratus’ legitimate sons who had children. This is proved by the aforementioned altar, and also by the column built in the Acropolis by the Athenians, to commemorate the oppression of the tyrants. For on that column, no son of Thessalus or Hipparchus is named, but five of Hippias’ sons who were born to him by Myrrhine, daughter of Callias the son of Hyperechides. Now, the assumption is that the eldest son would be married first. What’s more, his name can be found inscribed on the same column right after his father’s; this again would suggest that he was the eldest son and succeeded him. I also believe that Hippias would have found it difficult to seize the tyranny if Hipparchus had been tyrant at the time of his death, and he had tried to step into his shoes. As it happened, because of the overwhelming constant dread which he had instilled in his citizens, and the strict control he kept of his guards, he kept control with flawless security and hardly any issue at all. Nor did he behave at all like the little brother who would have no clue how to take control because he had not had regular opportunities to command. Yet Hipparchus became famous because of his gory death, and as time went on people began remembering him (wrongly) as having been the tyrant.

6.56

When Hipparchus was rejected by Harmodios, he carried out his plan to smear him. He had a younger sister, whom Hipparchus and his friends first invited to carry a sacred basket in a procession, then rejected her and claimed she was unworthy of the job and had never been invited in the first place. This made Harmodios very angry, and Aristogeiton even angrier because Harmodios was angry. They had already made their preparations with their supporters, but were awaiting the festival of the Great Panathaenaia, when the citizens in the procession gather together in arms; if they had done this any other time, it would have looked suspicious. Harmodios and Aristogeiton were to initiate the attack, and the rest were to join in immediately by taking on the bodyguards. There were not many conspirators for reasons of secrecy, but they hoped that however few launched the attack, those in the crowd who were armed would join in out of a desire to save their own freedom.

6.57

When the festival arrived, Hippias left the city and went to a place called the Ceramicus with his bodyguards, where he was in charge of organising the procession. Harmodios and Aristogeiton were ready with their daggers and preparing to strike, but were alarmed when they saw one of the conspirators talking to Hippias (who was easily accessible to anyone) in a friendly manner. They were convinced that they had been betrayed, and were about to be captured imminently. So, at this point, they decided first to exact their revenge on the man who had wronged them, and for whom they had put themselves in all this danger. So they rushed inside the gates, as they were, and found Hipparchus near what was known as the Leocorium. There, they fell upon him in blind rage; one man with the rage of a wronged lover, and the other of a proud man stinging after an insult. They struck him down at once, and killed him. The crowd rushed together, so Aristogeiton was initially able to escape the guards, but was captured later and dealt with less than gently. Harmodios, meanwhile, died on the spot.

6.58

News of this reached Hippias at the Ceramicus, and he went immediately not to the scene, but to the armed men who were about to march in the procession, who were suitably far away to be unaware of what had happened. He did nothing to give away the disaster which had just occurred, and ordered the men to leave their arms and proceed to a place of his choosing. They assumed he had something to tell them, and obeyed him. Then Hippias told his bodyguards to seize the arms, and immediately picked out those he believed to be guilty, and all of those who were found with daggers on their person, since it was customary to carry only a spear and a shield in the procession.

6.59

So goes the story of the conspiracy of Harmodios and Aristogeiton. It began with a lover’s grievance, and concluded with a reckless act of daring caused by sudden fear. For the majority of people, the tyranny simply became more oppressive. Hippias, who was living in fear following his brother’s murder, killed many citizens. He also began looking abroad, hoping to secure asylum somewhere in the event of a revolution. An Athenian himself, he married his daughter Archedicè to a member of the Lampsacene family: Aeantides, son of Hippocles the tyrant of Lampsacus. He did this because he had noticed how Hippocles’ family had great influence over King Darius. She has a tomb at Lampsacus with the following inscription:

‘This earth covers Archedicè, daughter of Hippias,
A man once great among the Hellenes of his day.
Her father, husband, brothers, and sons were all tyrants,
And yet her mind was in no way inflated by arrogance.’

Hippias ruled over the Athenians for three more years; in the fourth, he was deposed by the Spartans and the exiled Alcmeonids. It was agreed that he would retire first to Sigeum, then to Aeantides at Lampsacus. From Aeantides, he went to Darius’ court, and returned from there 20 years later, an old man accompanying the Persian expedition to Marathon.

Herodotus 3.39

Whilst Cambyses was waging war against Egypt, the Spartans were making war too; against Samos, and Polycrates, son of Aeaces, who had seized power in the island. First, he divided the city into three parts, and gave a share in its governance to his brothers, Pantagnotus and Syloson. After a short while, however, he had Pantagnotus killed, and banished Syloson, the younger brother; thus, he made himself the ruler of all Samos. Subsequently, he drew up a treaty with Amasis, the King of Egypt, and there was an exchange of gifts between the two. Shortly after this, Polycrates’ power and reputation grew so much that he was famous in Ionia and all across the Greek territories, because all of his military campaigns were successful. He had 150 triremes and 1,000 archers, and he plundered everywhere indiscriminately. He said that if he took something from a friend, he would receive more thanks for returning it than if he had not taken it in the first place. He captured a great many of the islands, and several mainland cities as well. He conquered the Lesbians (amongst others), who had brought their entire force to support the Milesians. Polycrates defeated them in a sea battle, and when they had become his captives, it was them who dug the trench which surrounds the Samian acropolis.

Herodotus 3.44–3.60

3.44

Now, the Spartans waged war against the ever-fortunate unconquered Polycrates. They were invited to do so by the Samians, who later founded Cydonia on Crete. Cambyses, son of Cyrus, raised an army against Egypt. Polycrates, unknown to his people, had sent a herald to Cambyses and invited him to send a request to Samos for troops. When Cambyses received this message he was keen on utilising the Samians, and asked Polycrates to support him against the Egyptians with a fleet. Polycrates picked out all the men he considered the most likely to plan a revolt, put them in 40 triremes, and sent them to Cambyses with the instruction not to send them back.

3.45

Some say that these Samians never actually reached Egypt, and that when they had sailed as far as Carpathus they made a collective decision not to go any further. Others say that they did reach Egypt, where they escaped from the guard which had been assigned to them. As they made the return voyage to Samos, however, they were engaged in a naval battle with Polycrates’ ships, in which they were victorious and landed on the island. There, however, they were defeated in a land battle, so sailed on again to Sparta.

There are some people who say that these Samians defeated Polycrates, but I do not believe this is true, for they would not have needed the Spartans’ intervention if they had been able to overcome Polycrates alone. Indeed, it is rather unreasonable to believe that a man like him, with a huge army of mercenaries and bowmen of his own, could have been beaten by a small band of men like the exiled Samians. Polycrates took the wives and children of his subjects and held them in the boathouses, intending to burn the lot if their fathers and husbands decided to desert and side with the exiled Samians.

3.46

When the Samian exiles arrived in Sparta, they stood before the kings and made a long speech to demonstrate the extent of their needs and the seriousness of their situation. The Spartans, however, announced on their first sitting that they had forgotten the speech’s beginning and had failed to understand its end. For their second attempt, the Samians arrived with a sack and said only “The sack needs flour.” The Spartans’ reply was that they had perhaps been long-winded with “the sack”, but agreed to help them.

3.47

Then the Spartans assembled an army and sent it to Samos; as the Samians would say, “returning a favour”, since they had sent a fleet before to aid Sparta in the war against the Messenians. The Spartans, however, say that they did not send this force to help the exiled Samians, so much as to satisfy their need to avenge the theft of two items: a bowl which they were in the process of delivering to Croesus, and the breastplate which Amasis, King of Egypt, had given to them as a gift. The breastplate had been stolen by the Samians the year before they took the bowl; it was made of linen and decorated extravagantly with embroidered animals in gold and cotton. What made the breastplate so wondrous, however, is that each of its fine threads was made of 360 separate strands. It is an exact copy of the one dedicated by Amasis to Athena at Lindus.

3.48

The Corinthians were also keen to aid the expedition against Samos, because of a crime committed against them by the Samians a generation before the expedition, around the same time the bowl had been taken. Periander, son of Cypselus, sent 300 boys to Alyattes at Sardis, all of them sons of renowned men from Corcyra to be made into eunuchs. The Corinthians who were bringing these boys docked at Samos. When the Samians heard why they had come, first ordered them to take sanctuary in the temple of Artemis, before refusing to allow them to be dragged from the temple. When the Corinthians tried to starve out the boys, the Samians held a festival whose celebrations remain the same today; for the duration of the boys’ asylum, they threw dances every night for young men and women, to which it was a custom to bring sesame and honey cakes. As a result, the Corcyraean boys could snatch them up and eat them. They kept this up until the Corinthian guards got tired of it and left, and then the Samians returned the boys to Corcyra.

3.49

If the Corinthians had been civil towards Corcyra after Periander died, they would not have taken part in the expedition against Samos. Ever since they colonised the island, however, they had been at odds, despite their kinship. This was why the Corinthians bore a grudge against the Samians. Periander had picked out the noble Corcyraean boys and sent them to Sardis in order for them to be made eunuchs as revenge, because the Corcyraeans had started the mutual dislike by committing a crime against him.

3.50

Periander, after killing his wife Melissa, had a stroke of misfortune to add to all the others he had suffered. He had two sons, aged 17 and 18, with Melissa. Their maternal grandfather, Procles, King of Epidaurus, sent for them to visit him and treated them lovingly (naturally, of course, as they were his daughter’s children). As they were leaving, he said to them: “Boys, do you know who killed your mother?” The elder son paid no attention, but Lycophron, the younger one, was absolutely horrified. He would not speak to his father, his mother’s murderer, when he returned to Corinth; would not answer him when addressed, nor reply to his questions. Eventually, Periander grew so angry with him that he banished the boy from his home.

3.51

Having sent the younger one away, he asked the elder son what their grandfather had said. He told his father that Procles had been very kind, but did not repeat his parting words because he had not been paying attention. Periander said that Procles must have dropped some sort of hint, so pressed him continuously until the boy eventually remembered and told him. Periander understood, and did not want to appear weak, so sent a message to those who were living with his younger son and banned them from keeping him in their house. So each time the boy was driven out and headed to another house, he would be banished from there also. Periander had threatened everyone who received him and ordered them to send him away. So, having been driven out again, he went to some other friends’ house, and, although he was Periander’s son and they were frightened of the consequences, took him in anyway.

3.52

Eventually, Periander proclaimed that whoever sheltered the boy, or even spoke to him, would owe a fine to Apollo of an amount specified by him. As a result, nobody wanted to speak to the boy, or let him into their house, and even Lycophron himself did not consider it right to attempt what had been forbidden; accepting his father’s proclamation, he slept outside. Four days later Periander saw him, starving and dirty, and took pity on him. His anger lessened, and he approached him and said: “My boy, which would you prefer? To live life as you are now, or be good to your father and inherit my power and all my property? Although you are my son, a rich Corinthian prince, you prefer a beggar’s lifestyle, an angry opponent of me, the one to whom you should be least opposed. If something has made you suspicious of me, then that is my misfortune and I must bear it, since I am its cause. But consider how much better it is to be envied than pitied, and how poor it is to be angry with your parents and superiors; consider these things, and come home.” So Periander tried to move his son, but he still refused to say anything to his father other than to tell him that he owed Apollo a fine for speaking to him. When Periander saw exactly how unmoveable his son was in his stubborness, he sent him far from his sight in a ship to Corcyra, which he also controlled. When he had sent him away, he launched an offensive against his father-in-law Procles, because he was most responsible for his current predicament. He captured Epidaurus and held Procles prisoner.

3.53

Time marched on, and when Periander had grown well into old age and realised that he was unable to conduct all of his affairs any longer, he sent to Corcyra to invite Lycophron to take over the tyranny. He had no hope for his elder son, who he did not consider especially bright. Lycophron made no reply to the invitation. Periander continued to put pressure on the young man, and instead contacted him in the next best way, via his daughter, Lycophron’s sister. He thought he might listen to her. She came to him and said: “Young man, would you want the power to be passed to others, and our father’s fortune to be destroyed, rather than come back and have it for yourself? Stop beating yourself up and come home. Pride is a nasty possession; evil cannot be cured with evil. Plenty of people prioritise a more attractive thing before a fair one, and many have lost their father’s business by pursuing their mother’s. A tyranny is a slippery thing, wanted by many. Our father is old now and cannot manage it any more: do not give up what is yours to others.” So she spoke and passed on their father’s arguments.

Lycophron replied that he would never return to Corinth as long as he knew his father was still alive. When she relayed this response, Periander sent a third messenger, via whom he proposed a swap: he would go to Corcyra, and Lycophron should return to Corinth and take power. His son agreed to this, and the two men prepared to exchange their places. When the Corcyraeans, however, learned of all this, they killed the young man so Periander would not come to their country; it is for this reason that Periander wanted revenge on Corcyra.

3.54

Then the Spartans came with a huge army and besieged Samos. They marched to the wall and infiltrated the seaside tower on the outskirts of the city, but there Polycrates himself launched a violent counter-attack which drove them out again. The mercenaries and a large number of Samians rushed out near the high tower on the ridge of the hill, and held back the Spartan advance for a short time, before fleeing with the Spartans in hot and destructive pursuit.

3.55

If all the Spartans there that day had been like Archias and Lycopas, Samos would have been captured. Unsupported these two men entered the citadel alongside the fleeing Samians, were trapped, and killed within the city. I myself have met Archias son of Samius, the grandson of this Archias, in his hometown, Pitana. He honoured the Samians above any other guests, and explained that his father had been given the name Samius because he was the son of the Archias who had been killed during his brave fight at Samos. He also said that he honoured the Samians because they had granted his grandfather a state funeral.

3.56

When the Spartans had unsuccessfully besieged Samos for 40 days, they returned to the Peloponnese. There is a silly story from abroad that Polycrates bribed them to leave by presenting them with a huge quantity of specially-minted gilded lead coins as a native currency. This was the first expedition to Asia conducted by the Dorians from Lacedaemonia.

3.57

When the Spartans were about to abandon them, the Samians who had launched an offensive against Polycrates sailed off too, to Siphnos. They needed money, and at this time the Siphnians were the richest of all the islanders because of their native gold and silver mines. They were so wealthy that their dedications at Delphi, which is as rich as any there, comprised one tenth of their income. They divided the remainder of each year’s yield amongst themselves. At this point, whilst assembling their offering in Delphi, they asked the oracle if their current wealth was likely to last long. This was the priestess’ reply:

“When the town hall of Siphnos turns white
And the market goes white-browed, then it needs a clever man indeed.
Beware a wooden attack, and a red herald.”

Notably, at this time the agora and town hall of Siphnos were decorated with Parian marble.

3.58

They were completely unable to understand the oracle, both when it was spoken and when the Samians arrived. As soon as the Samians docked at Siphnos, they sent ambassadors to the city in one of their ships. In the old days, all ships were painted with vermilion, which is a red colour. This is what the priestess’ warning of “a wooden attack and a red herald” meant. The embassy demanded a loan of ten talents from the Siphnians, and when they refused, the Samians began laying waste to the land. When the Siphnians learnt of this they rushed out immediately to drive them off, but were defeated, and many were cut off from the town by the Samians, who managed to take 100 talents from them.

3.59

Then the Samians captured the island of Hydrea near the Peloponnese from the men of Hermione and put it under the care of the men of Troezen. They themselves settled at Cydonia on Crete, although they had set out on their voyage intending to drive the Zacynthians from the island, rather than settle on Crete. They lived well there for five years; the temples which now stand at Cydonia and the shrine of Dictynna are all Samian-built. In the sixth year, however, the Aeginetans came with the Cretans, defeated the Samians in a naval battle, and enslaved them all. They also cut off the ships’ boar-head-shaped prows and dedicated them to the temple of Athena in Aegina. The Aeginetans were acting on a grudge they had against the Samians, as in the old days when Amphicrates was their king, they had engaged in naval combat and suffered mutual losses.

3.60

I have written so much about the Samians, because they were the engineers of the three greatest Greek works of all time. The first of these is a tunnel with a mouth at each end, dug through the base of a hill 900 feet in height. The whole thing is 4,200 feet long, and eight feet high and wide. Throughout the tunnel there is a channel 30 feet deep and three feet wide, which conveys water from an active spring through pipes to the city of Samos. Eupalinus son of Naustrophus, a Megarian, designed this feat of engineering, and it is one of three remarkable works. The second is an ocean breakwater surrounding the harbour, with foundations 120 feet deep, and over 1,200 feet long. The third Samian accomplishment is the temple; the greatest of all temples we know. Its first builder was a Samian named Rhoecus, son of Philes. On account of these, I have given special attention to the story of Samos.

Herodotus 3.120–3.125

3.120

The following happened during Cambyses’ illness. Firstly, the governor of Sardis, who had been appointed by Cyrus, was a Persian called Oroetes. Oroetes had wicked ambition. He had never been injured or insulted by Polycrates of Samos, and indeed, had never even laid eyes on him, yet still he wished to capture and kill him. Most people say this is why: as Oroetes sat at the king’s doors alongside Mitrobates, another Persian who governed the Dascyleian province, their chatter turned to argument. As they compared their various achievements, Mitrobates said to him: “You should not be considered a real man – your province is so close to the island of Samos, but you have not claimed it for the king’s empire. And Samos is so easy to conquer, some local bloke is currently in charge of it after leading a revolt with fifteen hoplites.” Some claim that Oroetes was angered by this jibe, and wanted not to punish its source so much as annihilate Polycrates, who gave the insult its context.

3.121

A handful do say, however, that when Oroetes sent a messenger to Samos with some unspecified request, that messenger found Polycrates lying in the men’s quarters with Anacreon of Teos. Whether or not he did so out of contempt for Oroetes, Polycrates lay with his face to the wall and would not turn or answer the messenger when he spoke.

3.122

These are the two alleged causes of Polycrates’ death; you may choose which to believe. Either way, the consequence was that Oroetes, who was at that time at Magnesia above the River Maeander, learned of Polycrates’ plans and sent the Lydian Myrsus, son of Gyges, to Samos with a message. Polycrates was the first Greek in memory to aim for naval dominance, Minos of Cnossus and any rulers of the sea before him excluded. Polycrates was the first of the modern human race, and had high hopes of controlling Ionia and the islands. So, Oroetes learnt of these intentions and sent him the following: “Oroetes addresses Polycrates thus: I understand that you are aiming for great things, but do not have enough money to achieve your goals. So: do what I say, and you will both succeed in your own plans, and save me. I have clear intelligence that King Cambyses wants me dead. Now, if you will transport me and my money, you may take a percentage of it for yourself; enough wealth to rule all Greece. If you do not believe me regarding my wealth, send one of your most trusted men and I will prove it to him.”

3.123

Polycrates was delighted upon hearing this, and willing to comply, for he desperately wanted money. First he sent Maeandrius, son of Maeandrius, one of his townsmen, to see if Oroetes’ claim was true. He was his scribe, and not long after this, dedicated all the glorious furnishings of Polycrates’ mens’ quarters to the Temple of Hera. When Oroetes heard that he should await an inspection, he filled eight chests with stones, and left a small space at the top where he laid a layer of gold on top. He locked the chests and kept them ready. Maeandrius came, saw them, and reported back to his master.