From Tyranny to Democracy, 546-483 prescribed sources

3.124

Then Polycrates readied himself to visit Oroetes, against the advice of his diviners, friends, and a vision which came to his daughter in a dream. In her dream, she saw her father up in the air being washed by Zeus and anointed by Helios. Afterwards, she tried to convince him by any means at all not to make the journey to Oroetes, and as he embarked upon his fifty-oared ship, she prophesied disaster for him. When Polycrates threatened her with a long period unwed if he returned safe, she responded with a prayer asking for his threat to be fulfilled: she said she would rather remain unmarried than lose her father.

3.125

Polycrates, however, took no heed of any advice. He sailed to meet with Oroetes with a huge throng of followers, among them was Democedes, son of Calliphon. He was from Croton⁶, and the most talented physician of his era. As soon as Polycrates reached Magnesia, however, he was murdered brutally, in a manner completely unworthy of him and his agenda. Apart from the kings of Syracuse, no king of any Greek race could be compared with Polycrates’ magnificence. Oroetes killed him in an unspeakable way, and then crucified him. He let the Samians who had accompanied him go, and told them to thank him for their freedom. He kept the non-Samians and servants of Polycrates’ followers as slaves. The image of Polycrates hanging overhead matched his daughter’s dream exactly: he was washed by Zeus in the rain, and anointed by Helios as his body sweated.

Herodotus 3.139–3.147

3.139

Then King Darius conquered Samos, the greatest of all Greek or barbarian city-states. He made this conquest because when Cambyses, son of Cyrus, invaded Egypt, a large number of Greeks came with the army. Many of them were there to trade, as is to be expected, and others came to see the country itself. One such sightseer was Syloson, son of Aeaces, Polycrates’ brother who had been exiled from Samos. He had a particular stroke of good luck: he was in the market at Memphis wearing a red cloak when he was seen by a man named Darius, an as yet unknown and unimportant guard of Cambyses. He wanted Syloson’s cloak, and tried to buy it from him. When Syloson saw how keen Darius was, he said, on a whim: “I will not ask for any money for this; I will give it to you for free if you are so desperate for it.” Darius was delighted, and accepted the cloak.

3.140

Syloson thought it was merely silly good nature which had lost him his cloak. But eventually, Cambyses died, the seven rebelled against the Magus, and out of that seven it was Darius who became king. It was then that Syloson learnt that he had given away the cloak in Egypt to the new king. He travelled to Susa and sat in the entrance to the royal palace, claiming to be one of Darius’ benefactors. When the guard told the king what he was doing, Darius asked “Which Greek benefactor should I thank? In the short time I have been king, scarcely any Greeks at all have come to visit us, and I must say, I have no want or use for a Greek. Still, bring him in, so I know why he is here.” Syloson was ushered in by the guards. He stood there whilst the interpreters asked him who he was, what he had done, and why he was calling himself the king’s benefactor. Syloson told his story about the cloak, and identified himself as the giver. “You are a most generous man,” said Darius, “you who gave me a gift when I had no power. Even though it was very small, I was no less grateful than I am now when I receive a big present. I shall give you huge heaps of gold and silver in return, so you may never regret the kind thing you did for Darius, son of Hystaspes.” Syloson replied: “Do not give me gold or silver, o king; give me Samos, my country. Our slave has it in his power now that Oroetes has killed my brother, Polycrates. Please give me this without death or slavery.”

3.141

When Darius heard this, he assembled an army and sent Otanes, one of the seven, to lead it. Darius gave him instruction to do whatever Syloson wanted. And so, Otanes travelled down to the coast to ready his army.

3.142

Samos was ruled by Maeandrius, son of Maeandrius, who had been delegated the task by Polycrates. His wish was to be the most just of all men, but that was completely impossible. When he learnt of Polycrates’ death, he first of all set up an altar to Zeus the Liberator, and marked a sacred enclosure around it which can still be viewed in one of the city suburbs. Having done this, he called all the citizens to an assembly and said: “As you know, the sceptre of Polycrates and all of his power has fallen to me. Now it is in my power to rule you. But I myself shall not do anything which I would disapprove of another man doing, as far as I am able. I never liked how Polycrates or any other man would lord it over men who were just like him. Well, Polycrates has fulfilled his destiny, and now I proclaim equality as I invite you to take a share in what was his power. The only things which I will claim for my own use is six talents of Polycrates’ fortune, and that my descendants and I will hold the priesthood of Zeus the Liberator: I have founded his temple, and now I give you all freedom.” So Maeandrius made his promise to the Samians. One of them, however, stood and rebuked him: “You are not even worthy of ruling us, you low-born rat! You’d better tell us exactly how you have spent the money you’ve claimed.”

3.143

This was spoken by Telesarchus, a well-respected man amongst the citizens. But Maeandrius realised that if he let go of power, someone else would claim it instead, so he decided not to let go of it. He withdrew into the acropolis, and sent for the citizens individually, as if he were about to give an account of the money. Then he seized and bound them, so they were held as his prisoners. After this, Maeandrius became ill. His brother Lycaretus thought he was very likely to die, and put all the prisoners to their deaths so he would be able to seize power more easily. The people of Samos had no apparent desire for freedom, 3.144 so, when the Persians returned Syloson to Samos, nobody so much as raised a hand against them. Instead, Maeandrius and his supporters offered to leave the island as part of a truce. Otanes agreed to this, and after the treaty had been made, the highest-ranking Persians sat in seats facing the acropolis.

3.145

Maeandrius had a mad brother called Charilaus, who was being held in chains in a dungeon for some crime or another. He heard what was going on, and peered out of the dungeon window to see the Persians sitting there in peace. Seeing this, he gave a loud shout asking to speak to Maeandrius, who heard his brother, and had him unbound and brought to him. As soon as Charilaus arrived in Maeandrius’ presence, he began trying with heckles and insults to persuade Maeandrius to attack the Persians. He said: “Although I am your brother, you coward, and did nothing to warrant my imprisonment, you have bound and imprisoned me. But when you see the Persians taking over your home and your city, you aren’t brave enough to take them on, even though you could beat them easily? If you personally are scared of them, give your soldiers to me and I will punish them for coming here; then I will give you a safe passage from this island.”

3.146

This was what Charilaus said, and Maeandrius took his advice. I think not because he was silly enough to think he would be strong enough to beat the Persians, but because he did not want Syloson’s recovery of Samos to be straightforward and hassle-free. He wanted to weaken the island as much as possible before he surrendered it by provoking the Persians. He well understood that they would be very angry with the Samians if they were hurt in any way. He also knew that he could leave the island safely whenever he wanted, as he had built a secret passage from the acropolis to the sea. So, Maeandrius sailed from Samos, but Charilaus armed all the guards, threw open the gates of the acropolis, and attacked the Persians. They were taken by surprise, believing that a full agreement had been made as part of the treaty. The guards attacked them and killed the very noblest of Persians, the ones who were carried in litters. As they were doing this, the rest of the Persian force appeared to reinforce their kinsmen, and the guards were eventually forced to retreat into the acropolis.

3.147

When the Persian general Otanes saw how many Persians were dead, he deliberately forgot Darius’ instructions not to kill or enslave any of the Samians, and to give the island safe and sound to Syloson. Instead, he ordered his army to kill everyone they took, both man and child. Whilst a number of Persians sieged the acropolis, the rest killed all they encountered, in and out of the temples.

Herodotus 5.55–5.56

5.55

... Athens ... had been freed from tyrannical rule in the following manner: firstly, Hipparchus, the son of Peisistratus and brother of the tyrant Hippias, was killed by Aristogeiton and Harmodios, two men belonging to the family of the Gephyraei. Hipparchus had, in fact, been foretold of this evil by a dream. Following this, the Athenians spent four years as the subjects of a tyranny even stronger and more all-encompassing than ever before.

5.56

This was the vision which appeared to Hipparchus in his dream: the night before the Panathaenaia, he thought he saw a tall, handsome man stood over him, muttering these strange rhymes:

“O lion, endure the unendurable with a lion’s heart.
No man on earth sins without punishment.”

As soon as morning came, he recounted this to the dream-interpreters, and put the dream out of his mind shortly afterwards, before setting out on the march to his death.

Herodotus 5.62–5.78

5.62

... Now I must go back further to the story which I started; the one about how the Athenians were liberated from their tyrants. The tyrant Hippias was becoming even nastier in his hatred of the Athenians because of Hipparchus’ death. The Alcmeonids, an Athenian family banished by the sons of Peisistratus, tried to force their way back in and free Athens, along with the rest of the exiled Athenians. They were unsuccessful, and indeed were pushed back a long way. Having fortified Lipsydrium, north of Paeonia⁷, and eager to use any means they could against the sons of Peisistratus, they offered their services to the Amphictyons in building the temple of Delphi, which stands now, but did not back then. They were wealthy and well-renowned, just like their fathers, so they made the temple more beautiful than the plans: particularly the front of the temple, which they made out of Parian marble instead of the limestone they had agreed.

5.63

The Athenians say that these men set themselves up at Delphi, and bribed the Pythia to tell any Spartans who came to ask her advice on any matter, public or private, to set Athens free. Then the Spartans, as a result of the constant repetition of the same command, sent the well-respected Achimolius, son of Aster, to drive out the sons of Peisistratus with military force. Even though they were close friends of Sparta, the will of the god weighed down upon them more heavily than the will of mankind. They sent these men over by sea. Anchimolius docked at Phalerum, and his army disembarked there. The Peisistratids, however, had already received intelligence on this plan, and asked for aid from the Thessalians, their allies. The Thessalians joined them at their request, and sent their own King Cineas of Condia with a troop of cavalry a thousand strong. When the Peisistratids had assembled this allied force, they made this plan: first they ravaged the plain of Phalerum, so the land could be ridden over, and set their cavalry against the enemy’s army. The cavalry charged, killing Anchimolius and many other Spartans, and routed the survivors back to their ships. The first Spartan army thus drew off. Anchimolius’ tomb is at Alopece in Attica, near to the Heracleum in Cynosarges.

5.64

After this, the Spartans sent a bigger army to attack Athens, and made Cleomenes, son of Anaxandrides, its general. This army was sent by land, not sea. When they burst into Attica, the Thessalian horsemen encountered them first, who were routed after a brief fight which killed more than 40 men. The survivors escaped for Thessaly down the shortest road they could find. Then, when Cleomenes and the freedom-seeking Athenians entered the city, he drove the tyrants’ family into the confines of the Acropolis and laid siege to them.

5.65

The Spartans would never have taken the Peisistratids’ stronghold; firstly, they had no intention to blockade it, and secondly, they had plenty of provisions. The Spartans only would have besieged it for a few days before going home. As it happens, there was a turn of fortune which was good for one side and bad for the other, for Peisistratus’ sons and their families were captured as they were conveyed secretly out of the country. This confounded all their plans, and they decided to leave Attica within five days on the Athenians’ terms, provided that their children were released. Then they left for Sigeum on the River Scamander. They had ruled Athens for 36 years. The family were the descendants of Pylos and Neleus, born from the same family tree as the families of Codrus and Melanthus, who once upon a time had come from abroad to rule Athens. For this reason, Hippocrates named his son “Peisistratus” in memory of the son of Nestor. This is how the Athenians disposed of their tyrants. Now, I will recount all the impressive things which they did or endured after they were freed, before Ionia revolted against Darius, and Aristagoras of Miletus asked for the aid of Athens.

5.66

Athens, a once great city, became even greater with her tyrants gone. The two main power holders were Cleisthenes, of the Alcmeonid family, who allegedly once bribed the Pythia, and Isagoras son of Tisandrus, who had impressive lineage though I could not describe it to you; other than that his family make sacrifices to Zeus of Caria. These men and their supporters ended up in contention for power. Cleisthenes was doing worse in the dispute, and absorbed the common people into his party. Shortly afterwards, he divided the Athenians into ten tribes rather than the previous four. He did not name them after the sons of Ion; Geleon, Aegicores, Argades, and Hoples; but instead gave them names taken from other heroes, all native to Athens except from Ajax. He added Ajax because he was a neighbour and an ally, even if he was a foreigner.

5.67

By doing this, I believe that Cleisthenes’ was imitating his mother’s father, Cleisthenes, tyrant of Sicyon. For Cleisthenes, having waged war against the Argives, ended bard competitions at Sicyon because the Homeric poems were full of praise for Argos and the Argives. Then he developed the desire to exile Adrastus son of Talaus, a hero whose shrine stood then (and still stands now) in the very marketplace of Sicyon, because he was an Argive. He went to Delphi and asked the oracle if he should carry out this wish, but the priestess replied: “Adrastus is king of Sicyon, and you are nothing but a stone-thrower.”

When the god would not allow him to do what he wanted, he went home and tried to make another plan which would get rid of Adrastus. When he thought he had one, he sent to Thebes saying that he would be happy to welcome Melanippus, son of Astacus, into Sicyon. The Thebans handed him over. When Cleisthenes had brought him in, he consecrated a sanctuary for him in the government house itself, which he gave the highest security. I must say why Cleisthenes brought Melanippus in: he was Adrastus’ worst enemy, since Adrastus had killed his brother, Mecisteus, and his son-in-law Tydeus. When he had selected the area for him, Cleisthenes took away all Adrastus’ sacrifices and festivals and gave them to Melanippus. The Sicyonians were used honouring Adrastus because the land used to belong to his maternal grandfather Polybus; he had died heirless and had left Adrastus the kingdom. Other honours aside, the Sicyonians also celebrated his terrible fate with tragic choruses in his own honour, rather than Dionysus’. But Cleisthenes gave the choruses back to Dionysus, and the rest of the honours to Melanippus.

5.68

So this is what he did about Adrastus. As for the Dorian tribes, he changed their names so they would not be shared by Sicyonians and Argives. He made the Sicyonians look particularly stupid by giving their tribes names based on the words for “donkey” and “pig”, only changing the endings. He did not change the name of his own tribe like this, and gave it a name to represent his own rule: the “Archelaoi”, “rulers of the people”. The rest were “Swinites”, “Assites”, and “Porkites”; the Sicyonians used these names under Cleisthenes’ rule, and for 60 years or more after he died. After this, however, they decided to change the three tribes’ names to the Hylleis, Pamphyli, and Dymanatae, and added a fourth which they called Aegialeis, after Aegialeus, son of Adrastus.

5.69

This is what Sicyonian Cleisthenes did, whereas the Athenian Cleisthenes, following in the footsteps of his grandfather and namesake, decided out of (I think) contempt for the Ionians that his tribes should not be the same as theirs. When he had absorbed the Athenian people into his own party, which banned all rights at that time, he gave the tribes ten new names, and increased their numbers. He appointed ten tribe-leaders (phylarchs) instead of four, and assigned ten districts (demes) to each tribe. By the time he had won over the people, he was far stronger than his rival.

5.70

Isagoras, who was losing badly to Cleisthenes, drew up a counter plot, and asked for the help of Cleomenes, who had been his friend since the siege on the Peisistratids. It is even said that Cleomenes regularly visited Isagoras’ wife. Cleomenes firstly sent a messenger to Athens calling for the banishment of Cleisthenes and many other Athenians besides; he called them the “Accursed”. He sent this in his message by Isagoras’ instruction; the Alcmeonids and their supporters were accused of that dreadful deed, whilst Isagoras and his friends had no part in it.

5.71

Now I will explain how the Athenian “Accursed” got their name. There was an Athenian called Cylon, who was a former Olympic victor. He acted like he was aiming to become tyrant of Athens, and having assembled a company of his friends, attempted to capture the Acropolis. When this attempt was unsuccessful, he sought shelter by the statue of the goddess [Athena]. They were removed from their position by the presidents of the naval boards, the Athenian rulers of the time. They were then killed, even though they were eligible for any punishment except death, and their deaths were blamed on the Alcmeonids. All of this took place before Peisistratus’ time.

5.72

When Cleomenes had sent out his demands for the exile of Cleisthenes and the Accursed, Cleisthenes himself departed in secret. After this, Cleomenes appeared in Athens with a modest force. When he arrived, he banished 700 Athenian families picked out for him by Isagoras, in order to break the curse. Having done this, next he tried to dissolve the Council, handing over government offices to Isagoras and his supporters. But the Council resisted, so Cleomenes and Isagoras seized the Acropolis with their supporters. The rest of the Athenians pulled together and besieged them for two days. On the third, all the Spartans left the country under truce. The prophetic voice which Cleomenes had heard was fulfilled, for when he climbed to the Acropolis with no intention of capturing it, he approached the shrine to address himself to the goddess. The priestess stood up from her seat, and before he had crossed the threshold, said: “Turn back, Spartan stranger, and do not enter this holy place. It is unlawful for a Dorian to come here.” He replied: “Madam, I am not a Dorian, but an Achaean.” And, ignoring the omen, he tried to do what he wanted; as I have said, he was then exiled alongside all his Spartan kinsmen. The Athenians threw the rest in prison under a death sentence. Timesitheus the Delphian was one of the prisoners; his achievements of strength and courage were incredible.

5.73

So, these men were bound and killed. Afterwards, the Athenians sent for the return of Cleisthenes and the 700 families whom Cleomenes had expelled. Wishing to form an alliance with the Persians, they also sent envoys to Sardis, as they knew they had provoked the Spartans and Cleomenes into going to war. When the envoys arrived at Sardis and passed on their messages as instructed, Artaphernes son of Hystaspes, the chief of Sardis, asked: “You, men who want a Persian alliance: who are you and where have you come from?” When they had given him the answers he wanted, he made a reply which said, to paraphrase, that if the Athenians gave earth and water to King Darius, he would honour their wishes; if they did not, he would order them to leave. The envoys discussed this amongst themselves, and decided to do what was asked out of their desire to form the alliance. Then they came home and found that they had received huge blame for what they had done.

5.74

Cleomenes, however, was fully aware that the Athenians had wronged him in deeds and words, and gathered up an army to represent the entire Peloponnese. He did not publicise why he had assembled this army, mainly so he might avenge himself on the Athenians, and establish Isagoras (who had accompanied him out of the Acropolis) as tyrant. Cleomenes got as far as Eleusis with a large force, and the Boeotians seized Oenoe and Hysiae, demes on the borders of Attica, in a joint offensive. The Chalcidians, meanwhile, attacked from a different direction, and made raids in some Attican districts. The Athenians found themselves surrounded by hostile forces, and decided to face the Spartans at Eleusis and tackle the Boeotians and Chalcidians later.

5.75

When the armies were on the cusp of engaging, the Corinthians, realising that they were acting immorally, changed their minds and left. Later, Demaratus son of Ariston (the other Spartan king) did the same, despite having come from Sparta as Cleomenes’ joint commander of the army, and never having been at odds with him before. Consequently, the Spartans made a law decreeing that when an army was sent out, both kings could not be sent with it. Until this time, the kings had gone together, but now one king was released from service, and one of the sons of Tyndarus could also be left at home. Previously, both sons of Tyndarus were also asked to go with the army and offer their support. Now, when the rest of the allies saw the difference of opinion between the Spartan kings, and that the Corinthians had left Eleusis, they turned back too.

5.76

This was the Dorians’ fourth trip into Attica. They had come twice before as invaders, and twice to help the Athenians. The first time was when they established a settlement at Megara (which may rightly be attributed to the reign of Codrus), and the second and third when they had set out to expel the sons of Peisistratus. This was the fourth, when Cleomenes reached as far as Eleusis with his Peloponnesian allies.

5.77

When this army had been ingloriously scattered, the Athenians then set against the Chalcidians to punish them. The Boeotians came to the Euripus strait to the Chalcidians’ aid, and as soon as the Athenians saw them, they decided to attack them first rather than the Chalcidians. When they fought the Boeotians they won well, killing many and capturing 700. On the same day, the Athenians crossed over to Euboea to face the Chalcidians, and also beat them. When they had won this battle, they left 4,000 tenant farmers in the horse-breeding country. “Horse-breeder” was the epithet given to notable Chalcidians. They threw all of the survivors of this group into chains, and held them in captivity alongside the Boeotians.

Eventually, however, they set them free for a carefully considered ransom of two minae. They hung their chains in the Acropolis, where even in my day they could still be viewed on the walls charred by the Persians’ fire, opposite the west-facing temple. They also made a dedication of ten percent of the ransom, which was used to make a four-horse chariot which stands on the left hand side of the entrance hall of the Acropolis. It is inscribed with the following:

“Athens fought Chalcis and Boeotia,

Threw them into chains and quashed their pride.
Prison was grief, and ransom cost them dear
One tenth of their ransoms donated to Pallas produced this magnificent chariot.”