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Now the Alcmaeonidae fell not a whit short of this person in their
hatred of tyrants, so that I am astonished at the charge made against
them, and cannot bring myself to believe that they held up a shield;
for they were men who had remained in exile during the whole time that
the tyranny lasted, and they even contrived the trick by which the
Pisistratidae were deprived of their throne. Indeed I look upon them
as the persons who in good truth gave Athens her freedom far more than
Harmodius and Aristogeiton. For these last did but exasperate the
other Pisistratidae by slaying Hipparchus, and were far from doing
anything towards putting down the tyranny: whereas the Alcmaeonidae
were manifestly the actual deliverers of Athens, if at least it be
true that the Pythoness was prevailed upon by them to bid the
Lacedaemonians set Athens free, as I have already related.
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