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On inquiring into the condition of these two nations, Croesus found
that one, the Athenian, was in a state of grievous oppression and
distraction under Pisistratus, the son of Hippocrates, who was at
that time tyrant of Athens. Hippocrates, when he was a private
citizen, is said to have gone once upon a time to Olympia to see the
Games, when a wonderful prodigy happened to him. As he was employed
in sacrificing, the cauldrons which stood near, full of water and of
the flesh of the victims, began to boil without the help of fire, so
that the water overflowed the pots. Chilon the Lacedaemonian, who
happened to be there and to witness the prodigy, advised Hippocrates,
if he were unmarried, never to take into his house a wife who could
bear him a child; if he already had one, to send her back to her
friends; if he had a son, to disown him. Chilon's advice did not at
all please Hippocrates, who disregarded it, and some time after
became the father of Pisistratus. This Pisistratus, at a time when
there was civil contention in Attica between the party of the
Sea-coast headed by Megacles the son of Alcmaeon, and that of the
Plain headed by Lycurgus, one of the Aristolaids, formed the
project of making himself tyrant, and with this view created a third
party. Gathering together a band of partisans, and giving himself out
for the protector of the Highlanders, he contrived the following
stratagem. He wounded himself and his mules, and then drove his
chariot into the market-place, professing to have just escaped an
attack of his enemies, who had attempted his life as he was on his way
into the country. He besought the people to assign him a guard to
protect his person, reminding them of the glory which he had gained
when he led the attack upon the Megarians, and took the town of
Nisaea, at the same time performing many other exploits. The
Athenians, deceived by his story, appointed him a band of citizens to
serve as a guard, who were to carry clubs instead of spears, and to
accompany him wherever he went. Thus strengthened, Pisistratus broke
into revolt and seized the citadel. In this way he acquired the
sovereignty of Athens, which he continued to hold without disturbing
the previously existing offices or altering any of the laws. He
administered the state according to the established usages, and his
arrangements were wise and salutary.
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