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And now there had been small chance of the Pisistratidae falling into
the hands of the Spartans, who did not even design to sit down before
the place, which had moreover been well provisioned beforehand with
stores both of meat and drink, - nay, it is likely that after a few
days' blockade the Lacedaemonians would have quitted Attica
altogether, and gone back to Sparta - had not an event occurred most
unlucky for the besieged, and most advantageous for the besiegers.
The children of the Pisistratidae were made prisoners, as they were
being removed out of the country. By this calamity all their plans
were deranged, and - as the ransom of their children - they consented
to the demands of the Athenians, and agreed within five days' time to
quit Attica. Accordingly they soon afterwards left the country, and
withdrew to Sigeum on the Scamander, after reigning thirty-six years
over the Athenians. By descent they were Pylians, of the family of
the Neleids, to which Codrus and Melanthus likewise belonged, men
who in former times from foreign settlers became kings of Athens. And
hence it was that Hippocrates came to think of calling his son
Pisistratus: he named him after the Pisistratus who was a son of
Nestor. Such then was the mode in which the Athenians got quit of
their tyrants. What they did and suffered worthy of note from the time
when they gained their freedom until the revolt of Ionia from King
Darius, and the coming of Aristagoras to Athens with a request that
the Athenians would lend the Ionians aid, I shall now proceed to relate.
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