Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-7b9c58cd5d-f9bf7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-14T11:55:43.661Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

44 - The Tyranny of Pisistratus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
A. Andrewes
Edited by
John Boardman  and
N. G. L. Hammond
Get access

Summary

Solon to Pisistratus

Solon's reform broke the monopoly of office enjoyed till his time by the Attic nobility. This was bound to be resented, and the following years were punctured by strife over the appointment of the archon. The bleak record in Ath. Pol. 13.1–2 tells of two occasions when faction prevented an appointment, and then of Damasias who, though legitimately archon, held on to office for two years and two months till he was driven out by force. The first regular celebration of the Pythian games, in 582, is dated to the year of Damasias (Marm. Par. ep. 38; hyp. Pind. Pyth.): this must be his first and legal year, which is therefore 582/1, and this enables us to sort out Aristotle's indications of interval and so to date the two earlier years of anarchy to 590/89 and 586/5. We may doubt if anything certain was known beyond the fact that these two years were labelled anarchia in the official list, as for 404/3 when the succeeding democracy refused to recognize Pythodorus the archon of the Thirty. The case could have been similar here, not that Athens was literally without a chief magistrate in these years but that their successors did not recognize these elections as valid.

Damasias' usurpation was followed, acording to Ath. Pol. 13.2, by a decision, ‘ because of the faction, to appoint ten archons, five from the Eupatridae, three from the αγροικοι (agroikot), two from the δημιουργοι (demiourgoi), and these held office for the year after Damasias', that is presumably for the remaining ten months of 580/79.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Ancient History
, pp. 392 - 416
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adcock, F. E. ‘Athens under the Tyrants’, The Cambridge Ancient History IV 1. Cambridge, 1926.Google Scholar
Beloch, K. J. Griechische Geschichte. 2nd edn. Strassburg–Berlin, 1912–27.Google Scholar
Berve, H. Die Tyrannis bei den Griechen I–II. Munich, 1967. With full bibliography.Google Scholar
Berve, H. Miltiades (Hermes Einzelschr. 2). Wiesbaden, 1937.Google Scholar
Beyer, I. ‘Die Datierung der grossen Reliefgiebel des alten Athenatempels der Akropolis’, Archäologischer Anzeiger 1977.Google Scholar
Bicknell, P. J. Studies in Athenian Politics and Genealogy (Historia, Einzelschr. 19). Wiesbaden, 1972.Google Scholar
Boardman, J. ‘Herakles, Peisistratos and Eleusis’, Journal of Hellenic Studies 95 (1975).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boardman, J. ‘Herakles, Peisistratos and sons’, Revue Archéologique (1972).Google Scholar
Bowra, C. M. Greek Lyric Poetry. 2nd edn. Oxford, 1961.Google Scholar
Busolt, G. Griechische Geschichte. 2nd edn. Gotha, 1893–1904.Google Scholar
Cadoux, T. J. ‘The Athenian Archons from Kreon to Hypsichides’, Journal of Hellenic Studies 68 (1948).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cavaignac, E. ‘La désignation des archontes athéniens jusqu'en 487’, Revue de philologie, de littérature et d'histoire anciennes 2.48 (1924).Google Scholar
Cook, J. M., BSA 56 (1961).Google Scholar
Corbett, P. E., JHS 80 (1960).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cornelius, F. Die Tyrannis in Athen. Munich, 1929.Google Scholar
Davies, J. K. Athenian Propertied Families 600–300 B.C Oxford, 1971.Google Scholar
Davison, J. A. ‘Peisistratus and Homer’, Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 86 (1955).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eliot, C. W. J. ‘Where did the Alkmaionidai live?’, Historia 16 (1967).Google Scholar
Farnell, L. R. Cults of the Greek States Oxford, 1909.Google Scholar
Gernet, L., Anthropologie de la Grèce antique suppl. 14 (1975).Google Scholar
Gernet, L. ‘Les dix archontes de 581’, Revue de philologie, de littérature et d'histoire anciennes (1948).Google Scholar
Grayson, A. K. Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles Locust Valley, New York, 1975.Google Scholar
Greenhalgh, P. A. L. Early Greek Warfare Cambridge, 1973.Google Scholar
Grote, G. History of Greece III. London, 1888.Google Scholar
Hammond, N. G. L. A History of Greece 2nd edn. Oxford, 1967.Google Scholar
Harrison, E. B., The Athenian Agora 11; Archaic and Arcbaistic Sculpture (Princeton, 1960).Google Scholar
Hignett, C. A History of the Athenian Constitution Oxford, 1952.Google Scholar
Hopper, R. J. ‘Observations on the Wappenmünzen’, Essays…Stanley Robinson. Oxford, 1968.Google Scholar
Hopper, R. J. ‘“Plain”, “Shore”, and “Hill” in early Athens’, Annual of the British School of Archaeology at Athens 56 (1961).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacoby, , CQ 38 (1944).Google Scholar
Jacoby, F. Apollodors Chronik Berlin, 1902.Google Scholar
Jacoby, F. Atthis Oxford, 1949.Google Scholar
Jeffery, L. H. Archaic Greece, the City-States c. 700–500 B.C London, 1976.Google Scholar
Jeffery, L. H. ‘The inscribed gravestones of Archaic Attica’, Annual of the British School of Archaeology at Athens 57 (1962).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnston, A. W. and Jones, R. E. ‘The “SOS” amphora’, Annual of the British School of Archaeology at Athens 73 (1978).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kolb, F. ‘Die Bau-, Religions- und Kulturpolitik der Peisistratiden’, Jahrbuch des deutschen archäologischen Instituts 92 (1977).Google Scholar
Kraay, C. M. Archaic and Classical Greek Coins London, 1976.Google Scholar
Lewis, D. M., Hesp. 28 (1959).Google Scholar
Lewis, D. M. ‘Cleisthenes and Attica’, Historia 12 (1963).Google Scholar
Lloyd-Jones, H., Maia 19 (1967).Google Scholar
Meritt, B. D., Wade-Gery, H. T. and McGregor, M. F. The Athenian Tribute Lists 1. Cambridge, Mass., 1939.Google Scholar
Meyer, , Ed. Forschungen zur alten Geschichte I–II. Halle, 1892–9.Google Scholar
Meyer, , Ed. Geschichte des Altertums III. 2nd edn, ed. Stier, H. E.. Stuttgart, 1937.Google Scholar
Mylonas, G. E. Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries Princeton, 1961.Google Scholar
Pickard-Cambridge, A. The Dramatic Festivals of Athens 2nd edn., ed. Gould, J. and Lewis, D. M.. Oxford, 1968.Google Scholar
Raubitschek, A. E. Dedications from the Athenian Acropolis Cambridge, Mass., 1948.Google Scholar
Rhodes, P. J. ‘Pisistratid chronology again’, Phoenix 30 (1976).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robert, L., Hellenica 11-12(1960).Google Scholar
Robertson, C. M. A History of Greek Art 1–11. Cambridge, 1975.Google Scholar
Schachermeyr, F. ‘Peisistratos 3’, Pauly–Wissowa–Kroll–Mittelhaus, , Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft 19. 1938.Google Scholar
Shear, T. L., Hesp. 40 (1971).Google Scholar
Strasburger, H. ‘Herodots Zeitrechnung’, Historia 5 (1956).Google Scholar
Sumner, G. V. ‘Notes on chronological problems in the Aristotelian ᾽Αθηναίων Πολιτεία’, Classical Quarterly n.s. 11 (1961).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, H. A. and Wycherley, R. E. The Athenian Agora XIV: The Agora of Athens Princeton, 1972.Google Scholar
Thomsen, R., The Origin of Ostracis (Gyldendal, 1972).Google Scholar
Traill, J. S., Hesp. suppl. 14 (1975).Google Scholar
Traill, J. S. ‘Diakris, the inland trittys of Leontis’, Hesperia 47 (1978).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vallet, G. Rhégion et Zancle Paris, 1958.Google Scholar
Vanderpool, E. ‘The date of the pre-Persian city-wall of Athens’, ΦΟΡΟΣ: Tribute to Benjamin Dean Meritt. New York, 1974.Google Scholar
Wade-Gery, H. T. Essays in Greek History Oxford, 1958.Google Scholar
Wallace, W. P. ‘The early coinages of Athens and Euboia’, Numismatic Chronicle 7.2 (1962).Google Scholar
White, M. E., Phoenix 23 (1969).Google Scholar
Wilamowitz, , Homerische Untersuchungen (Berlin, 1884).Google Scholar
Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, U. von Aristotelesund Athen I–II. Berlin, 1893.Google Scholar
Zuntz, G., CR 49 (1935).Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×