Pisistratus (561 BC): The Tyrant Who Rebuilt Ancient Athens

Pisistratus was an Athenian noble who made himself tyrant of Athens, seizing power for the first time in 561/560 BC and ruling securely from 546 BC until his death in 528/527 BC. Despite twice being driven out, he gave Athens a long period of stability, promoted festivals and public works, and left Solon’s laws in place. The tyranny of his sons ended in 510 BC, and its fall led directly to the birth of Athenian democracy.

Background: Athens after Solon

The reforms of Solon around 594 BC had eased the debt crisis but not ended rivalry among the noble families. By the 560s BC Athens was split into three regional factions. The men of the Plain, led by Lycurgus, represented the great landowners; the men of the Coast followed Megacles of the Alcmaeonid family; and a third group, the men of the Hills, rallied around Pisistratus.

Pisistratus came from Brauron in eastern Attica and had won popularity as a general by capturing Nisaea, the port of Megara, probably in the 560s BC. Some ancient writers say he was related to Solon.

Three seizures of power

First tyranny (561/560 BC). Herodotus tells how Pisistratus drove into the Agora with wounds he had inflicted on himself and his mules, claiming his enemies had tried to kill him. The Assembly granted him a bodyguard of club-bearers, which he used to seize the Acropolis. Within a few years Megacles and Lycurgus combined to drive him out.

Second tyranny (c. 556 BC). Megacles then offered to restore Pisistratus if he would marry his daughter. Herodotus describes how a tall woman named Phye was dressed as the goddess Athena and driven into the city on a chariot, while heralds announced that Athena herself was bringing Pisistratus home. Herodotus found it astonishing that the Athenians were fooled. The alliance soon broke down when Pisistratus quarrelled with Megacles over the marriage, and he went into exile again.

Third tyranny (546 BC). During about ten years of exile Pisistratus gathered wealth from mines near Mount Pangaeus in Thrace and allies including Thebes, Argos and Lygdamis of Naxos. He landed at Marathon and defeated the Athenians at the Battle of Pallene in 546 BC. This time his rule lasted until his death. The exact dates of the first two periods are uncertain because ancient accounts conflict.

Rule and policies

Pisistratus kept the existing constitution and Solon’s laws, while making sure that his own family and supporters held the key offices. He disarmed many citizens and kept mercenaries, and some opponents were exiled or had to give him their children as hostages.

According to the Constitution of the Athenians, he lent money to poor farmers so they could work their land, collected a tax on produce, and appointed travelling judges for the countryside so that rural Athenians need not come to the city for justice. The same source says he ruled “more like a citizen than a tyrant”, and later Athenians remembered his reign as a golden age.

Festivals and building

Pisistratus and his sons made Athens a centre of culture. They promoted the Panathenaea, the great festival of Athena, which had been reorganised in 566 BC, shortly before his rise. They also developed the City Dionysia, where the first tragedy contest is traditionally dated to around 534 BC; its later home was the Theatre of Dionysus.

His family built or began many monuments: a fountain house in the city, the Altar of the Twelve Gods in the Agora, temple building on the Acropolis, and the colossal Temple of Olympian Zeus, started by his sons around 520 BC. Left unfinished after 510 BC, it was completed only by the Roman emperor Hadrian in AD 131/132. A later tradition also credits the Pisistratids with fixing the text of Homer’s poems, but this is debated.

The fall of his sons

When Pisistratus died in 528/527 BC, his eldest son Hippias succeeded him, assisted by his brother Hipparchus. In 514 BC Hipparchus was assassinated during the Panathenaic procession by Harmodius and Aristogeiton, later honoured as the Tyrannicides. Their motive was a personal quarrel, but Hippias became suspicious and harsh.

The exiled Alcmaeonid family, according to Herodotus, persuaded the Delphic oracle to urge Sparta to free Athens. In 510 BC King Cleomenes I of Sparta besieged Hippias on the Acropolis and forced him to leave. Hippias went to Persia, and in 490 BC he guided the Persian army to Marathon, where it was defeated.

Timeline

• c. 565 BC: Pisistratus wins fame by capturing Nisaea from Megara (date approximate).
• 561/560 BC: First seizure of power with a bodyguard of club-bearers.
• c. 556 BC: Second return through alliance with Megacles (date uncertain).
• 546 BC: Victory at Pallene begins his lasting rule.
• 528/527 BC: Pisistratus dies; Hippias succeeds him.
• 514 BC: Hipparchus is assassinated by Harmodius and Aristogeiton.
• 510 BC: Hippias is expelled with Spartan help.
• 490 BC: Hippias accompanies the Persian force to Marathon.

Why it matters

Pisistratus showed that a tyrant could strengthen rather than destroy a city’s institutions. By keeping Solon’s laws, curbing the rival noble factions and building a shared civic culture, he gave Athens unity and confidence. When his dynasty fell, the reforms of Cleisthenes in 508/507 BC built Athenian democracy on that foundation.