Tyranny at Athens
Strife among aristocrats, combined with the continuing discontent of the poorest
Athenians, lay behind the period of strife in the mid-sixth century following Solon's
reforms that led to Athens' first tyranny. At this time an Athenian aristocrat named
Pisistratus1 began a violent effort to make himself sole ruler with the
help of his upper-class friends and the poor, whose interests he championed. He finally
established himself securely as tyrant at Athens in 546 B.C. Pisistratus made funds
available to help peasants acquire needed farm equipment and provided employment for
poorer men while benefiting Athens by building roads and initiating major public works,
such as a great temple to Zeus and fountains to increase the supply of drinking water.
The tax that he imposed on agricultural production2, one of the rare instances of direct taxation in Athenian history, financed the
loans to farmers and the building projects. He also arranged for judicial officials to
go on circuits through the outlying villages of Attica to hear cases, thus saving
farmers the trouble of having to leave their fields to seek justice in Athens, the urban
center of the polis. Like the earlier tyrants of Corinth, he promoted the
economic, cultural, and architectural development of Athens. Athenian pottery, for
example, now began to crowd out Corinthian in the export trade.
Hippias3, the eldest son of Pisistratus, continued the tyranny after
his father's death in 527 B.C. He governed by making certain that his relatives and
friends occupied magistracies, but for a time he also allowed his aristocratic rivals to
hold office, thereby defusing some of the tension created by their jealousy of his
superior status.
Eventually, however, the aristocratic family of the Alcmaeonids
arranged to have the Spartans send an army to expel Hippias.4