Hippias

One of the sons of the tyrant, Pisistratus (Peisistratos), and the brother of Hipparkhus (Hipparchus).

After the death of Pisistratus, as the eldest son, Hippias took control of the government of the city of Athens; his brother, Hipparkhus might be thought of as co-tyrant and was thus a powerful man in Athens; Hipparkhus was in love with a young man named Harmodius but his affection was not returned; Hipparkhus sought to humiliate Harmodius by publicly slandering Harmodius’ sister.

In 514 BCE, as an act of revenge, Harmodius and his friend Aristogiton devised a plan to assassinate the two tyrants but the plan went awry and only Hipparkhus was killed; soldiers executed Harmodius immediately but Aristogiton was captured and tortured to death.

In 510 BCE, Hippias was besieged in the Akropolis (Acropolis) and forced to leave Athens; he first went to the city of Sparta but eventually took refuge with the Persians; Hippias was a key element in the bad blood that developed between the Persians in that he slandered the Athenians to the Persian satrap, Artaphrenes, and urged him to make the Athenians subjects of the Persian king, Darius.

When the Athenians heard of Hippias’ betrayal, they sent messengers to Artaphrenes and reminded him that Hippias had been banished from Athens and that he was not to be trusted; Artaphrenes threatened the Athenians and said that if they valued their skins, they would welcome Hippias back to the city; the Athenians, of course, refused and this was the beginning of the enmity that later developed into war between the Athenians and the Persians.

During the first Persian invasion of Greece, Hippias actually assisted the Persian army as an advisor at the battle of Marathon in 490 BCE; he died in exile on the island of Lemnos; after Hippias was deposed and sent into exile, Harmodius and Aristogiton were honored by the citizens of Athens with statues and their relatives were given benefits such as tax exemption.

• Histories, book 1, chapter 61; book 5, chapters 65 and 96; book 6, chapters 107 and 108