Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/125

SECOND EXILE OF PEISISTRATUS. 107 ef a private man. He lent valuable aid to Lygdamis of Naxos, 1 in constituting himself despot of that island, and he possessed, we know not how, the means of rendering valuable service to different cities, Thebes in particular. They repaid him by large contributions of money to aid in his reestablishment : mercenaries were hired from Argos, and the Naxian Lygda- mis came himself, both with money and with troops. Thus equipped and aided, Peisistratus landed at Marathon in Attica. How the Athenian government had been conducted during his ten years' absence, we do not know ; but the leaders of it per- mitted him to remain undisturbed at Marathon, and to assemble his partisans both from the city and from the country : nor was it until he broke up from Marathon and had reached Pallene on his way to Athens, that they took the field against him. More- over, their conduct, even when the two armies were near to- gether, must have been either extremely negligent or corrupt ; for Peisistratus found means to attack them unprepared, routing their forces almost without resistance. In fact, the proceedings have altogether the air of a concerted betrayal : for the defeated troops, though unpursued, are said to have dispersed and re- turned to their homes forthwith, in obedience to the proclama- tion of Peisistratus, who marched on to Athens, and found him- self a third time ruler. 2 On this third successful entry, he took vigorous precautions for rendering his seat permanent. The Alkmaeonidae and their immediate partisans retired into exile ; but he seized the chil- dren of those who remained, and whose sentiments he suspected, as hostages for the behavior of their parents, and placed them in Naxos, under the care of Lygdamis. Moreover, he provided himself with a powerful body of Thracian mercenaries, paid by taxes levied upon the people : 3 nor did he omit to conciliate the favor of the gods by a purification of tie sacred island of Delos 1 About Lygdamis, see Athenaaus, viii, p. 348, and his citation from th' lost work of Aristotle on the Grecian Ilo/Uraat; also, Aristot. P -1 tlo, : 5,1. f Ferodot. i, 63. 3 Herodot. i, 64. eiriKovpotoi re nol.'hotoi, nai xpyiidTuv ovvotijioi, > ukt> avro&ev, rev d uirb Srpt'/uorof troruftov irpootovruv.