STRATAGL.M OF 1'EISISTK ATI'S. 155 utaritj of speech and manners, his championship of the poor, 1 and his ostentatious disavowal of all selfish pretensions, partly by an artful mixture of stratagem and force. Solon, after having addressed fruitless remonstrances to Pcisistratus himself, publicly denounced his designs in verses addressed to the people. The deception, whereby Peisistratus finally accomplished his design, is memorable in Grecian tradition. 2 He appeared one day in the agora of Athens in his chariot with a pair of mules : he had intentionally wounded both his person and the mules, and in this condition he threw himself upon the compassion and defence of the people, pretending that his political enemies had violently attacked him. He implored the people to grant him a guard, and at the moment when their sympathies were freshly aroused both in his favor and against his supposed assassins, Aristo pro- forty years to little or nothing. Such mistake appears, not only on tho present occasion, but also upon tvo others : first, in regard to the alleged dialogue between Solon and Croesus, described and commented upon a few pages above ; next, in regard to the poet Alkceus and his inglorious retreat before the Athenian troops at Sigeium and Achilleium, where he lost his shield, when the Mitylencans were defeated. The reality of this incident is indisputable, since it was mentioned by Alkaeus himself in one of his songs ; but Herodotus represents it to have occurred in an Athenian expedition directed by Peisistratus. Now the war in which Alkams incurred this misfor- tune, and which was brought to a close by the mediation of Periander of Corinth, must have taken place earlier than 584 u. c., and probably took place before the legislation of Solon ; long before the time when Peisistratus had the direction of Athenian affairs, though the latter may have carried on, and probably did carry on, another and a later war against the Mityle ncans in those regions, which led to the introduction of his illegitimate son, Hcgcsistratus. as despot of Sigeium (Herod, v. 94-95). If we follow the representation given by Herodotus of these three differ- ent strings of events, we shall see that the same chronological mistake per- vades all of them, he jumps over nearly ten olympiads, or forty years. Alkoeus is the contemporary of Pittakus and Solon. I have already remarked, in the previous chapter respecting the despots of Sikyon (ch. ix.), another instance of confused chronology in Herodotus respecting the events of this period, respecting Crcesus, Mcgakles, Alkmason and Kleisthenes of Sikyon. 1 Aristot. Politic, v, 4, 5 ; Plutarch, Solon, 29.
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