Hipparchus (brother of Hippias)

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Hipparchus
Death of the tyrant Hipparchus, by the Syriskos Painter, 475–470 BC
Died514 BC
ParentPisistratus
Hypparchus insults Harmodius' sister in public
The slaughter of Hipparchus

Hipparchus (

romanized:  Hípparkhos; died 514 BC) was a member of the ruling class of Athens and one of the sons of Pisistratus. He was a tyrant of the city of Athens from 528/527 BC until his assassination by the tyrannicides Harmodius and Aristogeiton
in 514 BC.

Life

Hipparchus was said by some Greek authors to have been the

Peisistratos in about 528/7 BC. The word tyrant literally means "one who takes power by force", as opposed to a ruler who inherited a monarchy or was chosen in some way. It carried no pejorative connotation during the Archaic and early Classical periods. However, according to Thucydides, Hippias was the only 'tyrant'. Both Hipparchus and his father Pisistratus enjoyed the popular support of the people. Hipparchus was a patron of the arts; it was he who invited Simonides of Ceos to Athens.[1]

In 514 BC, Hipparchus was assassinated by the tyrannicides,

Panathenaic Festival as kanephoros only to publicly disqualify her on the grounds that she was not a virgin. Harmodius and Aristogeiton then organized a revolt for the Panathenaic Games but they panicked and attacked too early. Although they killed Hipparchus, Harmodius was killed by his bodyguard and Aristogeiton was arrested, tortured, and later killed.[2][3]

After the assassination of his brother, Hippias is said to have become a bitter and cruel tyrant, and was overthrown a few years later in 510 BC by the Spartan king Cleomenes I. Some modern scholars generally ascribe the tradition that Hipparchus was himself a cruel tyrant to the cult of Harmodius and Aristogeiton established after the downfall of the tyranny; however, others have advanced the theory that the cult of the tyrannicides was a propaganda coup of the early democratic government to obscure Spartan involvement in the regime change.

Notes

  1. ^ Aristotle, The Athenian Constitution, Part 18
  2. The History of the Peloponnesian War
    .
  3. ^ Aristotle (1952). Athenian Constitution. Translated by Rackham, H. Cambridge, MA & London: Harvard University Press & William Heinemann Ltd.
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