A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

132 Athens
The people
deprived of
their arms.
Constitutional
government.
Arist. Const.
Ath. i6.
colonized a place called Rhsecelus about the Thermaic
Gulf; then he crossed over to the neighborhood of Mount
Pangaeus. Making money in that locality and hiring
soldiers, he came to Eretria in the eleventh year. Then
for the first time he attempted to recover his supremacy
by force, with the cooperation of the Thebans, of Lygdamis
of Naxos, and of the knights who had the government
at Eretria. Gaining a victory at Pallene and thus recovering
his authority, he deprived the people of their
arms and firmly established his despotism. Then taking
possession of Naxos, he appointed Lygdamis governor.
The people he deprived of their arms in the following
manner.
Holding a review of the citizens under arms at
the Theseum, he attempted to address them, but spoke
in a low voice; and when they declared they could not
hear him, he bade them come up near the gateway of the
Acropolis in order that his voice might sound louder.
While he was passing the time making his speech, persons
appointed to the task took the arms and locking them
in a building near the Theseum, came and made a sign to
Peisistratus. He finished his speech and then told them
about the arms, bidding them not wonder or be dejected
but go and attend to their private affairs, as he would
himself manage all public matters.
Such was the origin of the tyranny of Peisistratus and
such were its vicissitudes. He, as has been said, conducted
the government moderately and more in the character
of a statesman than of a tyrant. In general he was
humane and unusually mild and forgiving to wrong-doers,
and especially he lent money to the needy for use in their
labors, in order that they might gain a livelihood by agriculture.
This he did for two reasons, that they might not
pass their time in the city but be scattered throughout