Peisistratos - Legacy

Legacy

Peisistratos died 527 or 528 BC. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Hippias. Hippias and his brother, Hipparchus, ruled the city much akin to the way that their father did. After a successful murder plot against Hipparchus conceived by Harmodius and Aristogeiton, Hippias became paranoid and oppressive. This change in attitude caused the people of Athens to hold Hippias in much lower regard. The Alcmaeonid family helped to depose the tyranny by bribing the Delphic oracle to tell the Spartans to liberate Athens, which they did in 510 BC. The Peisistratids were not executed, but rather were mostly forced into exile. Afterward, Cleisthenes, a descendent of Megacles, helped erect a democracy based on the overturned reforms of Solon.