hority, and fulfilled his
treaty with Megacles by a marriage with his daughter. Between the
commencement of his first tyranny and the date of his second return,
there was probably an interval of twelve years. His sons were already
adults. Partly from a desire not to increase his family, partly from
some superstitious disinclination to the blood of the Alcmaeonidae,
which the massacre of Cylon still stigmatized with contamination,
Pisistratus conducted himself towards the fair Coesyra with a chastity
either unwelcome to her affection, or afflicting to her pride. The
unwedded wife communicated the mortifying secret to her mother, from
whose lips it soon travelled to the father. He did not view the
purity of Pisistratus with charitable eyes. He thought it an affront
to his own person that that of his daughter should be so tranquilly
regarded. He entered into a league with his former opponents against
the usurper, and so great was the danger, that Pisistratus (despite
his habitual courage) betook himself hastily to flight:--a strange
instance of the caprice of human events, that a man could with a
greater impunity subdue the freedom of his country, than affront the
vanity of his wife! [232]

VIII. Pisistratus, his sons and partisans, retired to Eretria in
Euboea: there they deliberated as to their future proceedings--should
they submit to their exile, or attempt to retrieve, their power? The
councils of his son Hippias prevailed with Pisistratus; it was
resolved once more to attempt the sovereignty of Athens. The
neighbouring tribes assisted the exiles with forage and shelter. Many
cities accorded the celebrated noble large sums of money, and the
Thebans outdid the rest in pernicious liberality. A troop of Argive
adventurers came from the Peloponnesus to tender to the baffled
usurper the assistance of their swords, and Lygdamis, an individual of
Naxos, himself ambitious of the government of his native state,
increased his resources both by money and military force. At length,
though after a long and tedious period of no less than eleven years,
Pisistratus resolved to hazard the issue of open war. At the head of
a foreign force he advanced to Marathon, and pitched his tents upon
its immortal plain. Troops of the factious or discontented thronged
from Athens to his camp, while the bulk of the citizens, unaffected ay
such desertions, viewed his preparations with indifference. At
length, when they heard that Pi