ver share in the government was
intrusted to his brothers, Hipparchus and Thessalus, his son and
several of his family were enrolled among the archons of the city.
And they who by office were intended for the guardians of liberty were
the necessary servants of the tyrant.

II. If we might place unhesitating faith in the authenticity of the
dialogue attributed to Plato under the title of "Hipparchus," we
should have, indeed, high authority in favour of the virtues and the
wisdom of that prince. And by whomsoever the dialogue was written, it
refers to facts, in the passage relative to the son of Pisistratus, in
a manner sufficiently positive to induce us to regard that portion of
it with some deference. According to the author, we learn that
Hipparchus, passionately attached to letters, brought Anacreon to
Athens, and lived familiarly with Simonides. He seems to have been
inspired with the ambition of a moralist, and distributed Hermae, or
stone busts of Mercury, about the city and the public roads, which,
while answering a similar purpose to our mile-stones, arrested the eye
of the passenger with pithy and laconic apothegms in verse; such as,
"Do not deceive your friend," and "Persevere in affection to
justice;"--proofs rather of the simplicity than the wisdom of the
prince. It is not by writing the decalogue upon mile-stones that the
robber would be terrified, or the adulterer converted.

It seems that the apothegmatical Hipparchus did not associate with
Anacreon more from sympathy with his genius than inclination to the
subjects to which it was devoted. He was addicted to pleasure; nor
did he confine its pursuits to the more legitimate objects of sensual
affection. Harmodius, a young citizen of no exalted rank, but much
personal beauty, incurred the affront of his addresses [238].
Harmodius, in resentment, confided the overtures of the moralist to
his friend and preceptor, Aristogiton. While the two were brooding
over the outrage, Hipparchus, in revenge for the disdain of Harmodius,
put a public insult upon the sister of that citizen, a young maiden.
She received a summons to attend some public procession, as bearer of
one of the sacred vessels: on presenting herself she was abruptly
rejected, with the rude assertion that she never could have been
honoured with an invitation of which she was unworthy. This affront
rankled deeply in the heart of Harmodius, but still more in that of
the friendly Aristogiton, a