Hippias of athens

Hippias (Ancient Greek: Ἱππίας; d. 490 BC), was tyrant of Athens from 527 to 510 BC. c.

Hippias was the son of the tyrant Pisistratus, whom he succeeded along with his brother Hipparchus. It was Hippias who assumed the effective direction of public affairs, although it is not easy to define which part of the achievements of tyranny in Athens was the work of the father and which of his sons, at least until the death of Hipparchus. One of Hippias' main performances was the introduction of a new monetary system in Athens in 525 BC. C. For the rest, his first years in power were marked by successive concessions to the aristocracy and by relative political stability.

The period of tranquility ended with the murder of Hipparchus, his brother. He had abused his position by subjecting Harmodio, Aristogiton's lover, to a loving siege. It was humiliation and jealousy that led both to assassinate the tyrant (514 BC), although Athenian popular opinion elevated them to the rank of heroes against oppression, especially after Hippias had them executed.

From that moment on, Hippias established a regime of terror, mistrusting everyone and everything and multiplying the harassment against the upper classes, while the international scene became increasingly gloomy: the disappearance of the allied tyrants, Polycrates of Samos and Ligdamis from Naxos; Persian offensive that destroys the first Athenian maritime empire, created by Pisistratus; and, finally, the rupture of relations between Thebes and Athens after the alliance sealed by the latter with the city of Plataea.

Sparta, concerned about the progressive expansion of Athens, hesitates to intervene directly. It will not be decided until 511 BC. C., at the request of the oracle of Delphi, bought by the exiled family of the Alcmaeonidas - staunch enemies of Hippias - through the construction of a new temple in the sacred city. A first Spartan army under the orders of Anquímolio was defeated, but a new attempt led by the king of Sparta himself, Cleomenes I, succeeded in besieging Hippias and his followers on the Athenian Acropolis. To save the lives of his children, who had fallen into the hands of the besiegers, he agreed to go into exile (510 BC).

The exile of Hippias marked the beginning of democracy in Athens, which came with the Alcmaeonid Cleisthenes of Athens. Later the Spartans considered that a free and democratic Athens could represent a danger to Sparta's hegemony and tried to reinstate Hippias as tyrant, but he had already taken refuge in the Persian court of Darius I. Persia threatened to attack Athens if she He did not readmit Hippias, a possibility that the Athenians flatly rejected even at the risk of coming into conflict with the great Asian power. Shortly after the Ionian Revolt against the Persians of 499 BC would take place. C., warmly supported by Athens. Crushed the uprising in 494 BC. C., the Persians sought revenge. Hippias encouraged Darius to start the first of the Medical Wars and participated in the expedition. He, among other things, advised the landing on the plain of Marathon. He was killed on Lemnos, during said war, shortly after the battle of Marathon (490 BC).