John Malcolm Mitchell

“ From this time till his death he remained undisputed master of Athens. The Alcmaeonids were compelled to leave Athens, and from the other noble families which remained he exacted 400 hostages whom he put in the care of his ally Lygdamis.
In the heyday of the Athenian democracy, citizens both conservative and progressive, politicians, philosophers and historians were unanimous in their denunciation of “tyranny.” Yet there is no doubt that the rule of Peisistratus was most beneficial to Athens both in her foreign and in her internal relations. ”

“ What Solon said of him in his youth was true throughout, “there is no better-disposed man in Athens, save for his ambition.” He was succeeded by his sons Hippias and Hipparchus, by whom the tyranny was in various ways brought into disrepute.
It should be observed that the tyranny of Peisistratus is one of the many epochs of Greek history on which opinion has almost entirely changed since the age of Grote. Shortly, his services to Greece and to the world may be summed up under three heads: In foreign policy, he sketched out the plan on which Athens was to act in her external relations. ”

“ In the two former divisions the influence of wealth and birth predominated; the hillmen were poorly housed, poorly clad and unable to make use of the privileges which Solon had given them. [1] Hence their attachment to Peisistratus, the “man of the people,” who called upon them to sweep away the last barriers which separated rich and poor, nobles and commoners, city and countryside. ”