History of the Peloponnesian War

In other respects the city itself enjoyed the laws before established, except in so far that the tyrants took precaution that one of their own family should always be in office. Amongst others of them who held the annual archonship at Athens was Peisistratus, a son of the Hippias who had been tyrant. He was named after his grandfather and, when he was archon, dedicated the altar of the twelve gods in the Agora and that of Apollo in the Pythian precinct.

The people of Athens afterwards, in extending the length of the altar in the Agora, effaced the inscription; but that on the altar of the Pythian Apollo can still be seen in indistinct letters, reading as follows:

1. This memorial of his office Peisistratus son of Hippias
2. Set up in the precinct of Pythian Apollo.

That it was Hippias who, as eldest son, succeeded to the sovereignty I positively affirm because I know it even by tradition more accurately than others,[*](This seems to point to a near relationship of the historian with the family of the Peisistratidae, so that more exact knowledge had come to him by word of mouth (καί ἀκοῇ); cf. Marcellinus, §18, and Schol. on 1.20.2.) and anyone might be convinced of it also by this simple fact—he alone of the legitimate brothers appears to have had children, as not only the altar signifies, but also the column commemorating the wrong-doing of the tyrants that was set up on the acropolis of Athens, on which no child of Thessalus or of Hipparchus is inscribed, but of Hippias five, who were borne to him by Myrrhine daughter of Callias son of Hyperochidas; for it was natural for the eldest to marry first.