In their foreign policy the tyrants usually sought to keep the peace. The “land-wars” of an earlier age (see chaps. 5 and 6) cease. First, tyrants often owed their position to another tyrant’s aid. Thus, a Naxian adventurer, Lygdamis, helped Peisistratus regain the tyranny of Athens in 547 BC (Hdt. I 61). Peisistratus later helped Lygdamis become the tyrant of Naxos (Hdt. l. c.). Lygdamis later on helped Polycrates to become tyrant of Samos (Polyaenus, I 23 - granted, the source is late). This mutual aid which tyrants had often given each other fostered peace among them.
The same applies to the tyrants’ numerous marriage alliances, both with each other and with prominent aristocratic families throughout Greece. Hippias of Athens in the late sixth century married off his daughter Archedice to the son of Hippocles, the tyrant of Lampsacus (Thuc. VI 59). Proclus of Epidaurus in the early sixth century married off his daughter Melissa to Periander, the son of Cypselus, tyrant of Corinth (Hdt. III 50). An Argive woman named Timonassa, from a prominent family in Argos, was married first to Archinus, apparently the ruler of the Corinthian colony of Ambracia and certainly a member of the Cypselid family which ruled Corinth. Her second marriage was to Peisistratus, the tyrant of Athens ([Arist.], Ath. Pol. 17). In circa 576 BC Cleisthenes of Sicyon made a match for his daughter Agariste with Megacles, the future leader of the Alcmaeonid family in Athens (Hdt. VI 126sqq.). Though there were exceptions - for example, Periander of Corinth eventually went to war against his father-in-law Proclus (Hdt. III 52) - these marriage alliances helped keep the peace, and the diplomacy which the women carried out who made these alliances work should not be underestimated. Timonassa, in particular, seems to have been exceptionally good in her role, and Argive troops did indeed help her second husband in gaining control of Athens, so the marriage alliance bore fruit.
If the tyrants were interested in keeping the peace at home, abroad some of them attempted to build up small “empires” - possibly with a view towards trade. Peisistratus of Athens established an outpost on the coast of northwestern Anatolia, Sigeium, just to the south of the Hellespont. As governor of Sigeium Peisistratus appointed his son Hegesistratus (Hdt. V 94). In addition, when the Dolonci, a non-Greek people, on the Chersonnese - the western side of the Hellespont - asked the Athenians to supply them with a ruler, Peisistratus was happy to oblige: Miltiades the Elder was sent out to rule the Chersonese (Hdt. VI 34sqq.). Peisistratus and Miltiades were old opponents, so the arrangement may well have been mutually satisfactory - Peisistratus saw a potential challenger of his rule leave, while Miltiades may well have preferred to play first fiddle abroad as opposed to second fiddle at home. While governing the Cher-sonnese Miltiades conquered the northern Aegean island of Lemnos (and presumably also Imbros), and it remained ever after an Athenian possession (Hdt. VI 140). Under Peisistratus, then, the Athenians established a strong presence on and near the Hellespont. Athens was already importing a large amount of grain from colonies on the Black Sea, and securing part of the trade-route from the Black Sea to the Aegean may well have helped motivate Peisistratus’ interest in maintaining these outposts in the northeastern Aegean.
In the West Cypselus, the tyrant of Corinth, appointed his sons as the oecists of Leucas and Anactorium. His son and successor in the tyranny, Periander, conquered Corcyra, a Corinthian colony from before the time of the tyranny, and brought it within this “empire” (see chap. 5). Another Cypselid, Archinus, apparently ruled the colony of Ambracia ([Arist.], Ath. Pol. 17). The Corinthian tyrants were evidently interested in controlling, as a family affair, a small colonial “empire” to the northwest of Greece proper; an “empire” which commanded the eastern end of the trade-route between Greece and the colonies in southern and central Italy and on Sicily.
World History
