Tyrannicides. Harmodius and Aristogeiton were two lovers from ancient Athens.
They became known as the Tyrannicides, the preeminent symbol of democracy to ancient Athenians, after they committed an act of political assassination at the 514 BC Panathenaic Festival. They assassinated Hipparchus, thought to be the last Peisistratid tyrant, though according to Thucydides Hipparchus was not a tyrant but a minister.
They also planned to kill the real tyrant of Athens, Hippias, but were unsuccessful. The two principal historical sources covering Harmodius and Aristogeiton are the History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides, and The Constitution of the Athenians attributed to Aristotle or his school.
However, their story is documented by a great many other ancient writers, including important sources such as Herodotus and Plutarch. Herodotus claimed that Harmodius and Aristogeiton presumably were Gephyraeans i.e.
Boeotians of Syrian or Phoenician origin. Plutarch, in his book On the malice of Herodotus criticized Herodotus for prejudice and misrepresentation and he argued that Harmodius and Aristogeiton were Euboeans or Eretrians. Peisistratus had become tyrant of Athens after his third attempt in 546/7 BC. In Archaic Greece, the term tyrant did not connote malevolence. A tyrant was simply one who had seized power and ruled outside of a state's constitutional law. When Peisistratus died in 528/7
They became known as the Tyrannicides, the preeminent symbol of democracy to ancient Athenians, after they committed an act of political assassination at the 514 BC Panathenaic Festival. They assassinated Hipparchus, thought to be the last Peisistratid tyrant, though according to Thucydides Hipparchus was not a tyrant but a minister.
They also planned to kill the real tyrant of Athens, Hippias, but were unsuccessful. The two principal historical sources covering Harmodius and Aristogeiton are the History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides, and The Constitution of the Athenians attributed to Aristotle or his school.
However, their story is documented by a great many other ancient writers, including important sources such as Herodotus and Plutarch. Herodotus claimed that Harmodius and Aristogeiton presumably were Gephyraeans i.e.
Boeotians of Syrian or Phoenician origin. Plutarch, in his book On the malice of Herodotus criticized Herodotus for prejudice and misrepresentation and he argued that Harmodius and Aristogeiton were Euboeans or Eretrians. Peisistratus had become tyrant of Athens after his third attempt in 546/7 BC. In Archaic Greece, the term tyrant did not connote malevolence. A tyrant was simply one who had seized power and ruled outside of a state's constitutional law. When Peisistratus died in 528/7
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