# Peisistratos — Histories character guide

> Peisistratos in Histories by Herodotus.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Peisistratos Amphilytos

**First appearance:** 0002-book-i-clio

## Snapshot

Athenian tyrant who takes power three times, once by wounding himself and once by parading a tall girl dressed as the goddess Athena.

## Who they are

Peisistratos is Athens' patient usurper, a man who loses and regains the tyranny with a mix of charm, theater, and hired muscle. His career shows how easily a Greek city could slide from factional strife into one-man rule, and how the same citizens who expelled him could be persuaded to take him back. He matters because Athens' later greatness and its later fear of tyranny both grow out of the ground he plowed.

## In the story

### [Endnotes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/histories_se/chapters/endnotes)

Mentioned in a note regarding an Acarnanian resident at Athens.

## Links

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