PEISISTRATUS

born 6th century BC died 527 BC also spelled Pisistratus tyrant of ancient Athens whose unification of Attica and consolidation and rapid improvement of Athens' prosperity helped to make possible the city's later preeminence in Greece. Additional reading The main ancient sources are Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 5964; and Aristotle, Constitution of Athens, ch. 1317. N.G.L. Hammond, A History of Greece to 322 B.C., 2nd ed. (1967), ch. 6 and 8, cites other minor sources and gives the political development. The constitutional aspects are treated in C. Hignett, A History of the Athenian Constitution to the End of the Fifth Century B.C. (1952), ch. 5. A. Andrewes, The Greek Tyrants (1956), thoughtfully compares Peisistratus with other Greek tyrants.