Hippias And Hipparchus , the sons and successors of Pisistratus, tyrant of Athens. According to an early popular opinion, Hippar-chus was the elder brother; according to Herodotus and Thueydides, Hippias. While they ruled jointly the government was conducted on the same principles as that of their father, and that period was subsequently regarded by the Athenians as a kind of golden age; but from the murder of Hipparchus by Harmodius and Aristogiton (514 B. C.) the character of the government of Hippias became arbitrary, exacting, and oppressive. His despotism was, however, at length overthrown. The Delphic oracle was bribed to favor the cause of liberty, and the pythoness repeatedly enjoined the Lacedaemonians to free Athens from the despotism of the Pisistratidae. A Spartan force under Cleomenes, having defeated Hippias in the field, and captured his children, compelled him to surrender the Acropolis, and to evacuate Attica with all his relatives (510). No sooner had they departed than a decree was passed condemning the tyrant and his family to perpetual banishment, and a monument was erected in the Acropolis commemorative of their crimes and oppressions.

Hippias ultimately retired to the court of Darius, and there instigated the invasion of Greece. According to some, he fell at Marathon (490).