herodotus

settled at Plakia and Skylake in the region of the Hellespont, whobefore that had been settlers with the Athenians,[61] and of thenatives of the various other towns which are really Pelasgian, thoughthey have lost the name,--if one must pronounce judging by these, thePelasgians used to speak a Barbarian language. If therefore all thePelasgian race was such as these, then the Attic race, beingPelasgian, at the same time when it changed and became Hellenic,unlearnt also its language. For the people of Creston do not speak thesame language with any of those who dwell about them, nor yet do thepeople of Phakia, but they speak the same language one as the other:and by this it is proved that they still keep unchanged the form oflanguage which they brought with them when they migrated to theseplaces. 58. As for the Hellenic race, it has used ever the samelanguage, as I clearly perceive, since it first took its rise; butsince the time when it parted off feeble at first from the Pelasgianrace, setting forth from a small beginning it has increased to thatgreat number of races which we see,[62] and chiefly because manyBarbarian races have been added to it besides. Moreover it is true, asI think,[62a] of the Pelasgian race also,[63] that so far as itremained Barbarian it never made any great increase.59. Of these races then Crœsus was informed that the Athenian was heldsubject and torn with faction by Peisistratos[64] the son ofHippocrates, who then was despot of the Athenians. For to Hippocrates,when as a private citizen he went to view the Olympic games, a greatmarvel had occurred. After he had offered the sacrifice, the caldronswhich were standing upon the hearth, full of pieces of flesh and ofwater, boiled without fire under them and ran over. And Chilon theLacedemonian, who chanced to have been present and to have seen themarvel, advised Hippocrates first not to bring into his house a wifeto bear him children, and secondly, if he happened to have onealready, to dismiss her, and if he chanced to have a son, to disownhim. When Chilon had thus recommended, Hippocrates, they say, was notwilling to be persuaded, and so there was born to him afterwards thisPeisistratos; who, when the Athenians of the shore[65] were at feudwith those of the plain, Megacles the son of Alcmaion being leader ofthe first faction, and Lycurgos the son of Aristolaïdes of that of theplain, aimed at the despotism for himself and gathered a third party.So then, after having collected supporters and called himself leaderof the men of the mountain-lands,[66] he contrived a device asfollows:--he inflicted wounds upon himself and upon his mules, andthen drove his car into the market-place, as if he had just escapedfrom his opponents, who, as he alleged, had desired to kill him whenhe was driving into the country: and he asked the commons that hemight obtain some protection from them, for before this he had gainedreputation in his command against the Megarians, during which he took