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55.
And that Hippias, being the elder brother, had the government, I can affirm, as knowing it by a more exact relation than other men;
and it may be known also by this: It appears that of all the legitimate brethren, this only had children, as is both signified by the altar and also by that pillar which for a testimony of the injustice of the tyrants was erected in the Athenian citadel.
In which there is no mention of any son of Thessalus or of Hipparchus, but of five sons of Hippias, which he had by Myrrhine, the daughter of Callias, the son of Hyperechidas;
[2]
for it is probable that the eldest was first married.
And in the forepart of the pillar, his name after his father's was the first, not without reason, as being both next him in age and having also enjoyed the tyranny.
[3]
Nor indeed could Hippias have easily taken on him the government on a sudden, if his brother had died seized of the tyranny, and he been the same day to settle it on himself.
Whereas he retained the same with abundant security, both for the customary fear in the people and diligence in the guard, and was not to seek like a younger brother, to whom the government had not continually been familiar.
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But Hipparchus came to be named for his misfortune, and thereby grew an opinion afterwards that he was also tyrant.
The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury. Thucydides. Thomas Hobbes. translator. London. Bohn. 1843.
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