4. Periander was married to the fair Melissa, whose beauty had captivated him in the house of her father, the tyrant Procles, while she was distributing wine to the labourers in a thin Doric dress.(725) Procles was ruler of EPIDAURUS and the island of Ægina, which were at that time still closely united; he himself was related by marriage to the princes of Orchomenus, and appears from this circumstance, and from his connexion with the family of Cypselus, to belong to the number of tyrants, who, being hostile to the Dorian aristocracy, obtained their power by the assistance of the lower ranks.
And when we also add that Theagenes of MEGARA, the father-in-law of Cylon the Athenian,(726) precisely resembled the princes already mentioned in his conduct (since he likewise obtained his power by attacking the rich landed proprietors, and had killed their flocks upon the pastures of the river),(727) and that like the others he endeavoured to please the people by embellishing the city, by the construction of an aqueduct, and of a beautiful fountain;(728) it is easy to perceive in the dynasties of the Sicyonian, Corinthian, Epidaurian, and Megarian tyrants, a powerful coalition against the supremacy of the Dorians, and the ancient principles of that race, the more powerful, as they knew how to render subservient to their own ends the opinions which had lately arisen; and it is a matter of wonder that Sparta should have succeeded in overthrowing this combination.
5. If, indeed, it is also borne in mind that the Ionic, as well as the Æolic and Doric(729) islands and cities of Asia, and also Athens, together with Phocis, Thessaly, and the colonies in Sicily and Italy, were all in the hands of tyrants, who doubtless assisted one another, and knew their common interest; and that Sparta alone, in most instances at the instigation of the Delphian oracle, declared against all these rulers a lasting war, and in fact overthrew them all, with the exception of the Sicilian tyrants; it must be confessed, that in this period of Grecian history no contest took place either greater, or, by its extent as well as its principles, of more important political and moral consequences. The following tyrants are stated by ancient historians to have been deposed by the Spartans:(730) the Cypselidæ of Corinth and Ambracia, the former in Olymp. 49. 3. (584 B.C.), the latter probably somewhat later; the Pisistratidæ of Athens, who were allied with the Thessalians, in Olymp. 67. 3. (510 B.C.);(731) their adherent Lygdamis of Naxos,(732) probably about the same time: Æschines of Sicyon, about the 65th Olympiad(733) (520 B.C.); Symmachus of Thasos; Aulis of Phocis; and Aristogenes of Miletus, of whom we know only the names;(734) the larger number were dethroned under the kings Anaxandridas and Ariston, Cleomenes and Demaratus. Of these tyrants, some they deposed by a military force, as the Pisistratidæ; but frequently, as Plutarch says, they overthrew the despotism without “moving a shield,” by despatching a herald, whom all immediately obeyed, “as, when the queen bee appears, the rest arrange themselves in order.”(735) In the time of Cleomenes also (525 B.C.) Sparta sent out a great armament, together with Corinthian and other allies, against Polycrates of Samos, the first Doric expedition against Asia, not, as is evident from the trivial reason stated by Herodotus, (viz. in order to revenge the plunder of a cauldron and a breastplate,) but with the intent of following up their principle of deposing all tyrants.(736) But the besieging of a fortified town, situated upon the sea, and at so great a distance, was beyond the strength of Peloponnesus. The last expedition of Sparta against the tyrants falls after the Persian war, when king Leotychidas, the conqueror at Mycale, was sent for the purpose of ejecting the Aleuadæ of Thessaly, who had delivered up the country to the Persians in 470 B.C. or somewhat later. Aristomedes and Angelus were actually dethroned, but the king suffering himself to be bribed by others, the expedition did not completely succeed.(737)