... that we look for effective discontent""' (Forrest, 1966. p178). Whether Peisistratus' main supporters were the poor or the new rich, Peisistratus had policies that assisted the lives of both. Indeed it can be argued that by accepting the unconstitutional rule of Peisistratus and that of Hippias, Peisistratus' son in 528BC, the Athenians as a whole did not do anything to hold up Athens' development. Peisistratus made few if any substantial changes to the political system as it stood. Thucydides reports that Peisistratus observed the existing laws only saw to it that the highest offices were always held by his own friends (Thucydides bk6.54). In other words those parts of the machinery of state that the ordinary Athenian had used or operated like the assembly, the courts and the council remained the same. It was probably only the nobility who would have felt any loss. Even though Peisistratus strove to avoid openly ...

See this essay or coursework document in full right now