PISISTRATUS, id-sis'-trii-tus, the celebrated tyrant of Athens, was son of an Athenian noble man, Hippocrates. Solon was his mother's cousin-german. During the absence of Solon from Athens, the three parties of Attica, 01 aahxiner; or the dwellers in the Highlands ; 01 qcipuN or, on the Coast, and 01 f..< neat., (or at neamKoi, or al riebiei1), on the Plain, again became hostile, and Pisistratus, who had already distinguished himself by his liberality and bravery, became champion of the High landers, Lycurgus and Megacles, the Alcmmo nid, being respectively the leaders of the Plain and the Coast. Pisistratus appeared one day in the agora with his own body and his mule wounded, and pretended that he had been ill used on the way from his country house by the enemies of the popular party, and the Assembly at once granted their favourite a body-guard of fifty club-armed citizens, whose number Pisis tratus soon increased, and with them seized the AcropOlis, 56o B.C., soon after the return of Solon, who had detected his relation's designs, and tried to dissuade him. The coalition of Megacles and Lycurgus soon after compelled him to flee from Athens ; but they speedily quarrelled, and Megacles offered to restore him if he would marry his daughter. Pisistratus consented, and an extraordinary imposition on the credulity and superstition of the cultivated Athenians was displayed. A tall and beautiful woman, Phya, was dressed up as Minerva, placed in a chariot, and conducted into the city, and represented to be the goddess herself restoring Pisistratus to her favourite city. The farce succeeded ; but his ill-treatment of his wife led to his expulsion a second time by another coalition of his father-in-law and Lycurgus. Pisistratus spent the next ten years at Eretria, in Eubcea, after which, having made suitable preparations, he invaded Attica, and Athens surrendered to him, and he continued to hold the tyranny till his death, 527, when his two sons, the PisictrVida-, succeeded. The rule of Pisistratus, after his third restoration, was mild, and he retained Solon's institutions. He collected the poems of Homer, founded a public library (the books of which were carried away by Xerxes), and was a liberal patron of literature and the arts.
Piso, pi'-a3. 1. L. CALPURNIUS, us, surnamed FRUGI,fru'-gi, from his frugality and integrity, was consul 133 n.c., and strongly opposed C. Gracchus. He was the author of Anneiles and Orations. z. L. CALPURNIUS, CESONINUS, grandfather of the father-in-law of Cmsar, was consul z la B.C. 3. C. CALPURNIUS, was consul 67 B.c., and de fended, 63, by Cicero, when accused of extor tion as proconsul in Gallia Narbonensis. 4. CN. CALPURNIUS, a young spendthrift, was implicated in Catiline's treasonable movements in 66 B.C., and was afterwards killed for his exactions by some people in Hispania Citerior. 5. L. CALPURNIUS, who substituted PUPIUS, /111-ii-us, for Calpurnius on his adoption by 11 Pupius, was consul 61 B.C., and supported Pompey. 6. C. CALPURNIUS, FRUCI, mar ried Cicero's daughter Tullia, 63 B.C. He died six years after. 7. L. CALPURNIUS, a turbulent debauchee, consul 58 B.c., with Gabinius, supported Clodius against Cicero. He was accused by the latter, 55, for his cruel exactions in Macedonia. His daughter married Cmsar. 8. L., prefect of Rome under Augustus and Tiberius, was distinguished as a faithful citizen and a man of learning. Horace's Ars Poelica was written for one of his sons. 9. CN. CALPURNIUS, was a consul under Augustus, and made by the emperor Tiberius, A.D. /8, governor of Syria, to be a thorn in the side of Germanicus, who, with his wife, the famous Agrippina, was exposed to constant insults from Piso and his wife Plancina, instigated by the empress Livia. On his return to Rome, so, Piso was accused, with Plancina, of having poisoned Germanicus the previous year, and, being shunned by all his friends and treated with coldness by Tiberius, he killed himself, pending the investigation by the Senate. Plancina was acquitted by Livia's influence. to. C. CALPURNIUS, formed the plot, in which Lucan, Seneca, &c., joined, against Nero A.D. 65. On its discovery he killed himself. x. L., a senator, accompanied the emperor Valerian into Persia, and after his death pro claimed himself emperor, but was killed a few weeks after, A.D. 261.