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ALCMAEONIDAE

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 524 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ALCMAEONIDAE , a See also:

noble Athenian See also:family, claiming descent from See also:Alcmaeon, the See also:great-See also:grandson of See also:Nestor, who emigrated from See also:Pylos to See also:Athens at the See also:time of the Dorian invasion of See also:Peloponnesus. During the archonship of an Alcmaeonid Megacles (? 632 B.C.), Cylon, who had unsuccessfully attempted to make himself " See also:tyrant," was treacherously murdered with his followers. The curse or pollution thus incurred was frequently in later years raked up for See also:political reasons; the Spartans even demanded that See also:Pericles should be expelled as accursed at the beginning of the Peloponnesian See also:war. All the members of the family went into banishment, and having returned in the time of See also:Solon (594) were again expelled (538) by See also:Peisistratus (q.v.). Their great See also:wealth enabled them during their See also:exile to enhance their reputation and secure the favour of the Delphian See also:Apollo by rebuilding the See also:temple after its destruction by See also:fire in 548. Their importance is shown by the fact that See also:Cleisthenes, tyrant of See also:Sicyon, gave his daughter Agariste in See also:marriage to the Alcmaeonid Megacles in preference to all the assembled suitors after the undignified behaviour of Hippocleides. Under the statesman Cleisthenes (q.v.), the issue of this See also:union, the Alcmaeonids became supreme in Athens about 510 B.C. To them was generally attributed (though See also:Herodotus disbelieves the story—see See also:GREECE, .1 ncient See also:History, See also:sect. " Authorities," II.) the treacherous raising of the See also:shield as a See also:signal to the Persians at See also:Marathon, but, whatever the truth of this may be, there can be little doubt that they were not the only one of the great Athenian families to make treasonable overtures to See also:Persia. Pericles and See also:Alcibiades were both connected with the Alcmaeonidae. Nothing is heard of them after the Peloponnesian war.

See Herodotus vi. 121-131.

End of Article: ALCMAEONIDAE

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