Book 13
2.3
It formerly produced celebrated men, as Pittacus, one of the Seven Wise Men; Alcaeus the poet, and his brother Antimenidas, who, according to Alcaeus, when fighting on the side of the Babylonians, achieved a great exploit, and extricated them from their danger by killing a valiant warrior, the king’s wrestler, who was four cubits in height. Contemporary with these persons flourished Sappho, an extraordinary woman; for at no period within memory has any woman been known at all to be compared to her in poetry.
2.3
At this period Mitylene was ruled by many tyrants, in consequence of the dissensions among the citizens. These dissensions are the subject of the poems of Alcaeus called Stasiotica (the Seditions). One of these tyrants was Pittacus: Alcaeus inveighed against him as well as against Myrsilus, Melanchrus the Cleanactidae, and some others; nor was he himself clear from the imputation of favouring these political changes. Pittacus himself employed monarchical power to dissolve the despotism of the many, but, having done this, he restored the independence of the city.
