Throughout history there have been men who have pursued power with extreme zeal and perseverance. See for example Napoleon Bonaparte, who achieved it twice, although the second time did not last long. One of the first that we know from the sources who did not give up until he obtained his objective was the tyrant of Athens Pisistratus , who lived between 607 and 527 BC. He even three times he tried, and all three he succeeded.
Pisistratus was the son of the philosopher Hippocrates and from a very young age he showed skill in combat, leading the Athenian army as polemarch in the war against Megara around 570 BC, achieving successes such as the capture of the port of Nisea and the recovery of Salamis. This marked the end of the commercial blockade that caused food shortages in the city for several decades.
After the victory and with the departure of Solon, Athenian politics was divided both according to social class and geographical location. Grain-producing plains landowners supported Lycurgus and advocated an oligarchy; the citizens of the coast who lived from trade were led by the alcmeonid Megacles , and his intention was to maintain Solon's reforms; and finally the poorest of all, the inhabitants of the mountains who only produced wool and honey, followed Pisistratus , who promised them radical reforms.
However Pisistratus knew that he did not have enough political power to impose these reforms. So, as Herodotus tells, around 561 B.C. he had himself beaten and injured by some of his followers (or perhaps he did it himself). Thus, bloodied, he appeared in the Agora before the Athenians claiming to have been the victim of an attack by his political rivals and demanding that he be assigned a personal guard as protection. The citizens' assembly granted him 50 armed men, in view of the seriousness of the matter.
What they did not expect was that Pisistratus would use that small army to take the Acropolis, stage a coup and proclaim himself tyrant, taking advantage of the fact that the other two factions were at odds with each other and ending the aristocratic rule. But he did not last long, because around 555 B.C. Lycurgus and Megacles allied themselves to evict him and sent him into exile, where he remained between 3 and 6 years.
At the end of that time the two parties returned to engage in disputes and Pisistratus took advantage of his new opportunity in 550 BC. This time he entered the city in a golden chariot aboard which the goddess Athena accompanied him showing his favor to the tyrant. Many at that time gave him his unconditional support, especially when the one who brought him was the very goddess of the city. According to Herodotus, even Megacles could not believe what his eyes saw, although it seems that he was also in on it. Of course, there was no goddess but a girl from the mountains named Fía of Paiania dressed as Athena, with a helmet, spear and hoplite armor, and whose physique matched the ideal of beauty and physical excellence that the deity was supposed to have. /P> 
The point is that the Athenians fell into the trap again. Megacles, no longer trusting Lycurgus, offered Pisistratus an alliance in return for taking his daughter as his wife, and the assembly hailed him again as a tyrant. He thus ruled for a year, according to Aristotle in a moderate way, more constitutional than tyrannical.
But the refusal of Pisistratus, who already had two sons, to father an heir with Megacles' daughter turned things upside down again. Megacles again sought the help of Lycurgus and Pisistratus met in 549 BC. again deposed, exiled and, this time, with all his assets confiscated. During the almost 10 years that the exile lasted, he dedicated himself to accumulating fortune, thanks to the exploitation of a silver mine in Thrace, forging alliances with other Greek cities such as Argos, and preparing a large army helped by his sons Hippias and Hipparchus.
In 539 BC he marched with his hosts and allies towards Attica, where the supporters of Megacles and Lycurgus presented him with battle at a place near Marathon, in the vicinity of the sanctuary of Athena at Palene. His undisputed victory cleared the way for him to once again become the tyrant of the city. This time he made sure to retain power longer than the previous times, ruling with moderation and benevolence, beautifying the city with new buildings, markets, aqueducts and monuments, promoting culture and military and naval power. He confiscated the lands of his enemies and handed them over to his poorer supporters, employed diplomacy with the aristocratic classes and demagoguery with the lower classes, and always appointed relatives and friends to public office. At his death in 527 B.C. he left power to his sons Hippias and Hipparchus, whose government would indeed be tyrannical.
Hippias, who would finally take over all power, was evicted by the Spartans in 510 BC, at the behest of the Alcmeonids, beginning the democratic stage of Athens. Sent into exile, he took refuge in the court of King Darius I, and later participated in the Battle of Marathon, fighting on the Persian side.