Herodotus, Histories 1.63.2 · 1.63.2
Sons on horseback
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φευγόντων δὲ τούτων βουλὴν ἐνθαῦτα σοφωτάτην Πεισίστρατος ἐπιτεχνᾶται, ὅκως μήτε ἁλισθεῖεν ἔτι οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι διεσκεδασμένοι τε εἶεν· ἀναβιβάσας τοὺς παῖδας ἐπὶ ἵππους προέπεμπε, οἳ δὲ καταλαμβάνοντες τοὺς φεύγοντας ἔλεγον τὰ ἐντεταλμένα ὑπὸ Πεισιστράτου, θαρσέειν τε κελεύοντες καὶ ἀπιέναι ἕκαστον ἐπὶ τὰ ἑωυτοῦ.
While these fled, Pisistratus devised there a very clever plan, so that the Athenians would not gather together again but would remain scattered: mounting his sons on horses, he sent them on ahead; and they, overtaking the fugitives, told them what Pisistratus had instructed, bidding them take heart and each go to his own home.
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The setting
As the beaten Athenians scatter, Pisistratus moves fast to keep them from regrouping.
A note on this passage
Herodotus calls this Pisistratus's boulēn sophōtatēn, his "cleverest plan," and the praise is tactical rather than moral: the verb epitechnatai shares its root with technē, craft or skill, the same word behind "technique." Scattering an army is easy; keeping it scattered takes a second idea, and Pisistratus supplies it before the dust from the first battle has settled.
The riders he sends are his own sons, and their message is built around one word, tharsein, "to take heart." The same root sits behind tharsos, courage, the very quality the fleeing men have just lost. Each rider tells each man to go epi ta heōutou, "to his own home," breaking the army back down into individual households before it can reform into a mob with grievances. It is crowd control dressed up as kindness.
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