tyrant

Name given to a number of men who seized power in their own ancient Greek cities, the first wave of tyrants occurring in the 7th and 6th centuries BC. They opposed the older hereditary aristocratic rulers. The Pisistratids at Athens (see Pisistratus), Polycrates of Samos, and the Cypselids of Corinth vigorously promoted trade and commerce, and were active promoters of public building and the arts. They often provided a bridge between the older aristocratic oligarchies and the less exclusive or more democratic systems which followed the fall of the tyrannies.

The word ‘tyrannos’ is non-Greek in form, probably Lydian, and meant something like ‘ruler’, but was used by the Greeks in the sense of ‘arbitrary ruler’, whose power had been gained unconstitutionally, as opposed to a legitimate monarch.

The prosperity of their cities flourished under the tyrants, as did arts and letters. The early tyrants based their position on popular support. But in their struggles against the older aristocracies, the early tyrants harnessed and in due course unleashed popular forces which their less gifted successors could not control.

The concept of a ‘tyrant’ as a cruel and oppressive despot grew up later from a general dislike of authoritarianism, a loyalty to democracy, and the behaviour of the later Sicilian tyrants.