Title: Ancient Greek Tyrants, What is meant by Demokratia
Headings: Ancient Greece Tyrants
Ancient Greece Tyrants
Ancient Greek Tyrants
Tyrannos
Democracy Definition Greek
What is meant by Demokratia
Oligarchy in ancient Greece
Tyranny Government

Content: However, in Ancient Greek Tyrants were not considered to be negative. Tyrannos
In ancient Greece, tyrants were influential opportunists who came to power by securing the support of different factions of a deme. The word “tyranny”, then carried no ethical censure and merely referred to anyone, good or bad, who obtained executive power in a polis by unconventional means. Support for the tyrants came especially from the growing middle class and from the peasants who had no land or were in debt to the wealthy landowners. Though it is true that they had no legal right to rule yet the people preferred them over kings or aristocracy. The Greek tyrants stayed in power by using mercenary soldiers from outside of their respective city-state. In Corinth, growing wealth from colonial enterprises, and the wider horizons brought about by the export of wine and oil, coupled with the new experiences of the Eastern Mediterranean brought back by returning mercenary hoplites employed overseas allowed Cypselus, the first tyrant of Corinth in the 7th century BC, to overthrow the aristocratic power of the dominant yet unpopular Bacchiadae, who were killed, executed, driven out and exiled in 657 BC. Corinth prospered economically under his rule and Cypselus managed to rule without a bodyguard but when he managed to bequeath his position to his son, Periander, whose position was less secure, required a bodyguard of mercenary soldiers personally loyal to himself. Nevertheless, under Cypselus and Periander, Corinth not only extended but also tightened its control over her colonial enterprises, resulting in the flourishing exports of Corinthian pottery. However, tyrants rarely succeeded in establishing an untroubled line of succession.