Title: Tyranny in Ancient Greece and Rome – Brewminate
Headings: Tyranny in Ancient Greece and Rome
Tyranny in Ancient Greece and Rome
Peisistratus, copper engraving, 1832 / Wikimedia Commons
Introduction
Etymology and Definition
Harmodius and Aristogeiton murdering Hipparchus, the brother of Hippias, tyrant of Athens. / Wikimedia Commons
Historical Forms
Overview
Aesymnetes
Populism
Archaic Tyrants
Sicilian Tyrants
Later Tyrants
Roman Tyrants
In the Classics
Enlightenment
Methods of Obtaining and Retaining Power
Overview
Obtaining
Retaining
Notes
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Content: Magistrates in some city-states were also called aesymnetai. Populism
Greek tyranny grew out of the struggle of the under classes against the aristocracy, or against priest-kings where archaic traditions and mythology sanctioned hereditary and/or traditional rights to rule. Popular coups generally installed tyrants, who often became or remained popular rulers, at least in the early part of their reigns. For instance, the popular imagination remembered Peisistratus for an episode – related by (pseudonymous) Aristotle, but possibly fictional – in which he exempted a farmer from taxation because of the particular barrenness of his plot. Peisistratus’ sons Hippias and Hipparchus, on the other hand, were not such able rulers, and when the disaffected aristocrats Harmodios and Aristogeiton slew Hipparchus, Hippias’ rule quickly became oppressive, resulting in the expulsion of the Peisistratids in 510 BC, who resided henceforth in Persepolis as clients of the Persian Shahanshah (King of kings). Archaic Tyrants
Overview
One of the earliest known uses of the word tyrant (in Greek) was by the poet Archilochus, who lived three centuries before Plato, in reference to king Gyges of Lydia. [ 20] The king’s assumption of power was unconventional. The heyday of the Archaic period tyrants came in the early 6th century BC, when Cleisthenes ruled Sicyon in the Peloponnesus and Polycrates ruled Samos. During this time, revolts overthrew many governments [21] in the Aegean world. Chilon, the ambitious and capable ephor of Sparta, built a strong alliance amongst neighbouring states by making common cause with these groups seeking to oppose unpopular tyrannical rule.