Title: Tyrant - Wikipedia
Headings: Tyrant
Tyrant
Contents
Etymology
Definition
Early history
Historical forms
Aesymnetes
Populism
Archaic tyrants
Corinth
Athens
Sicilian tyrants
Later tyrants
Roman tyrants
In the classics
Enlightenment
Lists of tyrants
Methods of obtaining and retaining power
Obtaining
Retaining
See also
References
External links

Content: Proverbs 29:4
The Greek philosophers stressed the quality of rule rather than legitimacy or absolutism. " Both Plato and Aristotle speak of the king as a good monarch and the tyrant as a bad one. Both say that monarchy, or rule by a single man, is royal when it is for the welfare of the ruled and tyrannical when it serves only the interest of the ruler. Both make lawlessness – either a violation of existing laws or government by personal fiat without settled laws – a mark of tyranny." Enlightenment philosophers seemed to define tyranny by its associated characteristics. "The sovereign is called a tyrant who knows no laws but his caprice." Voltaire in a Philosophical Dictionary
"Where Law ends Tyranny begins." Locke in Two Treatises of Government
Bad results are relative. Authoritarian rule might be beneficial (like with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk of Turkey) or of limited lasting harm to the country (like with Francisco Franco of Spain ). Those who list or rank tyrants can provide definitions and criteria for comparison or acknowledge subjectivity.