Title: tyranny | Meaning & Facts | Britannica
Headings: Tyranny
Tyranny
politics
Evolution of the concept
Classic definitions
Tyranny

Content: The Aristotelian view suggests that tyrants were inevitably unpopular, ruling a cowed citizenry who feared and hated them and wished only to be free. But some tyrants were chosen by the state to rule with a specific purpose: to put an end to civil war, to impose a new code of law, or to offer leadership in a time of danger. Indeed, it was often proposed that a sole ruler with overall control of military and political affairs was the best option in wartime. Though opposed to monarchy on principle, the Romans during the republic (509–27 bce) would in times of threat appoint a dictator, one individual who was granted complete control over the army and state for a period of six months, a position described by the historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus as an “elective tyranny.” In the 4th century bce, some philosophers, most notably Plato, saw tyranny of a certain kind as positive. Plato described the ideal state as based on the rule of an enlightened and self-controlled monarch, the “philosopher king,” who would live a virtuous life himself and could impose the best constitution on his subjects. Tyranny
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