Title: tyrant | Definition & Facts | Britannica
Headings: Tyrant
Tyrant
ancient Greece

Content: Tyrants eventually came to be considered oppressive, especially by their rivals for political power. Cypselus’s son Periander, whose powerful reign at Corinth lasted about 40 years, came to be regarded as a typically bad tyrant. The Corinthian tyranny fell in the late 580s soon after he died. Sparta, which had developed a constitution under which all citizens were soldiers and theoretically equal, avoided tyranny. Peisistratus established a tyranny at Athens in the middle of the 6th century; his son Hippias was expelled by King Cleomenes I of Sparta in 510. This may be taken as the end of the “age of tyrants” but not the end of tyranny. The Persians preferred to keep tyrants in charge of the Greek cities of Anatolia, which they conquered about 540. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now
In the west, where military autocracy easily took root, the popularity of Gelon of Syracuse rested to a great extent on his defeat of the Carthaginians at Himera in 480;