Tyrant
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2008-07-12T14:36:55Z
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{{for|other uses|Tyrant (disambiguation)|Tyranny (disambiguation)}}
{{Forms of government}}
In modern usage a '''tyrant''' is a single ruler holding vast, if not absolute [[political power|power]] through a [[state]] or in an [[organization]]. The term carries modern connotations of a harsh and cruel ruler who places his or her own interests or the interests of a small [[oligarchy]] over the best interests of the general population which the tyrant governs or controls. However, in the classical sense, the word simply means one who has taken power by their own means as opposed to hereditary or constitutional power (and generally without the modern connotations). This mode of rule is referred to as '''tyranny'''. Many individual rulers or government officials are accused of tyranny, with the label almost always a matter of controversy.
The word derives from [[Latin]] ''tyrannus'', and ultimately from the [[Pejorative|non-pejorative]] [[Greek language|Greek]] τύραννος ''tyrannos'', meaning "illegitimate ruler", although this was not [[pejorative]] and applicable to both good and bad leaders alike.<ref>[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=tyrant Online Etymology Dictionary<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref>[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tyrant tyrant - Definitions from Dictionary.com<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
==Historical forms==
In [[ancient Greece]], tyrants were influential opportunists that came to power by securing the support of different factions of a [[deme]]. The word "tyrant" then carried no ethical censure; it simply referred to anyone who illegally seized executive power in a [[polis]] to engage in [[autocratic]], though perhaps benevolent, government, or leadership in a crisis. Support for the tyrants came from the growing class of business people and from the peasants who had no land or were in debt to the wealthy land owners. It is true that they had no legal right to rule, but the people preferred them over kings or the [[aristocracy]]. The Greek tyrants stayed in power by using mercenary soldiers from outside of their respective city state.<ref>[http://www.ancienthistory.abc-clio.com/library/searches/searchdisplay.aspx?entryid=587065&fulltext=Tyrant&nav=non&specialtopicid=-1 "Tyrant"], [[ABC-CLIO]], retrieved 16 February 2007</ref>
[[Cypselus]], the first tyrant of [[Corinth]] in the [[7th century BC]], managed to bequeath his position to his son, [[Periander]]. Tyrants seldom succeeded in establishing an untroubled line of succession. In [[Athens]], the inhabitants first gave the title to [[Peisistratos (Athens)|Peisistratus]] of [[Athens]] in [[560 BC]], followed by his sons, and with the subsequent growth of Athenian [[democracy]], the title "tyrant" took on its familiar negative connotations. The murder of the tyrant [[Hipparchus (tyrant)|Hipparchus]] by [[Harmodius and Aristogeiton|Aristogeiton and Harmodios]] in Athens in 514 BC marked the beginning of the so-called "cult of the [[tyrannicide]]s" (i.e. of killers of tyrants). Contempt for tyranny characterised this [[cult movement]]. The attitude became especially prevalent in Athens after 508 BC, when [[Cleisthenes]] reformed the political system so that it resembled ''[[demokratia]]'' (ancient participant democracy as opposed to the modern representative democracy).
The [[Thirty Tyrants]] whom the Spartans imposed on a defeated Attica in [[404 BC]] would not class as tyrants in the usual sense.
===Aisymnetes===
An aisymnetes (pl. aisymnetai) was a type of tyrant or dictator, such as [[Pittacus|Pittacus of Mytilene]] (c. 640 -568 BC), elected for life or a specified period by a city-state in a time of crisis. Magistrates in some city-states were also called aisymnetai.<ref>[http://www.fofweb.com/Onfiles/Ancient/AncientDetail.asp?iPin=HLAG0026 "Ancient Greece: government (tyranny)"], [http://www.fofweb.com/Onfiles/Ancient/AncientDetail.asp?iPin=HLAG0026 Facts On File], retrieved 16 February 2007</ref>
===Hellenic tyrants===
The heyday of the classical Hellenic tyrants came in the early [[6th century BC]], when [[Cleisthenes of Sicyon|Cleisthenes]] ruled [[Sicyon]] in the [[Peloponnesus]], and [[Polycrates]] ruled [[Samos Island|Samos]]. During this time, revolts overthrew many governments in the [[Aeean Sea|Aegean]] world. Simultaneously [[Persian Empire|Persia]] first started making inroads into Greece, and many tyrants sought Persian help against forces seeking to remove them.
===[[Populism]]===
Greek tyranny in the main grew out of the struggle of the popular classes against the [[aristocracy]] or against priest-kings where archaic traditions and mythology sanctioned hereditary and/or traditional rights to rule. Popular [[coup]]s 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 [[Peisistratos (Athens)|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 (son of Peisistratus)|Hippias]] and [[Hipparchus (son of Pisistratus)|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]].
===Sicilian tyrants===
The tyrannies of Sicily came about due to similar causes, but here the threat of [[Carthaginian]] attack prolonged tyranny, facilitating the rise of military leaders with the people united behind them. Such Sicilian tyrants as [[Gelo]], [[Hiero I]], [[Hiero II]], [[Dionysius the Elder]], and [[Dionysius the Younger]] maintained lavish courts and became patrons of culture.
===Roman tyrants===
Roman historians like [[Suetonius]], [[Tacitus]], [[Plutarch]] and [[Josephus]] often spoke of "tyranny" in opposition to "liberty". Tyranny was associated with imperial rule and those rulers who usurped too much authority from the Roman Senate. Those who were advocates of "liberty" tended to be pro-Republic and pro-Senate. For instance, regarding [[Julius Caesar]] and his assassins, Suetonius wrote:
:''Therefore the plots which had previously been formed separately, often by groups of two or three, were united in a general conspiracy, since even the populace no longer were pleased with present conditions, but both secretly and openly rebelled at his tyranny and cried out for defenders of their liberty.''<ref>Suetonius, ''The Lives of Twelve Caesars'', Life of Julius Caesar 80</ref>
==In the arts==
[[Ancient Greece|Ancient Greeks]], as well as the [[Roman Republic]]ans, became generally quite wary of anyone seeking to implement a popular coup. [[Shakespeare]] portrays the struggle of one such anti-tyrannical Roman, [[Marcus Junius Brutus]], in his play ''[[Julius Caesar (play)|Julius Caesar]]''.
==See also==
{{wiktionary|tyrant}}
* [[Dynasty]]
* [[Monarch]]
* [[Right of rebellion]]
* [[Tyranny of the majority]]
==References==
<references />
==External links==
{{wikiquote|Tyranny}}
*[http://www.livius.org Livius], [http://www.livius.org/tt-tz/tyrant/tyrant.html Tyrant] by Jona Lendering
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