Greek Tyranny

Author(s): Mary White

Source: Phoenix , Spring, 1955, Vol. 9, No. 1 (Spring, 1955), pp. 1-18
Published by: Classical Association of Canada

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1085948

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 GREEK TYRANNY

MARY WHITE

THE word tyranny in Greek history does not denote one simple, un-
changing institution, nor should it be assumed that it means a form of
government essentially similar in all the cases to which it is applied.
I shall discuss here1 only the earliest tyrannies in the Greek world-the
tyrannies of the seventh and sixth centuries B.C., which arose under
quite different conditions and were, for that reason, different in character
and purpose from the later dictatorships of various times and places in
the Greek world. Tyranny or dictatorship was, of course, in Greece as
elsewhere a recurring phenomenon. In the late sixth and early fifth
centuries it was a device used by Persia to govern the Greek cities of
Asia Minor within the Persian Empire. The famous western tyrants of
Sicily and South Italy appeared in the sixth and especially the fifth and
fourth centuries; and there occurred elsewhere shorter or longer periods
of tyranny. These belong to a time when in Greece itself conditions had
changed; the early tyrannies had been overthrown, and a reaction
against tyranny had set in owing to the combined influence of Sparta,
who was proud of the fact that she had been always without tyrants
(aite arvpavvevTos Thuc. 1. 18.1) and had helped in the expulsion of some
of the tyrants, and of Athens where, after the tyranny, the triumphant
progress of democracy and imperialism exercised great influence on
political thought.
These later tyrannies conform to the modern meaning of the term;
indeed, the term acquired its technical meaning from their character
and from discussions of different types of government by historians and
philosophers, who had them in mind when they described tyranny as a
form of demagogy, a perversion of monarchy, oligarchy, or democracy.
The earliest tyrants were not demagogues for the simple reason that
there was as yet no demos upon whose shoulders they could rise. They
belong to an earlier stage of political development and can more accur-
ately be described as the successful champions of a growing middle class,
who overthrew the restrictive aristocracies of birth and so freed their
cities for a development which under favourable circumstances could
and sometimes did lead to democracy.
The early tyrannies are thus sui generis and must be studied in the
context of their times to be understood. It is even doubtful whether the
term rvpavvos was commonly and generally applied to them in their own
day. The word was still rare at that time and had a variety of meanings;
certainly it had no restricted and technical meaning until the end of the
'This paper was read before the American Historical Association in New York on
December 28, 1954.
1

THE PHOENIX, vol. 9 (1955) 1

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2 THE PHOENIX

fifth century. Its origins are obscure, it is not a Greek nor

term. Whatmough's opinion,2 which has won wide acce
it is Lydian and is related to a group of Lydian names: Tv
Tvpaavot and its alternative form Tvpprlvol (the Greek term f
cans), Tuscus and the older Tursco, and Turan, the Etru
Venus. The probability of Lydian origin derives some sup
fact that the earliest use of any form of the word in Gre
lochos referring to his contemporary, Gyges of Lydia (ca
I care not for the wealth of golden Gyges, nor ever have envied him
of the works of Gods, and I have no desire for lofty despotism (Jeya
TvpavvlPos); for such things are far beyond my ken.

Here rvpavvis denotes the sovereign power of a wealthy m

probably simply a synonym for absolute or royal power.
to be one of its common meanings in both poetry and pro
as Alkaios, Theognis, and Solon it has the derogatory sens
power based on fraud or violence. There may be some sug
meaning even in the first use by Archilochos of Gyges
usurper who in a palace intrigue killed his predecessor
queen, and by a vigorous and devious policy established
dynasty as the ruling power in Anatolia (Hdt. 1. 8-12).
Alkaios (Frs. 48 and 87) is the first to use the word of a
He applies it to Pittakos, the aesymnetes or dictator elect
between the aristocrats, among whom Alkaios and his
prominent, and the party of Melanchros and Myrsilos. Ar
1285 a30-b4) describes aesymnetes as an elective form of
sembling tyranny in being despotic, but resembling king
elective and constitutional. Alkaios has all the aristocratic
an upstart, and objects to Pittakos because he is low-born,
When he says that all praised Pittakos and set him up as ty
7rpavvov), he uses rvpavvos as a term of personal abuse a
proper word to use of the constitutional nature of his po
was scarcely more a tyrant in the later accepted sense of
was Solon in Athens, who held similar power for the year
ship (Aristotle, Ath. Pol. 5.2. eiXovro Kolvi 8LaXX\aKTrlv KaL &
Theognis uses various forms of the term in three pas
1181-1182; 1204), Solon three times (Fr. 23, lines 6, 9, 19;
where the word is not used but the idea is present), both
sense of despotic rule but neither referring to a particul
In the fifth century, when the tyrants had been drive
2Joshua Whatmough, The Foundations of Roman Italy (London 19
3Archilochos, Fr. 22, E. Diehl, Anthologia Lyrica Graeca3 (Leipz
The other fragments of the lyric poets cited will be referred to by th
or for Alkaios the second, edition. The translation is by J. M. Ed
Iambus (Loeb Classical Library, London 1931) 2. 110, Fr. 25.

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 GREEK TYRANNY 3

Athens especially, democracy had won its glorious vict

Persian, in whose train had been the ex-tyrant Hippias
Peisistratidai, all forms of one-man rule were execrated, Per
and Greek tyranny alike. This can be seen in the honours
modios and Aristogeiton who murdered Hipparchos. Th
tyrannicides, their statues were set up in the Agora, and
or drinking song celebrating their deed the refrain reads:
OTE TOrbv pavvov KaveT?7v
iaOVO6Iovos Tr 'ASOvas ErotLao'LrTv

When they slew the tyrant and gave equal laws to Athens.4

Here tyranny is specifically contrasted with isonomia, an

for democracy.
The Athenian dramatists have a similar attitude towards absolute
power. They use the word tyrannos frequently, both of the power of
gods-Zeus, Apollo, and Eros-and of human princes; almost always
contains the suggestion of a newly acquired or dangerously arbitr
power which is likely to be irresponsibly misused. Sometimes thi
explicit, as in Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus 873:
V3pts VTreVL rTvpavvov
Pride breeds tyranny.

In other passages there can be seen an effective double entendre betwe

the conventional meaning of king and the derogatory meaning of desp
Although the Attic use of the word was becoming increasingly colou
with this derogatory meaning, the Ionic continued to have both sens
The two fifth-century historians, the Ionian Herodotos and the Athen
Thucydides illustrate this. Herodotos applies it constantly to orien
kings and their power, occasionally even to governors or satraps,
regularly to the various Greek tyrants, in fact to one-man rule of an
kind with no implication about the character of the rule. But in othe
places, and these are the more emphatic, it is despotic power as oppos
to freedom (eXevOepil 1. 62.2), or to oligarchic government (IooKpari
5. 92. a2); and in the famous Persian debate on the virtues of democrac
oligarchy, and monarchy (3. 80-82) it is significant that Otanes, w
recommends democracy, uses both tobvvapxos and TrVpavvos interchangeab
of one-man rule while Dareios, who recommends the retention of
monarchy, uses ,oOvvapxos only. Thucydides, on the other hand, restr
4C. M. (now Sir Maurice) Bowra, Greek Lyric Poetry (Oxford 1936) 415-421. For
full discussion of the tyrannicide cult see F. Jacoby, Atthis (Oxford 1949) 158-164
notes; K. Schefold, "Kleisthenes," MusHelv 3 (1946) 59-86; V. Ehrenberg, "The Orig
of Democracy," Historia 1 (1950) 530-534; G. W. Williams, "The Curse of the A
maionidai II," Hermathena 79 (1952) 4-11; G. Vlastos, "Isonomia," 4AP 74 (195
340-344.

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4 THE PHOENIX

the term to the well known tyrants of Greece and the Wes
as an illegal and despotic form of government. The two m
passages in the latter sense describe the Athenian Em
remark in the second book (2. 63. 2: cws rvpavviSa 'yap 8srl ex
Xagl3ev .Lev aiLKov 5OKEl etvai, &etvaL 6U ErTLKiLvvvov.), "For
to speak somewhat plainly, a tyranny; to take it perha
but to let it go is unsafe," is echoed by Kleon later, in hi
the punishment of Mitylene (3. 37. 2: ort Tvpavvl6a eXETr rvY
Even this brief account of the history of the term indic
is no certainty that the tyrants of the seventh and sixth
so called by their contemporaries. If they were, it denoted
power, or was a term of censure and abuse; it was not
scription of a type of government. In the fifth century
them, but has two other distinct uses: as a synonym for r
power, and as a synonym for ill gotten or despotically ex
Only by the end of the century is the latter restricte
meaning established.
When it was the fashion to regard Ionia as the pioneer
Greek, it was thought that Greek tyranny was modell
Lydia, and the probable Lydian origins of the word and i
cation to him were cited as corroborative evidence. On th
idea of tyranny first took root in the Greek cities of Asia
in Ephesos where we hear of Melas the son-in-law of Gyge
where Thrasyboulos was a famous tyrant; thence it sprea
Greece. But Melas is nothing but a name, and Thrasy
contemporary of Periander, who belonged to the second
tyranny in Corinth. What evidence we have points i
direction, to the conclusion that the earliest tyrants w
itself, the group at the Isthmus, the Kypselids in Corint
gorids in Sikyon, and Theagenes in Megara. Whether
methods of Gyges provided a pattern for the Isthmian ty
only a conjecture from the fact that during and afte
Greek-Lydian relations first became frequent and close
hand it is certain that the conditions which gave rise to
were peculiarly Greek, and bear little relation to anythin
can guess, of the circumstances attending the palace r
change of dynasty in Lydia.
In the Isthmian cities Dorian aristocracies had succeeded
established at the time of the Dorian invasions, kingsh
persisted at Argos and Sparta. We know more of the Cor
cracy than of the others; they were the Bacchiads, a grou
land-owning families who intermarried among themselve
monopolized all political power in Corinth. They wer
vigorous group who in the early days of the colonial mov

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 GREEK TYRANNY 5

West planted two of the most famous and successful coloni

and Syracuse in 733 B.C. They seem to have been the first to
mercial possibilities opened up by this Greek expansion
and instead of remaining merely a land-owning aristocracy
problems of growth by continuing to export population in c
encouraged Corinth to supplement her limited agricultural
crafts and trade. Strabo (8. 6. 20, C378) says of them: rTO k7
&Kapir6oavro, "they fearlessly reaped the fruits of commerce."
cant that Corinth sent out only the two early colonies; the
her pottery, Proto-Corinthian, one of the loveliest of the
wares, which appears in ever increasing quantities not m
West but throughout the Greek markets. Corinth became fa
innovations in naval architecture and ca. 704 (Thuc. 1. 13. 3
her shipwrights to Samos to build four ships of the new st
probably the penteconter, a type of ship which, with its fif
well as sails, was much less dependent on winds and curren
make faster and safer journeys than the older ships.5
The very success of the Bacchiads in availing themsel
adapting themselves to the expanding opportunities of the e
century was their undoing. The twin claims of land and birt
an aristocracy relies for its exclusive political control were c
the appearance of a growing middle class. This middle class
exclusively mercantile group in contrast to a land-owning a
there seems to have been no such clear distinction.6 Both
both agricultural and mercantile interests, and land was still
form of security. Inevitably, as some families outside the a
group grew wealthy and prominent, intermarriages took p
and Theognis, themselves die-hard aristocrats, complain bitt
marriages, which corrupt noble blood with base-born stock
The new prosperity was reflected in a change of military
and tactics. Hoplite tactics replaced the older long-range typ
in which the aristocratic cavalry had borne the burden and
day, supported by a lightly armed and poorly trained milit
less expensive than cavalry equipment, hoplite armour was
and more expensive than that formerly used by the fighters
and hoplite tactics involved long training and drilling b
body of fighters whose success depended upon their d
effective cooperation. The middle classes contributed the hop
and this gave added force to their resentment against the a
monopoly of political power and exclusive right to inter
Hesiod of Boeotia, the earliest poet of mainland Greece
5Rhys Carpenter, "The Greek Penetration of the Black Sea," AJA 52
6See A. Andrewes, "Probouleusis: Sparta's Contribution to the Techni
ment," Inaugural Lecture, Oxford 1954, 13-15.

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6 THE PHOENIX

gathering storm of protest against princes who twist

own ends.
The answer of the Bacchiads to both criticism and demands was the
frequent answer of a privileged class, greater harshness and repression.
When, in addition, Corinth was unsuccessful in wars with her neighbours
Argos and Megara and her colony Corcyra, the situation was ripe for a
revolution. Kypselos brought the discontent to a head for his own
personal advantage and seized power with the support of the middle
classes. The stories of Kypselos' parentage, of his rise to power, and of
his policy thereafter all stress that hatred of the oppression of the Bac-
chiads was the sentiment that rallied support for him. Claims to rule
based on the prestige of birth are notoriously hard to break, and a strong
personality, able,resourceful, and ruthless,is needed to initiate a successful
revolution. Kypselos was a man of these qualities. Nicolaus of Damascus
says that Kypselos became polemarch, in which office the mildness of
his judicial decisions contrasting with the harsh decisions of the Bacchiads
made him popular so that he was able to make himself tyrant without
the usual bodyguard.7 We may be sceptical of some of the details of the
story, but there is little reason to doubt that Kypselos had the loyal
support of the middle-class hoplite soldiers. The first thing he did was to
kill or drive out the Bacchiads, some of whom fled to Corcyra, Sparta,
and the West. Periander, Kypselos' son and successor, displayed the
same implacable hatred of the Bacchiads. They were expelled from their
refuge in Corcyra, and a son of Periander installed as regent. It seems
clear, therefore, that the Corinthian tyranny arose in protest against the
Bacchiad monopoly of power, and that the studied policy of the Kypselids
was to break that power for ever.
In Sikyon the pattern was similar. The Orthagorid tyrants were
animated by hostility to the aristocratic Dorian families, and themselves
belonged to the fourth and non-Dorian tribe. The renaming of the tribes
(Hdt. 5. 68), to us a childishly spiteful gesture, was Kleisthenes' telling
attack upon the prestige of the Dorian aristocracy. Orthagoras, the
founder of the tyranny, is described as the son of a cook or a butcher
(ua,yetpos). As a young man he distinguished himself in his military
service with the repPlro6XoL, frontier guards, became their commander, and
eventually polemarch. Then with the help of the hoplites he seized the
tyranny.8
For Megara there is less evidence about the establishment of Thea-
genes, but the little there is is significant. Aristotle says in the Politics
(1305a) that Theagenes secured power after slaughtering the flocks and
herds of the wealthy. In the Rhetoric (1357b) he says that, urged by the
poor who hated the wealthy, he obtained a bodyguard and so became
7Nic. Dam. Fr. 57, F. Jacoby, FGH IIA (Berlin 1926) 356-357.
8p. Ox. 11. 1365, Jacoby, FGH IIA, 504-505.

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 GREEK TYRANNY 7

tyrant. It should be remembered that Megara in the seventh

founded a group of colonies at and around the Bosporus, th
famous being Chalkedon, an agricultural colony in a quie
southern shore, and seventeen years later Byzantion on t
shore at the gates of the Euxine in a position to control the
out of the Black Sea. Megara had an aristocracy which,
chiads, had exploited the possibilities of colonization; the
herds and the wool trade, as Ure suggests,9 were an import
their wealth. Aristotle's evidence indicates that in Meg
tyranny was a movement to overthrow aristocracy.
These Isthmian tyrannies are the earliest Greek tyrannies
can be inferred from the evidence we have. They begin in th
of the seventh century; Kypselos is usually dated ca. 655
about the same time, and Theagenes in the 630's.1?
It seems to me that, if it is correct to say that tyranny in
was a movement against the aristocracies of birth led and s
a rising middle class, its geographic position is significant.
lying between the Corinthian and Saronic gulfs, stands
of the principal trade routes: the route to the West wh
opened up by the early colonial movement, and the routes
to Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, and to the Black Sea. Here
of new developments was most quickly and most acute
brought in its wake political change. The idea spread e
many cities in Asia Minor seem to have had tyrannies in th
century. What we know of Thrasyboulos of Miletos and the
Mitylene in which the poet Alkaios participated suggests th
places also it was a reaction against aristocracy. In Samos, w
attempted to show that the tyranny began as early as the 56
piratical activities of Aiakes," it was the overthrow of the
the 7yEuo6'poL, which gave Aiakes the opportunity to seize pe
In Athens, tyranny appeared with Peisistratos in 561/60 un
circumstances which I shall discuss later. Although the firs
in the newer cities of the West arose in the early part of the six
it was not until the end of the century and the beginning
century that most of the cities had tyrants. By this time t
become simply a designation for personal power or dictator
lost its former significance as a symptom of social and poli
ment. Similarly the later tyrannies in Asia Minor supporte

9P. N. Ure, The Origin of Tyranny (Cambridge 1922) 266-267.

'?For the usual chronology see H. T. Wade Gery, CAH3 (Cambridge 19
pp. 548-570 and the note on pp. 764-765. For a later dating of the
H. R. W. Smith, "The Hearst Hydria," University of California Publicat
Archaeology, Vol. 1, No. 10 (1944) 241-290.
1"The Duration of the Samian Tyranny," JHS 74 (1954) 36-43.

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8 THE PHOENIX

or Persia were an artificial prolongation of the earlier i

cease to have any real interest for us.
Having examined the circumstances under which the fir
arose, we now ask what was the nature of a tyrant's po
form of government based on constitutional enactments; if
the constitutional formula; if not, wherein did a tyran
The evidence is discouragingly scanty and vague, but th
suggest that tyranny was a form of government with any
pattern of its own. The opposite seems more likely, that t
not make any radical changes in the constitutions of their
then, did they work? Basically I think it was by a change
The families of the former aristocracies were killed, expelled, o
except for the few who were willing to make their peace
the tyrants. They were replaced by the supporters of the
people who had grown prosperous in the period of expansi
up the hoplite armies, and had helped the tyrant to se
That they were capable of taking responsibility is clear fr
that their respective cities continue to grow more prosper
ous. Far from there being any sign of even a temporary r
caused by inexperience, there is expansion and developm
sphere. In Corinth, although the Bacchiads were expelled,
commerce grew, Proto-Corinthian pottery was succeede
inthian styles, Early, Middle, and Late, which until about
the pottery markets of the whole Greek world. In Sikyon
non-Dorian tribe became the Rulers and the Dorian tribes w
yet Sikyon in the first half of the sixth century became fo
in its history a Greek power of the first rank. And so one
through the whole list. The tyrants doubtless drew for th
upon that class which had gained experience and wealth bu
been excluded from political power, and the event amply
their capacity.
Did the tyrant himself hold any one of the regular office
evidence is incomplete. For Corinth and Sikyon there
traditions that Kypselos and Orthagoras held military p
hoplite armies when they seized power. For Samos there is
piece of evidence, the inscription on the seated statue
Aiakes or his successors which reads: "Dedicated by A
Bryson who secured the booty for Hera KarTa Trv rl-rTaavw
CtrfT&ra'S." This perhaps indicates that Aiakes held th
CertLrTrs while he exercised what later generations would
The most interesting evidence is for Athens. Both Aristo
16. 2. 8) and Thucydides (6. 54. 6) are emphatic that th
were careful not to disturb the existing constitution em
laws of Solon, but Thucydides adds this significant reservat

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 GREEK TYRANNY 9

o6ov aLel rva e7reEMXrovTo aOfUv atrsV kv rals 'pXaOs elvaL-"

as they took care that some of themselves should always ho
ships." Here we see how the tyranny worked. The archons
by the party of the tyrants, and the archons became life m
Areopagos at the end of their year of office. The archons w
executive magistrates of Athens at this time, and the Are
words of Aristotle (,th. Pol. 8. 4.) "still supervised the gre
important parts of public life." Through control of these
of the administrative machinery the policy of the tyr
carried out without further violence to the Solonian constitution. Peisis-
tratos himself had probably been polemarch when he captured Nisaea
from Megara in the Megarian wars and was thus already a member of
the Areopagos before he became tyrant. The archon list inscribed on
stone ca. 425 B.C., a portion of which was discovered in the American
excavations of the Agora and published in 1939,12 shows that Hippias,
the eldest son and heir of Peisistratos, became archon in 526/5 as soon
as possible after his father's death, and that his son, the younger Peisis-
tratos, was archon in 522/1. Two other names in the list are interesting.
Kleisthenes was archon in 525/4, indicating that the Alkmaionid family,
which had gone into exile when Peisistratos seized power, had become
temporarily reconciled to the tyranny and had returned to hold office in
the early years of Hippias' rule, only to go into exile again probably after
the murder of Hipparchos. Miltiades, archon in 524/3, belonged to the
Philaid family which from the beginning had been willing to cooperate
with the tyranny.
For Athens then we have enough evidence to say with some assurance
that the tyrants worked through the regular magistrates and council,
without disturbing the constitution. But this was only their modus
operandi-their real power was neither dependent upon these offices nor
circumscribed by them. They held a personal power far surpassing any
office by virtue of their successful overthrow of the aristocracy, their
successful leadership of their supporters, and the benefits of their policy
to the city as a whole. Usually, at least by the second generation, the
tyrant took the precaution of having a bodyguard, for fear was not a
negligible factor in their success. Although the scale is larger and the
machinery more complex, Augustus' power in the early Principate
offers many analogies. His prestige was won by the victory of Actium,
and his victory brought a new personnel into the Roman oligarchy of
office. Although he was careful to take only certain specific offices and
powers and proclaimed that he had restored the republic, no one was
under any delusion as to the extent of his real power, which pervaded
every aspect of the life of the empire, and was even greater because not
12The fragment is published with a photograph and commentary by B. D. Meritt in
Hesperia 8 (1939) 59-65.

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10 THE PHOENIX

explicit. There are many similarities between tyranny a

and a tyranny in the smaller context of the city state nee
chinery. To take another analogy closer in time though
similar in character, Perikles' power in fifth-century Athe
last fifteen years of his life when he was continuously elect
much greater than the generalship. It rested in his ability
him the Ekklesia in all questions of policy. As Thucydides
Athens was in name a democracy, in reality it was govern
first citizen. The Ekklesia had by the constitutional cha
thenes, Ephialtes, and Perikles himself become sovereig
led the city must lead it. In the earlier period before the d
power, it was through archons and Areopagos that the
work.
We ask next; what did the tyrants try to do and how m
achieve? In the first place, they led their cities to gre
prosperity, by encouraging a diversified economy in whic
continued to hold an important place but was supplemente
increasing development of such crafts as pottery, me
textiles, and of export trade with the ship-building an
activity which must accompany it. Corinth provides a goo
There, using the excellent clay which is one of Corinth's m
natural resources, the many small establishments of the Po
the Kerameikos, produced vast quantities of all kinds o
terracotta figurines to flood the Greek markets; roof-tile f
and exported the special type of roof-tiles invented in Corin
architectural decorations for temples and public buildings
abroad and have been found in such places as Thermon and
Aetolia; perfume was made to fill the thousands of li
aryballoi or perfume bottles, one of the most common type
pottery. Other exports were perishable and less easy to tr
literary sources we know that Corinth was famous for bro
metal work, and textiles. Some of the bronzes survive and
and illustrated by Payne in Necrocorinthia. There is al
golden bowl dedicated by the Kypselids at Olympia, now i
Museum of Fine Arts.
The Kypselids gave Corinth her first coinage, a means of exchange to
facilitate this mercantile development. Within the previous generation
coinage had been invented and came into use first in Lydia and the
Greek cities in Asia Minor. Aegina had issued the first silver coinage in
Greece itself, the silver turtles. The beginning of Corinth's coinage with
the winged Pegasos as its device is now dated about 600 B.C., and was
probably the second example of coinage in European Greece, to be
followed shortly by Athens.13
laFor this later dating of the early coinages see E. S. G. Robinson, "Coins from the
Ephesian Artemision Reconsidered," JHS 71 (1951) 156-166.

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 GREEK TYRANNY 11

Corinth built and maintained a navy of both warships and

ships. A canal was cut through the isthmus between Leu
mainland so that ships would not have to sail outside Leucas
planned a canal through the Isthmus of Corinth but was un
it out.
To secure raw materials and to safeguard the routes to
against any interference from a hostile Corcyra, the Kypse
a series of colonial foundations of a new and imperialist
north-west coast of Greece: Leucas, Ambracia, and Ana
north of the Corinthian Gulf, and Apollonia north of Corc
on the Isthmus of Pallene in Chalkidike was clearly designe
timber from Macedonia and minerals. In each a member of
family was placed as viceroy (as was done also in Corcy
Periander when he expelled the exiled Bacchiads), and the c
kept under strict Corinthian control. This control was mai
after the end of the tyranny; in the fifth century even the
certainly sometimes and may usually have been minted in
were the Corinthian 'colts' with distinguishing letters for
The second aspect of tyrant policy which I wish to emph
directly out of this mercantile development, that is, urban
city of Corinth must have grown enormously during the s
years of the tyranny. Many people were employed in the v
industrial and commercial businesses and had to live in the immediate
area of the city and its harbours. It was in this period and due to these
causes that what we think of as the typical city-state came into being.
A Greek city-state consists not only of the urban and harbour area with
its industrial establishments, shops and market place, civic offices,
temples and public buildings, and the population employed by all these
businesses, but also of the country and its villages with the agricultural
population. Until the time of mercantile expansion the urban area was
little more than the seat of government and the city cults, and a place of
refuge in case of attack; the country and villages were more important.
The situation changed at this period and the urban centre of the city-
state began to be built up with a much larger population earning its
living therein. Water supplies, drainage, streets, market places, public
buildings, new temples, and city walls appear, the outward and visible
signs of the new city-state. Little of this remains in Corinth, so thoroughly
was it destroyed by the Romans in 146 B.c., except for the Potters'
Quarter with a few remains of a city wall, and the two fountain-houses of
Peirene and Glauke, the earliest structures of which belong to the
tyrants. A good and abundant water supply was one of the first needs
of a growing population in a country like Greece which is short of water.
It is, therefore, not surprising that fountain-houses and aqueducts are
among the best known public works of the tyrants. The choice by the
Kypselids of the winged horse Pegasos as the device for their coins was an

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12 THE PHOENIX

ingenious piece of propaganda for the fountain of Pei

legend gushed forth where Pegasos struck his hoof as he m
air. The temple of Apollo, the only other early building
was built a little later than the period of the tyranny but
same policy and testifies to the resources accumulated by
In the third place, the tyrants made their cities powers
rank by a vigorous foreign policy, a munificent generosit
ential Greek shrines, and an enlightened patronage of
Kypselids treated on equal terms with the kings of Ly
arbitrated in disputes between cities, and maintained frie
with other tyrants. Their dedications at Delphi and Olym
admiration of future generations. Their patronage of
deliberate part of their policy; they needed artists and cr
the designing and executing of pottery, metal work, tex
cottas; architects and sculptors for the new buildings
dedications at home and abroad. They were equally
attracting poets to their courts. The result was a brillian
development of both arts and literature.
The Samian tyrants of the sixth century displayed equa
resource in their policies. The most acute problem for th
middle of the century onward was foreign relations: h
their independence in the face first of Kroisos' threat
islands as well as the coasts of Asia Minor, then, when Kr
Asia Minor became part of the Persian Empire, of Persia's
pressure. Aiakes built a strong navy of penteconters,
close relations with Egypt, so that Samos was in a positio
to the vacant thalassocracy when the previous thalasso
was ruthlessly subjected to Persia. Aiakes apparently (Hdt
token submission to Persia, but Persia, without a navy of
she conquered Phoenicia and Egypt, was in no position to
Samos' virtually independent control of the Aegean sea-la
inherited both navy and foreign policy. He converted the
conters into a navy of triremes, the new type of warship,1
the harbour of Samos by building the mole which Her
mentions, and maintained the alliance with Amasis o
Kambyses' attack on Amasis forced him to choose betw
Egypt. He seized every opportunity of strengthening his
Aegean: by alliance with Lygdamis of Naxos, by subjectin
islands and dedicating Rhenaia to the Delian Apollo, wh
celebrated, and by giving refuge to Arkesilaos of Cyrene.

14J. A. Davison, "The First Greek Triremes," CQ 41 (1947) 18-24.

15Lygdamis of Naxos, Polyainos 1.23; the islands and Rhenaia, Th
suggestion that Rhodes may have been one of them, Bowra, Greek Lyri
the celebration of the Delia, H. W. Parke, "Polykrates and Delos,"
108; Arkesilaos of Cyrene, Hdt. 4. 155, 159.

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 GREEK TYRANNY 13

enemies charged him with a piratical blockade of the Aeg

reality Samos did the Greek cause important service in these
building up a strong bulwark of naval power in the Aege
Persian westward expansion.
The domestic policy of the Samian tyrants is less well kn
that of either the Corinthian or Athenian tyrannies, chief
attention is focussed on their foreign relations and the dram
Polykrates' fall (Hdt. 3. 120-125). The evidence for the office of
which Aiakes held has already been mentioned; there is no ev
what, if any, office Polykrates held. Hostility to the aris
'y7wob6po, overthrown by Aiakes when he seized power, persi
time of Polykrates, who to be rid of them sent them as his c
to Kambyses for the invasion of Egypt. They went instead
and with Spartan and Corinthian assistance tried unsuccessfu
out Polykrates.
The interest of the tyranny in commerce is obvious. Samos
of the three states to have a separate temenos at Naukrati
connexions with Cyrene and the West, the semi-piracy of
policy-all point clearly to vigorous commercial activity, as
krates' reputation for wealth and his prosperity.
The public works of the Samian tyranny were famous. H
(3. 60) mentions the three notable structures: the harbour mol
reference has already been made, the Heraion built by Rhoiko
water tunnel of Eupalinos. There were two temples to Her
temple, the channelling of whose column bases was commented
as the first century A.D. by Pliny (N.H. 36. 90), was destroyed
its completion about the middle of the sixth century, and
larger temple-"the largest of all temples known to us," says H
was laid out on the site, utilizing in its foundations the colum
the earlier structure. This temple was in process of building
krates was killed about 522 B.C., and was not completed until
and Roman times. Its foundations with the beautiful column
and fitted into the masonry may still be seen in Samos to
water tunnel was deservedly regarded as one of the most
engineering works of the ancient world. It brought water in
of Samos from a spring a little more than a mile away, on
side of the mountain to the north of the city. The water was
pipes for about half a mile to the mountain, then a tunnel, e
high and eight feet wide and rather less than half a mile lon
through the mountain, both to carry the water pipes and to
means of escape from the city. It emerged inside the city wa
water was taken by another conduit to a fountain-house som
the city. Tunnels were driven from both ends of the mounta
same time, meeting in the middle. At the junction the sectio
north was found to be only about twenty feet west of the se

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14 THE PHOENIX

the south and about eleven feet higher, and connexion betw
made without undue difficulty. The tunnel must have
fifteen years to build and required considerable know
surveying and engineering. It and the two temples are ev
generations of tyranny at Samos, beginning as early p
second quarter of the century, rather than the usual view t
(ca. 532-522 B.c.) alone was tyrant.'6
Many men of science, artists, and poets are associated wi
tyranny. Rhoikos was the architect of the Heraion; Theod
by some authorities as joint architect, and the two are sa
vented the hollow casting of bronze statues. Theodoros was
famous metal workers of the period and made many well
of art such as the bowl dedicated by Kroisos at Delphi and
ring of Polykrates (Hdt. 1. 51; 3. 41). Mnesarchos, the gem
father of the philosopher Pythagoras, was an older con
Rhoikos and Theodoros. Pythagoras himself disliked th
left Samos, first for his earlier visits to Egypt and Babylon
for Kroton in the West. Eupalinos of Megara was broug
for the tunnel. It has been suggested that Thales and
whose floruit coincided with the Samian tyranny, acted a
for the surveying of the tunnel. Demokedes of Kroton, the
later treated Dareios and Atossa, was attracted to Samos b
by the large salary of two talents a year (Hdt. 3. 131).
Two poets are known to have been at the court of the Sa
Ibykos of Rhegion went to Samos in the days of Aiakes, a
most of the rest of his days. A poem found at Oxyrhynch
graceful compliment to the young Polykrates:
Kai a(, IIoXiKpaTrE, KX,OS &a0Trov tT E s,
cW KaT' aOLtav Katl e.obv KXCos.

Anakreon of Teos was brought by Polykrates as tutor for

remained until Polykrates' tragic death, when Hipparc
sent a penteconter to convey him to Athens. Most of
written in Samos.17
The courageous, though ruthless, foreign policy, the magnificent pro-
gramme of public works, and this galaxy of artists and poets made the
Samian tyranny one of the most brilliant and memorable in Greek
history.
I have deliberately left to the end the Athenian tyranny, which though
typical in some of its aspects, is in many of its most important features

'6For full discussion of the length of the Samian tyranny and details of the public
works and the patronage of the arts below see the article cited in JHS 74 (1954) 36-43.
"For Ibykos' poem and discussion of Anakreon see Bowra, Greek Lyric Poetry 259-264,
287-305.

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 GREEK TYRANNY 15

unusual. From its very beginning the Athenian tyrann

violent reaction against the older aristocracy because of th
Solon which preceded it. Solon had made property the basis
to office and so broken the Eupatrid monopoly of the arch
the Areopagos. Families of wealth and influence outside
circle, like the Philaids and Peisistratos himself from B
enabled to hold office by the change. The Solonian chang
were not accepted without bitter resentment. The antagoni
the two parties of the Plain and Coast, the opponents and s
Solon's reforms, gave Peisistratos the opportunity to organ
personal party, the Diakrioi or Hill, with which he seized pow
His personal following was not at first strong enough, and h
out twice, the second time for a long ten-year exile, befor
returned victorious in 546. He was tyrant then until his de
and his eldest son Hippias succeeded to his power until he w
in 511/10. The thirty-six years of tyranny were a period o
political peace during which the bitter rivalries of the noble
harassed Athens both before and after Solon, died out. S
like the Alkmaionidai went into exile, others like the Phila
to work with the tyrants, still others refrained from oppos
hostages had been taken and deposited in Naxos. We ha
observed how Peisistratos was able to carry out his policies
framework of the Solonian constitution. People were recon
constitution during these years, and the difficult transitio
to wealth was peacefully accomplished. The increase in pros
more people eligible for the various offices, the property
of which Solon had established. The general effect was
political differences and a widening of the circle of politic
so that after the tyranny Athens was, in a real sense, read
thenes' democratic reforms.
The economic development of the whole country did much to produce
that middle class, with enough stability and leisure to devote itself to
politics, needed for Kleisthenic democracy. Peisistratos was able to loan
money to poor farmers to enable them to transfer from cereal cultivation
to more profitable agricultural crops such as olives and vines, and so had
relieved the severe economic distress which Solon could not cure and had
established on a sound basis the class of small farmers which continued
to be hereafter an important element in the Athenian economy. At the
same time, like all other tyrants, he encouraged the industrial and
mercantile development of the city. From about 550 Athenian pottery
ousts Corinthian from the markets; black-figure is followed by red-figure
as the finest pottery of the Greek world. Athens embarked on a remarka-
ble building programme, which laid the foundations of the future form
of the city and also immediately provided employment for artisans of

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16 THE PHOENIX

all sorts, architects, sculptors, masons, carpenters, metal

a host of other trades. The introduction of the tetradrach
its immediate popularity facilitated Athens' growing trade
The urban development so characteristic of the tyran
where is conspicuous in Athens also, but accompanying
menting it is a policy arising out of the special circumstan
that is, the unification of Attica around Athens as its cen
before Solon's time the synoicism of Attica had been comp
incorporation of Eleusis, but there remained the task o
whole into a strong and permanent unity. And this the ty
plished by a policy both astute and imaginative. Their con
small farmer class as well as the expansion of employment
and workmen of all kinds has already been noted. To th
measure was due the success of their efforts to create a united state.
The prosperity of rural and urban elements was interdependent; agri-
culture no longer had to provide for virtually the whole population, and
with the removal of overstrain on its resources both groups shared a new
prosperity.
But there was another side of the unification which has not hitherto
been given sufficient recognition, the part played by festivals and cults.
On the Acropolis a new temple to Athena was built and the Great Pana-
thenaic festival was made the symbol of the synoicism; indeed the festival
of the Synoikia was its initial ceremony. After the days spent in athletic
contests, musical competitions, and the famous recitations of Homer,
the festival culminated on the 28th of Hekatombaion in the great pro-
cession to the Acropolis when the whole people made its offerings to
Athena. In this magnificent and solemn pageant the varied life of Attica
found its ideal representation.
In the Agora was built the Altar of the Twelve Gods, six pairs of the
principal deities worshipped throughout Attica. This was made the
central mile-stone for a road system of Attica.
Local cults from different parts of Attica received a new importance
and dignity by the establishment of festivals and temples in Athens, so
that they became cults for the whole of Attica. The most famous is, of
course, the festival of Dionysos of Eleutherai, now brought to Athens; a
temple of Apollo was built on the south slope of the Acropolis and in his
honour were performed the choruses out of which grew the great dramatic
competitions of tragedy and comedy. Similarly the Eleusinian Mysteries
became an Athenian festival; Artemis of Brauron, the village from which
Peisistratos came, was given her precinct on the Acropolis; the younger
Peisistratos dedicated an altar to the Pythian Apollo; and the enormous
temple of the Olympian Zeus was begun, although not completed, before
the expulsion of the tyrants. There is some reason to believe that Solon

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 GREEK TYRANNY 17

had begun this policy of providing cults for the whole peopl
doubtedly it was the tyrants who exploited it with brilliant
Patronage of the arts, a usual feature of the tyrants' policy,
extensive and more fruitful here than elsewhere. Vase-painter
architects, poets, and musicians were drawn to Athens by th
opportunities offered there. Anyone who wishes to unde
appreciate fully the genius of the Peisistratids need only
amazing progress in all the arts in the last years of the sixth
the full flowering of the fifth century.
In their foreign policy can be seen the same clear insight,
shrewd judgement as to where Athens' future fortunes woul
maintained friendly and pacific relations with their neighbou
itself, but turned their eyes to the island world, to the Helle
to the Thracian coast. The tyrant of Naxos was assisted,
where the Ionians celebrated the festival to the Delian A
purified. Whether they had any direct connexion with the con
tyranny in Samos we do not know but it is probable. North of
pont a colony of Athenian settlers was taken by Miltiades to t
ese. To Sigeion on the south, which had been for some years
between Athens and Lesbos, an illegitimate son of Peisistrato
as viceroy, and it passed into Athenian possession. These two
either side of the Hellespont helped to ensure the safe passag
and materials from the Black Sea to an Athens no longer raisin
grain for her own needs. Likewise in Thrace the Peisistratids h
property on the Strymon River and had friendly relations wi
the source of lumber and ship timbers. These were only tent
nings, but they lay in the areas where Athens after the Pers
organized the Delian Confederacy, and foreshadowed her fift
expansion.
However, the later years of the tyranny were clouded by the suspicious
harshness of Hippias after the murder of Hipparchos, and by the ap-
proaching shadow of Persia. Hippias prepared for the future by making
his peace with Persia and when he was expelled medized openly and
went to Susa. He was with the Persians at Marathon, and members of
his family accompanied the great Persian expedition of 480/79. The
tyranny thus acquired a double stigma in Athens: the natural reaction
against it accompanying the exhilaration of newly won freedom, a
headier draught in Athens than elsewhere for within three years Kleis-
thenes introduced the tribal reforms and democracy; and also the stigma
of medism. It is small wonder that the word tyranny acquired in Athens
its bitter connotations in the years immediately following. Later gener-
18I hope to discuss the Peisistratids' contribution to the synoicism of Attica and their
establishment of cults and festivals in a study of the Athenian tyranny.

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18 THE PHOENIX

ations were nearer the truth when they looked back to th

golden age, 6 ekrl Kpovov lt3os (Aristotle, Ath. Pol. 16. 7).
In conclusion we have one more question to ask: what was the life
expectancy of tyranny and to what did it lead? Tyranny rarely lasted
more than two or three generations. This is understandable. The personal
power of tyrants was accepted and supported in order to break the
oppressive rule of the older aristocracies of birth. Two or three generations
were enough to ensure that there could be no return to the old r6gime.
Then the individual champions could be dispensed with; in most cases
by the second generation their rule came to be regarded as repressive.
The circumstances attending their overthrow differed in each city, but
the basic reason was the same: they had outlived their necessity. They
were succeeded by types of government differing in the proportion of
the population who now shared in the effective business of adminis-
tration. Property qualifications might restrict the number of those who
held office and directed policy so that it became a merchant oligarchy
as at Corinth, or as at Athens the assembly might be given the direction
of policy and the average citizen might hold office and sit on the council
so that it became a democracy. In spite of differences, both the oli-
garchies and democracies of the classical period were governments more
broadly based than formerly. The significance of the early tyrannies was
two-fold. They brought to an end forever that rigid aristocratic control
which, by denying competence outside an arbitrarily fixed circle, ham-
pered growth; more important, they provided the positive impetus to
development in all fields which encouraged initiative, enriched both
material and intellectual life, broadened the horizons of their cities, and
prepared them for the future.

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