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A tyrant (from Greek
τυραννος) is a usurper of rightful power, possessing absolute power and ruling by
tyranny.
In the original Greek meaning "tyrant" carried no ethical censure, a tyrant was anyone who overturned the established
government of a city-state, usually through the use of popular support, to
establish himself as dictator, or the heir of such a person. Cypselus was the first tyrant of Corinth in the
7th century, and managed to bequeath his position to his son, Periander. Succession was seldom untroubled among the tyrants. In
Athens, the title was first given to Pisistratus of Athens in 560 BC, followed by his sons, and with the subsequent
growth of Athenian democracy, the title "Tyrant" took on its familiar censurious connotations. The Thirty Tyrants installed at defeated Athens in 404 BCE by the Spartans were not tyrants in the usual
sense.
The heyday of the tyrants was the early 6th century BC, when
Cleisthenes ruled Sicyon in the
Peloponnesus, and Polycrates ruled Samos. During this time, many governments in the Aegean world were
overthrown. It was during this time that Persia first made inroads into Greece, as many
tyrants sought Persian help against forces seeking to remove them.
Greek tyranny was in the main an outgrowth of the struggle of the popular classes against the aristocracy or priest-kings
whose right to rule was sanctioned by archaic traditions and mythology. Tyrants were generally installed by popular coups, and were often popular rulers, at least in the early part of their reigns. For instance,
Pisistratus was remembered for an episode (related by Aristotle but possibly
fictional) in which he exempted a farmer from taxation because of the particular barrenness of his plot. Pisistratus' sons
Hippias and Hipparchus, on the other hand, were
overthrown, and Hipparchus was assassinated.
The tyrants of Sicily were the products of similar causes, but tyranny was prolonged by the threat of Carthaginian attack,
which facilitated the rise of military leaders with the people united behind them. Such Sicilian tyrants as Gelon, Hiero I, Hiero
II, Dionysius the Elder, and Dionysius the Younger maintained lavish courts and were patrons of culture.
Later ancient Greeks, as well as the Roman Republicans, were generally quite wary of anyone seeking to implement a popular coup.
Modern tyrants
The term now implies a cruel persecutor who treads on the welfare of his people, because some tyrants did indeed have these
characteristics. Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, Robert
Mugabe and Kim Jong Il are examples of recent tyrants and former tyrants.
A tyrant is a cruel ruler who has lost the right to rule. The term has also been used by extension of non-governmental figures,
such as patriarchs and bullies.
See: Blue Gene Tyranny.
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