phoenix 1955 greek tyranny
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Classical Association of Canada
Greek TyrannyAuthor(s): Mary WhiteSource: Phoenix, Vol. 9, No. 1 (Spring, 1955), pp. 1-18Published by: Classical Association of CanadaStable URL: http://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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THE PHOENIX
fifth
century.
Its
origins
are
obscure,
it is
not
a
Greek
nor
Indo-European
term.
Whatmough's opinion,2
which has won
wide
acceptance,
is that
it
is
Lydian
and
is
related
to
a
group
of
Lydian
names:
Tvpa-a,
Turnus,
Tvpaavot
and
its alternative form
Tvpprlvol
the
Greek term for the
Etrus-
cans),
Tuscus
and
the
older
Tursco,
and
Turan,
the
Etruscan
name for
Venus.
The
probability
of
Lydian
origin
derives some
support
from the
fact that the
earliest use
of
any
form
of
the word
in
Greek is
by
Archi-
lochos
referring
to his
contemporary,
Gyges
of
Lydia
(ca.
687-652
B.c.):3
I
care
not
for
the wealth of
golden Gyges,
nor
ever have
envied
him;
I am
not
jealous
of
the works
of
Gods,
and
I
have
no
desire for
lofty
despotism
(JeyaY&Xr7s
O'iK
E
p&o
TvpavvlPos);
or
such
things
are far
beyond my
ken.
Here rvpavvisdenotes the
sovereign
power
of a
wealthy
monarch,
and is
probably
simply
a
synonym
for
absolute
or
royal
power.
Such continues
to
be one of its common
meanings
in
both
poetry
and
prose.
But as
early
as
Alkaios,
Theognis,
and
Solon
it
has
the
derogatory
sense
of
despotic
power
based
on
fraud
or
violence.
There
may
be some
suggestion
of
this
meaning
even
in
the first use
by
Archilochos of
Gyges,
a
resourceful
usurper
who in a
palace intrigue
killed his
predecessor,
married
his
queen,
and
by
a
vigorous
and
devious
policy
established
the
Mermnad
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 Greek
leader.
He
applies
it
to
Pittakos,
the
aesymnetes
or
dictator
elected as
mediator
between
the
aristocrats,
among
whom
Alkaios
and his
brothers were
prominent,
and
the
party
of
Melanchros
and
Myrsilos.
Aristotle
(Politics
1285
a30-b4)
describes
aesymnetes
as an
elective form
of
tyranny,
re-
sembling tyranny
in
being
despotic,
but
resembling
kingship
in
being
elective
and
constitutional.
Alkaios
has all
the
aristocratic
contempt
for
an
upstart,
and
objects
to
Pittakos
because he is
low-born,
KaKorrarpltas.
When
he
says
that
all
praised
Pittakos and set him
up
as
tyrant
(CTaraavro
7rpavvov),
he
uses
rvpavvos
as
a
term
of
personal
abuse
and not as the
proper
word
to use
of
the
constitutional
nature of
his
position.
Pittakos
was
scarcely
more a
tyrant
in
the
later
accepted
sense of
the term than
was
Solon
in
Athens,
who held similar
power
for
the
year
of
his
archon-
ship
(Aristotle,
Ath.
Pol.
5.2.
eiXovro
Kolvi
8LaXX\aKTrlv
KaL
&pXoovra
26Xova).
Theognis
uses various forms
of the
term
in
three
passages (823-824;
1181-1182;
1204),
Solon
three
times
(Fr.
23,
lines
6, 9,
19;
cf.
Fr.
10,
3-4
where
the word is not
used but the
idea is
present),
both
poets
in
the
sense of despotic rule but neither referring to a particular individual.
In the
fifth
century,
when the
tyrants
had been
driven
out
and,
in
2Joshua
Whatmough,
The Foundations
of
Roman
Italy
(London
1937)
231.
3Archilochos,
Fr.
22,
E.
Diehl, Anthologia
Lyrica
Graeca3
Leipzig
1952)
3.
10-11.
The other
fragments
of
the
lyric
poets
cited
will be
referred
to
by
the
numbers of
this,
or
for
Alkaios the
second,
edition.
The
translation
is
by J.
M.
Edmonds,
Elegy
and
Iambus
(Loeb
Classical
Library,
London
1931)
2.
110,
Fr.
25.
2
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GREEK TYRANNY
Athens
especially,
democracy
had
won
its
glorious
victories over
the
Persian,
in
whose
train
had been
the
ex-tyrant Hippias
and the other
Peisistratidai, all forms of one-man rule were execrated, Persian monarchy
and Greek
tyranny
alike. This can
be
seen
in
the
honours
paid
to Har-
modios
and
Aristogeiton
who
murdered
Hipparchos.
They
became
the
tyrannicides,
their
statues were
set
up
in
the
Agora,
and
in
the
scolion
or
drinking song celebrating
their
deed
the refrain
reads:
OTETOrbv
pavvov
KaveT?7v
iaOVO6Iovos
r
'ASOvas
rotLao'LrTv
When
hey
slew the
tyrant
and
gave equal
aws
to
Athens.4
Here tyranny is specifically contrasted with isonomia, an earlier term
for
democracy.
The
Athenian dramatists have
a
similar
attitude towards
absolute
power. They
use the
word
tyrannos
frequently,
both
of
the
power
of
the
gods-Zeus,
Apollo,
and
Eros-and
of human
princes;
almost
always
it
contains the
suggestion
of
a
newly
acquired
or
dangerously arbitrary
power
which is
likely
to be
irresponsibly
misused.
Sometimes
this
is
explicit,
as in
Sophocles'
Oedipus Tyrannus
873:
V3pts VTreVL
rTvpavvov
Pridebreeds
yranny.
In
other
passages
there can be
seen
an
effective
double
entendre
between
the
conventional
meaning
of
king
and
the
derogatory
meaning
of
despot.
Although
the
Attic
use of the
word was
becoming
increasingly
coloured
with
this
derogatory meaning,
the Ionic
continued
to
have
both senses.
The
two
fifth-century
historians,
the Ionian
Herodotos
and
the
Athenian
Thucydides
illustrate this.
Herodotos
applies
it
constantly
to
oriental
kings
and their
power, occasionally
even to
governors
or
satraps,
and
regularly
to the various
Greek
tyrants,
in
fact
to
one-man rule of
any
kind with
no
implication
about
the character
of
the
rule.
But
in
other
places,
and these are the
more
emphatic,
it is
despotic
power
as
opposed
to
freedom
(eXevOepil
1.
62.2),
or
to
oligarchic
government
(IooKparia
5.
92.
a2);
and
in
the famous
Persian
debate
on
the virtues of
democracy,
oligarchy,
and
monarchy
(3. 80-82)
it is
significant
that
Otanes,
who
recommends
democracy,
uses
both
tobvvapxos
nd
TrVpavvos
nterchangeably
of one-man
rule
while
Dareios,
who
recommends the retention of
the
monarchy, uses ,oOvvapxosnly. Thucydides, on the other hand, restricts
4C.M.
(now
Sir
Maurice)
Bowra,
Greek
yricPoetry
Oxford
936)
415-421.For a
full
discussion of the
tyrannicide
cult
see
F.
Jacoby,
Atthis
(Oxford
1949)
158-164
and
notes;
K.
Schefold,
Kleisthenes,
MusHelv 3
(1946)
59-86;
V.
Ehrenberg,
The
Origins
of
Democracy,
Historia 1
(1950)
530-534;
G. W.
Williams,
The
Curse
of
the Alk-
maionidai
II,
Hermathena
79
(1952)
4-11;
G.
Vlastos,
Isonomia,
4AP
74
(1953)
340-344.
3
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THE
PHOENIX
the
term
to the
well
known
tyrants
of
Greece and the
West
or
to
tyranny
as
an
illegal
and
despotic
form of
government.
The
two
most
striking
passages
in
the
latter
sense describe
the Athenian
Empire:
Perikles'
remark in
the second
book
(2.
63. 2:
cws
rvpavviSa
'yap
8srl xere
aVOrTv,
Xv
Xagl3ev
Lev
aiLKov
5OKEl
etvai,
&etvaL
6U
ErTLKiLvvvov.),
For
what
you
hold
is,
to
speak
somewhat
plainly,
a
tyranny;
to
take
it
perhaps
was
wrong,
but
to
let
it
go
is
unsafe,
is
echoed
by
Kleon
later,
in
his
speech
about
the
punishment
of
Mitylene (3.
37.
2:
ort
Tvpavvl6aeXETr
rvY
apXrv).
Even this
brief account of
the
history
of
the term indicates
that
there
is
no
certainty
that the
tyrants
of
the seventh
and
sixth centuries
were
so called
by
their
contemporaries.
If
they
were,
it denoted their absolute
power, or was a term of censure and abuse; it was not a technical de-
scription
of
a
type
of
government.
In
the
fifth
century
it
is
applied
to
them,
but has
two other
distinct uses: as
a
synonym
for
royal
or
absolute
power,
and
as
a
synonym
for ill
gotten
or
despotically
exercised
power.
Only
by
the
end
of
the
century
is the
latter
restricted
and technical
meaning
established.
When
it
was the
fashion
to
regard
Ionia
as the
pioneer
in
all
things
Greek,
it
was
thought
that Greek
tyranny
was modelled
on
Gyges
of
Lydia,
and
the
probable Lydian origins
of
the
word
and
its
first
appli-
cation to him were cited as corroborative evidence. On this theory the
idea
of
tyranny
first took
root
in
the
Greek
cities
of Asia
Minor,
perhaps
in
Ephesos
where
we
hear of
Melas
the son-in-law
of
Gyges,
or in
Miletos
where
Thrasyboulos
was
a
famous
tyrant;
thence it
spread
to
mainland
Greece.
But
Melas
is
nothing
but
a
name,
and
Thrasyboulos
was
a
contemporary
of
Periander,
who
belonged
to the
second
generation
of
tyranny
in
Corinth.
What
evidence we
have
points
in
the
opposite
direction,
to
the conclusion
that
the earliest
tyrants
were
in
Greece
itself,
the
group
at
the
Isthmus,
the
Kypselids
in
Corinth,
the
Ortha-
gorids in Sikyon, and Theagenes in Megara. Whether the career and
methods
of
Gyges
provided
a
pattern
for
the
Isthmian
tyrants
can be
only
a
conjecture
from
the
fact that
during
and
after
Gyges'
reign
Greek-Lydian
relations
first became
frequent
and close.
On
the
other
hand it is
certain
that
the
conditions
which
gave
rise to
these
tyrannies
were
peculiarly
Greek,
and
bear
little relation
to
anything
we
know,
or
can
guess,
of
the
circumstances
attending
the
palace
revolution
and
change
of
dynasty
in
Lydia.
In
the
Isthmian
cities Dorian
aristocracies
had
succeeded
the
kingships
established at the time of the Dorian invasions,
kingships
which still
persisted
at
Argos
and
Sparta.
We know
more of
the
Corinthian
aristo-
cracy
than of
the
others;
they
were the
Bacchiads,
a
group
of
Heraklid
land-owning
families
who
intermarried
among
themselves
and
jealously
monopolized
all
political
power
in
Corinth.
They
were an
able
and
vigorous
group
who in
the
early days
of
the colonial
movement
to the
4
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GREEK
TYRANNY
West
planted
two
of
the most
famous and successful
colonies,
Corcyra
and
Syracuse
in
733 B.C.
They
seem
to have been the
first
to
see
the
com-
mercial possibilities opened up by this Greek expansion to the West,
and
instead
of
remaining merely
a
land-owning
aristocracy, solving
the
problems
of
growth by continuing
to
export
population
in
colonies,
they
encouraged
Corinth to
supplement
her
limited
agricultural
resources
by
crafts and
trade.
Strabo
(8.
6.
20,
C378)
says
of
them:
rTO
7roprov
a&6Ew
&Kapir6oavro,
they
fearlessly
reaped
the fruits
of
commerce. It
is
signifi-
cant
that Corinth sent out
only
the two
early colonies;
thereafter
it
is
her
pottery,
Proto-Corinthian,
one
of
the loveliest of
the
'Orientalizing'
wares,
which
appears
in
ever
increasing
quantities
not
merely
in
the
West but throughout the Greek markets. Corinth became famous for her
innovations in
naval
architecture and ca. 704
(Thuc.
1.
13.
3)
lent one
of
her
shipwrights
to Samos
to
build
four
ships
of the
new
style.
This was
probably
the
penteconter,
a
type
of
ship
which,
with
its
fifty
rowers
as
well
as
sails,
was
much less
dependent
on
winds
and currents and
could
make
faster and safer
journeys
than
the
older
ships.5
The
very
success of
the
Bacchiads
in
availing
themselves of
and
adapting
themselves
to
the
expanding opportunities
of
the
early
seventh
century
was
their
undoing.
The twin claims
of
land
and birth
upon
which
an aristocracy relies for its exclusive political control were challenged by
the
appearance
of
a
growing
middle class.
This
middle class
was not
an
exclusively
mercantile
group
in
contrast to
a
land-owning aristocracy;
there
seems to have
been
no
such
clear
distinction.6
Both
groups
had
both
agricultural
and
mercantile
interests,
and
land was still
the
principal
form of
security.
Inevitably,
as
some families
outside the
aristocratic
group grew
wealthy
and
prominent,
intermarriages
took
place.
Alkaios
and
Theognis,
themselves
die-hard
aristocrats,
complain
bitterly
of
such
marriages,
which
corrupt
noble
blood with
base-born
stock.
The new prosperity was reflected in a change of military equipment
and
tactics.
Hoplite
tactics
replaced
the
older
long-range
type
of
fighting
in
which
the aristocratic
cavalry
had
borne
the
burden
and
heat of
the
day,
supported by
a
lightly
armed
and
poorly
trained
militia.
Although
less
expensive
than
cavalry
equipment,
hoplite
armour
was much
heavier
and more
expensive
than that
formerly
used
by
the
fighters
in
the
ranks,
and
hoplite
tactics
involved
long
training
and
drilling
by
a
compact
body
of
fighters
whose
success
depended
upon
their
discipline
and
effective
cooperation.
The
middle
classes
contributed
the
hoplite
phalanx,
and this gave added force to their resentment against the aristocratic
monopoly
of
political
power
and
exclusive
right
to
interpret
justice.
Hesiod
of
Boeotia,
the
earliest
poet
of
mainland
Greece,
voices
the
5Rhys
Carpenter,
The Greek
Penetration of
the Black
Sea,
AJA
52
(1948)
1-10.
6See A.
Andrewes,
Probouleusis:
Sparta's
Contribution to
the
Technique
of
Govern-
ment, Inaugural
Lecture,
Oxford
1954,
13-15.
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THE PHOENIX
gathering
storm of
protest against
princes
who
twist
justice
to
their
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,
rontier
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
tyrant.
It should be
remembered that
Megara
in the seventh
century
had
founded
a
group
of colonies at
and around the
Bosporus,
the
two
most
famous being Chalkedon, an agricultural colony in a quiet bay on the
southern
shore,
and seventeen
years
later
Byzantion
on the
northern
shore
at
the
gates
of the
Euxine
in
a
position
to control the trade
in
and
out of the
Black Sea.
Megara
had
an
aristocracy
which,
like the
Bac-
chiads,
had
exploited
the
possibilities
of
colonization;
their
flocks
and
herds
and the wool
trade,
as Ure
suggests,9
were
an
important
part
of
their
wealth.
Aristotle's
evidence
indicates that
in
Megara
too
the
tyranny
was a
movement to
overthrow
aristocracy.
These Isthmian
tyrannies
are the
earliest
Greek
tyrannies,
so far as
can be inferred from the evidence we have. They begin in the second half
of
the seventh
century;
Kypselos
is
usually
dated
ca.
655,
Orthagoras
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
these
places
was
a
movement
against
the
aristocracies of
birth
led and
supported
by
a
rising
middle
class,
its
geographic position
is
significant.
The
Isthmus,
lying
between
the Corinthian
and
Saronic
gulfs,
stands at
the centre
of
the
principal
trade
routes: the
route to
the West which had been
opened
up
by
the
early
colonial
movement,
and the
routes
to
the
East,
to Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, and to the Black Sea. Here the impact
of
new
developments
was most
quickly
and most
acutely
felt,
and
brought
in
its wake
political
change.
The
idea
spread
eastward,
and
many
cities
in
Asia
Minor
seem to
have
had
tyrannies
in
the
early
sixth
century.
What
we know of
Thrasyboulos
of
Miletos
and the
struggles
in
Mitylene
in
which
the
poet
Alkaios
participated
suggests
that
in
these
places
also it
was
a
reaction
against
aristocracy.
In
Samos,
where
I
have
attempted
to
show
that
the
tyranny
began
as
early
as the 560's
with
the
piratical
activities of
Aiakes,
it was
the
overthrow
of
the
landowners,
the
7yEuo6'poL,
hich gave Aiakes the opportunity to seize personal power.
In
Athens,
tyranny
appeared
with
Peisistratos
in
561/60
under
special
circumstances
which
I
shall
discuss
later.
Although
the first
tyrannies
in
the newer
cities
of
the
West
arose
in
the
early
part
of
the sixth
century,
it
was
not until
the
end
of
the
century
and
the
beginning
of
the
fifth
century
that
most of
the
cities
had
tyrants.
By
this
time
tyranny
had
become
simply
a
designation
for
personal
power
or
dictatorship
and
had
lost its former
significance
as
a
symptom
of social
and
political
develop-
ment.
Similarly
the
later
tyrannies
in
Asia Minor
supported
by
Lydia
9P.
N.
Ure,
The
Origin
of
Tyranny
(Cambridge
1922)
266-267.
'?For
the
usual
chronology
see H.
T.
Wade
Gery,
CAH3
(Cambridge 1929)
Chap.
22.6,
pp.
548-570
and
the
note on
pp.
764-765.
For
a
later
dating
of
the
Kypselids
see
H. R.
W.
Smith,
The
Hearst
Hydria,
University
of
California
Publications in
Classical
Archaeology,
Vol.
1,
No.
10
(1944)
241-290.
1 The Duration
of
the Samian
Tyranny,
JHS
74
(1954)
36-43.
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THE
PHOENIX
or
Persia
were
an
artificial
prolongation
of
the earlier
institution
and
cease to
have
any
real interest
for
us.
Having
examined
the
circumstances under
which
the
first
tyrannies
arose,
we
now
ask what was
the
nature
of
a
tyrant's power.
Was it
a
form of
government
based
on
constitutional
enactments;
if
so,
what
was
the
constitutional
formula;
if
not,
wherein did
a
tyrant's power
lie?
The
evidence is
discouragingly scanty
and
vague,
but there
is none
to
suggest
that
tyranny
was
a
form of
government
with
any
constitutional
pattern
of
its
own.
The
opposite
seems
more
likely,
that the
tyrants
did
not
make
any
radical
changes
in the
constitutions
of their cities.
How,
then,
did
they
work?
Basically
I
think it was
by
a
change
of
personnel.
The families of the former aristocracies were killed, expelled, or suppressed,
except
for
the few who
were
willing
to
make
their
peace
and
work
with
the
tyrants. They
were
replaced by
the
supporters
of
the
tyrants,
the
people
who
had
grown
prosperous
in
the
period
of
expansion,
who
made
up
the
hoplite
armies,
and
had
helped
the
tyrant
to set
himself
up.
That
they
were
capable
of
taking
responsibility
is clear
from
the fact
that their
respective
cities
continue
to
grow
more
prosperous
and
vigor-
ous. Far
from
there
being any sign
of
even
a
temporary
retrogression
caused
by
inexperience,
there is
expansion
and
development
in
every
sphere. In Corinth, although the Bacchiads were expelled, yet the city's
commerce
grew,
Proto-Corinthian
pottery
was
succeeded
by
the
Cor-
inthian
styles,
Early,
Middle,
and
Late,
which until about 550
dominated
the
pottery
markets of
the
whole
Greek world.
In
Sikyon
Kleisthenes'
non-Dorian
tribe became
the Rulers
and
the Dorian
tribes were
degraded,
yet
Sikyon
in
the
first half of
the
sixth
century
became
for
the
only
time
in
its
history
a
Greek
power
of
the first rank.
And
so one
could
continue
through
the
whole list.
The
tyrants
doubtless drew
for
their
personnel
upon
that
class
which
had
gained
experience
and
wealth but had hitherto
been excluded from political power, and the event amply demonstrated
their
capacity.
Did the
tyrant
himself
hold
any
one of
the
regular
offices?
Again
the
evidence is
incomplete.
For
Corinth
and
Sikyon
there
are
only
the
traditions
that
Kypselos
and
Orthagoras
held
military posts
with the
hoplite
armies
when
they
seized
power.
For
Samos
there is one
valuable
piece
of
evidence,
the
inscription
on
the
seated
statue
dedicated
by
Aiakes
or
his
successors
which
reads:
Dedicated
by
Aiakes son of
Bryson
who
secured the
booty
for Hera
KarTa
Trv
rl-rTaavw,
when he was
CtrfT&ra'S.
This perhaps indicates that Aiakes held the position of
CertLrTrs
while he
exercised what
later
generations
would
call
a
tyranny.
The most
interesting
evidence
is
for
Athens.
Both
Aristotle
(Ath.
Pol.
16. 2.
8)
and
Thucydides
(6.
54.
6)
are
emphatic
that
the Peisistratids
were careful
not to
disturb
the
existing
constitution
embodied
in
the
laws of
Solon,
but
Thucydides
adds this
significant
reservation:
7rXjv
KaO'
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GREEK TYRANNY
o6ov aLel rva
e7reEMXrovTo
OfUv
atrsV
kv
rals
'pXaOs
elvaL- except
in
so
far
as
they
took
care
that some of themselves
should
always
hold
the archon-
ships. Here we see how the tyranny worked. The archonships were held
by
the
party
of the
tyrants,
and the archons became life
members
of the
Areopagos
at
the
end
of
their
year
of
office.
The
archons
were
the chief
executive
magistrates
of Athens
at this
time,
and the
Areopagos
in
the
words of
Aristotle
(,th.
Pol.
8.
4.)
still
supervised
the
greater
and
more
important parts
of
public
life.
Through
control of these two
branches
of
the
administrative
machinery
the
policy
of
the
tyrants
could
be
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
ragment
is
published
with
a
photograph
and
commentary
by
B. D.
Meritt in
Hesperia
8
(1939)
59-65.
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THE PHOENIX
explicit.
There are
many
similarities between
tyranny
and
principate,
and
a
tyranny
in
the smaller
context of
the
city
state needed
less
ma-
chinery.
To
take another
analogy closer in time though perhaps less
similar
in
character,
Perikles'
power
in
fifth-century
Athens
during
the
last
fifteen
years
of
his
life when he was
continuously
elected
general
was
much
greater
than
the
generalship.
It
rested
in his
ability
to
carry
with
him
the
Ekklesia
in all
questions
of
policy.
As
Thucydides
says
(2.
65.
9)
Athens
was
in
name a
democracy,
in
reality
it was
government
by
the
first
citizen. The
Ekklesia
had
by
the
constitutional
changes
of Kleis-
thenes,
Ephialtes,
and
Perikles himself
become
sovereign,
and he
who
led the
city
must
lead
it. In
the earlier
period
before
the demos had
such
power, it was through archons and Areopagos that the tyrants must
work.
We
ask
next;
what did
the
tyrants
try
to
do
and
how much
did
they
achieve?
In
the
first
place,
they
led their
cities to
greater
material
prosperity,
by
encouraging
a
diversified
economy
in
which
agriculture
continued
to
hold
an
important
place
but
was
supplemented
by
an
ever-
increasing
development
of
such
crafts as
pottery,
metal
work,
and
textiles,
and of
export
trade
with the
ship-building
and mercantile
activity
which
must
accompany
it.
Corinth
provides
a
good
illustration.
There, using the excellent clay which is one of Corinth's most valuable
natural
resources,
the
many
small
establishments
of
the
Potters'
Quarter,
the
Kerameikos,
produced
vast
quantities
of
all
kinds of
pottery
and
terracotta
figurines
to
flood the
Greek
markets;
roof-tile
factories made
and
exported
the
special type
of
roof-tiles
invented
in
Corinth;
terracotta
architectural
decorations for
temples
and
public
buildings
were
shipped
abroad
and
have been
found
in
such
places
as
Thermon
and
Kalydon
in
Aetolia;
perfume
was
made to fill
the
thousands of
little
decorated
aryballoi
or
perfume
bottles,
one of
the
most common
types
of
Corinthian
pottery. Other exports were perishable and less easy to trace, but from
literary
sources
we know
that
Corinth was
famous
for
bronzes
and
other
metal
work,
and textiles.
Some
of
the
bronzes
survive
and are
discussed
and illustrated
by
Payne
in
Necrocorinthia.
There
is
also the
famous
golden
bowl
dedicated
by
the
Kypselids
at
Olympia,
now
in
the
Boston
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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TYRANNY
Corinth
built and maintained
a
navy
of both
warships
and
merchant
ships.
A
canal
was
cut
through
the isthmus
between
Leucas and the
mainland so that ships would not have to sail outside Leucas. Periander
planned
a
canal
through
the Isthmus
of
Corinth but was unable to
carry
it
out.
To
secure
raw materials
and
to
safeguard
the
routes
to the
West
against any
interference from
a
hostile
Corcyra,
the
Kypselids
planted
a
series
of
colonial
foundations
of
a
new
and
imperialist
type
on
the
north-west
coast
of
Greece:
Leucas, Ambracia,
and Anaktorion
just
north of
the
Corinthian
Gulf,
and
Apollonia
north
of
Corcyra.
Potidaia
on
the Isthmus
of
Pallene
in
Chalkidike
was
clearly designed
to
secure
timber from Macedonia and minerals. In each a member of the Kypselid
family
was
placed
as
viceroy
(as
was
done
also
in
Corcyra
itself
by
Periander when
he
expelled
the
exiled
Bacchiads),
and the colonies
were
kept
under
strict Corinthian control. This control was
maintained
long
after
the end
of
the
tyranny;
in
the
fifth
century
even
their
coins were
certainly
sometimes and
may usually
have been minted in
Corinth and
were the
Corinthian 'colts' with
distinguishing
letters
for
each
colony.
The second
aspect
of
tyrant
policy
which
I
wish
to
emphasize
arises
directly
out
of
this mercantile
development,
that
is,
urbanization.
The
city of Corinth must have grown enormously during the seventy-odd
years
of
the
tyranny. Many people
were
employed
in
the
various
small
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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ingenious
piece
of
propaganda
for
the fountain of
Peirene,
which
in
legend
gushed
forth
where
Pegasos
struck
his hoof
as
he mounted
into
the
air. The temple of Apollo, the only other early building left in Corinth,
was built
a
little
later than
the
period
of
the
tyranny
but
was
part
of
the
same
policy
and testifies to
the
resources
accumulated
by
the
tyrants.
In
the
third
place,
the
tyrants
made
their
cities
powers
of
the
first
rank
by
a
vigorous foreign
policy,
a
munificent
generosity
to the
influ-
ential Greek
shrines,
and
an
enlightened
patronage
of
the arts.
The
Kypselids
treated
on
equal
terms with the
kings
of
Lydia
and
Egypt,
arbitrated
in
disputes
between
cities,
and
maintained
friendly
relations
with
other
tyrants.
Their
dedications at
Delphi
and
Olympia
excited
the
admiration of future generations. Their patronage of the arts was a
deliberate
part
of
their
policy;
they
needed artists
and craftsmen for
the
designing
and
executing
of
pottery,
metal
work, textiles,
and terra-
cottas;
architects and
sculptors
for
the
new
buildings
and
for
their
dedications
at
home and
abroad.
They
were
equally
interested
in
attracting
poets
to
their
courts. The
result
was
a
brilliant
period
in
the
development
of
both arts
and
literature.
The
Samian
tyrants
of
the
sixth
century
displayed equal
vigour
and
resource
in
their
policies.
The
most acute
problem
for
them
from
the
middle of the century onward was foreign relations: how to preserve
their
independence
in
the
face
first
of
Kroisos'
threat to
conquer
the
islands as
well as
the coasts of
Asia
Minor, then,
when Kroisos fell
and
Asia Minor
became
part
of
the Persian
Empire,
of
Persia's more
relentless
pressure.
Aiakes
built
a
strong
navy
of
penteconters,
and
cultivated
close
relations with
Egypt,
so
that Samos
was
in
a
position
to
fall
heir
to the
vacant
thalassocracy
when
the
previous
thalassocrat,
Phokaia,
was
ruthlessly
subjected
to
Persia.
Aiakes
apparently
(Hdt.
1.
169)
made
token
submission
to
Persia,
but
Persia,
without
a
navy
of her own
until
she conquered Phoenicia and Egypt, was in no position to interfere with
Samos'
virtually
independent
control
of the
Aegean
sea-lanes.
Polykrates
inherited both
navy
and
foreign
policy.
He
converted the
navy
of
pente-
conters
into
a
navy
of
triremes,
the new
type
of
warship,14
and
improved
the
harbour
of
Samos
by
building
the mole
which
Herodotos
(3. 60)
mentions,
and
maintained
the
alliance
with
Amasis of
Egypt
until
Kambyses'
attack
on
Amasis
forced
him
to
choose
between Persia
and
Egypt.
He
seized
every
opportunity
of
strengthening
his
position
in
the
Aegean: by
alliance
with
Lygdamis
of
Naxos,
by
subjecting
some of
the
islands and
dedicating
Rhenaia to the Delian
Apollo,
whose
festival he
celebrated,
and
by
giving
refuge
to Arkesilaos
of
Cyrene.15
Polykrates'
14J.
A.
Davison,
The First
Greek
Triremes,
CQ
41
(1947)
18-24.
15Lygdamis
of
Naxos,
Polyainos
1.23;
the
islands
and
Rhenaia,
Thuc.
1.13;
for
the
suggestion
that
Rhodes
may
have
been
one of
them,
Bowra,
Greek
Lyric
Poetry,
260-262;
the celebration
of the
Delia,
H.
W.
Parke,
Polykrates
and
Delos,
C2
40
(1946)
105-
108;
Arkesilaos
of
Cyrene,
Hdt.
4.
155,
159.
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TYRANNY
enemies
charged
him with
a
piratical
blockade
of
the
Aegean,
but
in
reality
Samos did the
Greek
cause
important
service
in
these
years
by
building up a strong bulwark of naval power in the Aegean against
Persian
westward
expansion.
The domestic
policy
of
the
Samian
tyrants
is less
well
known
than
that
of
either
the
Corinthian
or Athenian
tyrannies,
chiefly
because
attention
is focussed
on
their
foreign
relations
and
the
dramatic
tale
of
Polykrates'
fall
(Hdt.
3.
120-125).
The evidence
for
the
office
of
krtarar7rs
which
Aiakes
held
has
already
been
mentioned;
there
is
no
evidence
of
what,
if
any,
office
Polykrates
held.
Hostility
to
the
aristocracy
of
'y7wob6po,
overthrown
by
Aiakes when
he seized
power,
persisted
to
the
time of Polykrates, who to be rid of them sent them as his contingent
to
Kambyses
for the
invasion
of
Egypt.
They
went
instead
to
Sparta
and with
Spartan
and Corinthian
assistance
tried
unsuccessfully
to
drive
out
Polykrates.
The interest
of
the
tyranny
in
commerce
is
obvious.
Samos
was
one
of the three
states
to have
a
separate
temenos
at
Naukratis;
her
close
connexions
with
Cyrene
and the
West,
the
semi-piracy
of
her
naval
policy-all
point
clearly
to
vigorous
commercial
activity,
as does
Poly-
krates'
reputation
for
wealth
and
his
prosperity.
The public works of the Samian tyranny were famous. Herodotos
(3.
60)
mentions
the
three
notable structures:
the
harbour
mole
to
which
reference
has
already
been
made,
the
Heraion
built
by
Rhoikos,
and
the
water
tunnel
of
Eupalinos.
There
were
two
temples
to
Hera:
an
older
temple,
the
channelling
of whose column
bases
was
commented
on
as
late
as
the
first
century
A.D.
by
Pliny (N.H.
36.
90),
was
destroyed
soon
after
its
completion
about the
middle
of the
sixth
century,
and
a new
and
larger temple- the
largest
of
all
temples
known to
us, says
Herodotos-
was laid
out
on
the
site, utilizing
in
its
foundations
the
column
bases
of
the earlier structure. This temple was in process of building when Poly-
krates
was killed
about
522
B.C.,
and
was not
completed
until
Hellenistic
and
Roman times.
Its foundations
with
the
beautiful
column
bases
cut
and
fitted
into the
masonry may
still
be seen
in Samos
to-day.
The
water
tunnel
was
deservedly
regarded
as
one
of
the
most
remarkable
engineering
works
of
the
ancient
world.
It
brought
water
into the
city
of
Samos
from
a
spring
a little
more than
a mile
away,
on
the
other
side
of
the
mountain
to the
north
of the
city.
The
water
was carried
in
pipes
for
about
half
a
mile
to the
mountain,
then
a
tunnel,
eight
feet
high
and
eight
feet wide and rather less than half a mile long, was dug
through
the
mountain,
both to
carry
the
water
pipes
and
to
provide
a
means
of
escape
from the
city.
It
emerged
inside
the
city
walls
and the
water
was
taken
by
another
conduit
to
a
fountain-house
somewhere
in
the
city.
Tunnels
were
driven
from both
ends
of
the
mountain
at the
same
time,
meeting
in
the
middle.
At
the
junction
the
section
from the
north
was found to
be
only
about
twenty
feet
west
of the section
from
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the
south
and about
eleven feet
higher,
and connexion
between
them
was
made
without
undue
difficulty.
The tunnel
must
have
taken
at
least
fifteen years to build and required considerable knowledge of both
surveying
and
engineering.
It
and
the
two
temples
are
evidence
for
two
generations
of
tyranny
at
Samos,
beginning
as
early
perhaps
as
the
second
quarter
of
the
century,
rather than the usual view that
Polykrates
(ca.
532-522
B.c.)
alone was
tyrant.'6
Many
men of
science,
artists,
and
poets
are
associated
with the
Samian
tyranny.
Rhoikos was
the
architect
of the
Heraion;
Theodoros
is
named
by
some authorities
as
joint
architect,
and the two are said to
have
in-
vented the
hollow
casting
of bronze
statues.
Theodoros
was
one
of
the
most
famous metal workers of the period and made many well known works
of art
such as
the
bowl
dedicated
by
Kroisos
at
Delphi
and the emerald
ring
of
Polykrates
(Hdt.
1.
51;
3.
41). Mnesarchos,
the
gem engraver
and
father
of
the
philosopher Pythagoras,
was
an
older
contemporary
of
Rhoikos and
Theodoros.
Pythagoras
himself disliked the
tyranny
and
left
Samos,
first for
his
earlier visits
to
Egypt
and
Babylon,
and
eventually
for
Kroton
in the
West.
Eupalinos
of
Megara
was
brought
as
engineer
for
the tunnel. It
has been
suggested
that Thales and
Anaximander,
whose
floruit
coincided with the
Samian
tyranny,
acted
as
consultants
for the surveying of the tunnel. Demokedes of Kroton, the physician who
later treated
Dareios and
Atossa,
was attracted
to Samos
by
Polykrates
by
the
large salary
of two
talents
a
year
(Hdt.
3.
131).
Two
poets
are known
to have been at the court
of
the
Samian
tyrants.
Ibykos
of
Rhegion
went
to
Samos
in
the
days
of
Aiakes,
and there
spent
most
of
the
rest
of
his
days.
A
poem
found at
Oxyrhynchus
ends with
a
graceful
compliment
to the
young
Polykrates:
Kai
a(,
IIoXiKpaTrE,
KX,OS
&a0Trov
T
E
s,
cW
KaT' aOLtav Katle.obv KXCos.
Anakreon of
Teos was
brought
by
Polykrates
as tutor for
his
son,
and
remained until
Polykrates'
tragic
death,
when
Hipparchos
of
Athens
sent
a
penteconter
to
convey
him
to
Athens. Most
of his
poetry
was
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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TYRANNY
unusual.
From
its
very beginning
the
Athenian
tyranny
was a
less
violent reaction
against
the
older
aristocracy
because
of
the
reforms
of
Solon which preceded it. Solon had made property the basis for eligibility
to office
and
so
broken the
Eupatrid
monopoly
of
the
archonship
and
the
Areopagos.
Families
of
wealth
and influence outside the
Eupatrid
circle,
like the Philaids and
Peisistratos himself
from
Brauron,
were
enabled to hold
office
by
the
change.
The
Solonian
changes,
however,
were not
accepted
without
bitter resentment.
The
antagonism
between
the
two
parties
of the
Plain
and
Coast,
the
opponents
and
supporters
of
Solon's
reforms,
gave
Peisistratos the
opportunity
to
organize
his
own
personal
party,
the
Diakrioi or
Hill,
with which he
seized
power
in
561/60.
His personal following was not at first strong enough, and he was driven
out
twice,
the second
time for
a
long
ten-year
exile,
before he
finally
returned victorious
in
546.
He
was
tyrant
then until his
death
in
528/7,
and
his
eldest son
Hippias
succeeded
to his
power
until
he
was
expelled
in
511/10.
The
thirty-six
years
of
tyranny
were
a
period
of
enforced
political peace during
which
the bitter
rivalries of
the
nobles,
which
had
harassed Athens both before
and
after
Solon,
died
out. Some
families
like the
Alkmaionidai went
into
exile,
others like
the
Philaids
remained
to
work
with the
tyrants,
still
others refrained
from
opposition
because
hostages had been taken and deposited in Naxos. We have already
observed how Peisistratos
was
able to
carry
out his
policies
within
the
framework
of
the
Solonian
constitution.
People
were
reconciled to
the
constitution
during
these
years,
and
the
difficult transition
from
birth
to wealth was
peacefully
accomplished.
The
increase
in
prosperity
made
more
people
eligible
for
the various
offices,
the
property qualifications
of which
Solon
had
established. The
general
effect was
a
levelling
of
political
differences
and
a
widening
of
the
circle
of
political
experience,
so that after the
tyranny
Athens
was,
in
a
real
sense,
ready
for
Kleis-
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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all
sorts,
architects,
sculptors,
masons,
carpenters,
metal
workers,
and
a host
of
other
trades.
The
introduction of
the
tetradrachm
coinage
and
its immediate popularity facilitated Athens' growing trade.
The urban
development
so
characteristic of
the
tyrant period
else-
where
is
conspicuous
in
Athens
also,
but
accompanying
and
comple-
menting
it is
a
policy arising
out of
the
special
circumstances
of
Attica,
that
is,
the
unification
of
Attica
around
Athens
as its
centre.
Not
long
before Solon's
time the
synoicism
of
Attica
had
been
completed by
the
incorporation
of
Eleusis,
but
there
remained the
task
of
welding
the
whole into
a
strong
and
permanent
unity.
And this
the
tyrants
accom-
plished by
a
policy
both
astute
and
imaginative.
Their concern
for
the
small farmer class as well as the expansion of employment for artisans
and workmen of all
kinds has
already
been
noted.
To
this
in
no
small
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
16
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18/19
GREEK TYRANNY
had
begun
this
policy
of
providing
cults
for
the
whole
people,
but
un-
doubtedly
it was
the
tyrants
who
exploited
it
with brilliant
success.l8
Patronage of the arts, a usual feature of the tyrants' policy, was more
extensive
and
more fruitful
here than elsewhere.
Vase-painters,
sculptors,
architects,
poets,
and musicians
were drawn to
Athens
by
the
generous
opportunities
offered
there.
Anyone
who
wishes
to understand
and
appreciate
fully
the
genius
of
the
Peisistratids need
only
study
the
amazing
progress
in
all
the
arts
in
the
last
years
of
the sixth
century
and
the full
flowering
of
the fifth
century.
In
their
foreign
policy
can be
seen
the same
clear
insight,
the
same
shrewd
judgement
as
to
where
Athens'
future fortunes would
lie.
They
maintained friendly and pacific relations with their neighbours in Greece
itself,
but
turned their
eyes
to the
island
world,
to
the
Hellespont,
and
to the
Thracian
coast.
The
tyrant
of
Naxos
was
assisted,
and
Delos,
where
the
Ionians
celebrated
the
festival
to
the Delian
Apollo,
was
purified.
Whether
they
had
any