View source for Tyrant

{{redirect|Tyranny}}
{{about|a political ruler}}
{{short description|Absolute ruler unrestrained by law or constitution}}
{{wikt|tyrant}}
[[File:夏桀像.png|thumb|King [[Jie of Xia]] holding a ''[[Ji (polearm)|Ji]]'' polearm and sitting on two ladies.]]
[[File:Killing No Murder Cover.jpg|thumb|''Killing No Murder'', cover page, 18th century reprint of 17th century English pamphlet written to inspire and [[Tyrannicide|make righteous the act of assassinating]] Oliver Cromwell]]
{{forms of government}}

A '''tyrant'''<ref>({{etymology|grc|''{{wikt-lang|grc|τύραννος}}'' ({{grc-transl|τύραννος}})|absolute ruler}})</ref> in the modern [[English language|English]] usage of the word, is an [[autocracy|absolute ruler]] who is unrestrained by [[law]], or one who has [[usurper|usurped]] a legitimate ruler's sovereignty. Often portrayed as cruel, tyrants may defend their positions by resorting to [[political repression|repressive]] means.<ref>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle= Tyrant |volume= 27 |page= 548}}: "TYRANT (Gr. τύραννος, master, ruler), a term applied in modern times to a ruler of a cruel and oppressive character."</ref><ref>Compare: {{cite journal |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=did;cc=did;rgn=main;view=text;idno=did2222.0001.238 |title=Tyrant |journal=Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert – Collaborative Translation Project |access-date=2015-04-01 |date=2009-11-06 |quote=[...] today by tyrant one understands, not only a usurper of sovereign power, but even a legitimate sovereign who abuses his power in order to violate the law, to oppress his people, and to make his subjects the victims of his passions and unjust desires, which he substitutes for laws.}}</ref> The original Greek term meant an absolute sovereign who came to power without [[constitutional right]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://britannica.com/topic/tyrant |title=tyrant |website=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |language=en |access-date=2019-10-13}}</ref> yet the word had a neutral connotation during the [[Archaic Greece|Archaic]] and early [[Classical Greece|Classical]] periods.<ref name=Kagan/> However, Greek philosopher [[Plato]] saw ''tyrannos'' as a negative form of government, and on account of the decisive influence of philosophy on politics, deemed tyranny the "fourth and worst disorder of a state."<ref name="auto">Plato, ''The Republic'' Book VIII</ref>

{{quote|Tyrants lack "the very faculty that is the instrument of judgment"—reason. The tyrannical man is enslaved because the best part of him (reason) is enslaved, and likewise, the tyrannical state is enslaved, because it too lacks reason and order.<ref name="auto"/>}}

The philosophers Plato and [[Aristotle]] defined a tyrant as a person who rules without law, using extreme and cruel methods against both his own people and others.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/politics.1.one.html |title=Politics by Aristotle |via=Internet Classics Archive, [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] |website=classics.mit.edu |access-date=2019-05-21}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://gutenberg.org/files/1497/1497-h/1497-h.htm |title=The Republic, by Plato |via=[[Project Gutenberg]] |access-date=2019-05-21}}</ref> The ''[[Encyclopédie]]'' defined the term as a usurper of sovereign power who makes "his subjects the victims of his passions and unjust desires, which he substitutes for laws".<ref>Compare: {{cite journal|title=Tyrant|journal=The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Thomas Zemanek. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2009 (Translation of "Tyran", Encyclopédie Ou Dictionnaire Raisonné des Sciences, des Arts et des Métiers, Vol. 16. Paris, 1765)|hdl=2027/spo.did2222.0001.238|date=6 November 2009|quote=[...] today by tyrant one understands, not only a usurper of sovereign power, but even a legitimate sovereign who abuses his power in order to violate the law, to oppress his people, and to make his subjects the victims of his passions and unjust desires, which he substitutes for laws.}}</ref>
In the late fifth and fourth centuries BC, a new kind of tyrant, one who had the support of the [[military]], arose – specifically in [[Sicily]].

A '''tyranny''' is a government ruled by a tyrant or equivalent figure, putting their cruelty into action as [[state repression]]. One can apply accusations of tyranny to a variety of types of government:
* to government by one individual (in an [[autocracy]])
* to government by a minority (in an oligarchy, [[tyranny of the minority]])
* to government by a majority (in a democracy, [[tyranny of the majority]])

==Etymology==
The English noun ''[[:wikt:tyrant|tyrant]]'' appears in [[Middle English]] use, via [[Old French]], from the 1290s.
The word derives from [[Latin]] {{lang|la|tyrannus}}, meaning {{gloss|illegitimate ruler}}, and this in turn from the [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] {{lang|grc|τύραννος}} {{transliteration|grc|túrannos}} {{gloss|monarch, ruler of a [[polis]]}}; {{transliteration|grc|túrannos}} is of [[Pre-Greek]] origin, perhaps from [[Lydian language|Lydian]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/tyrant|title=Etymology of "tyrant" by etymonline|website=etymonline}}</ref><ref>[[Robert S. P. Beekes|R. S. P. Beekes]], ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', Brill, 2009, pp. 1519–20.</ref> The final ''-t'' arises in Old French by association with the present participles in {{lang|fro|-ant}}.<ref>''tyrant'', ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', 2nd edition</ref>

==Definition==
"The word 'tyranny' is used with many meanings, not only by the Greeks but throughout the tradition of the great books."<ref name=Adler/> The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' offers alternative definitions: a ruler, an [[Usurper|illegitimate ruler]], an absolute ruler, or an oppressive, unjust, or cruel ruler.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lexico.com/definition/tyrant|title=TYRANT &#124; Meaning & Definition for UK English &#124; Lexico.com|date=October 26, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211026213317/https://www.lexico.com/definition/tyrant |archive-date=26 October 2021 }}</ref><ref name="Britannica">{{Cite web |date=2025-02-01 |title=Tyrant {{!}} Definition & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/tyrant |access-date=2025-03-23 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> The term is usually applied to vicious autocrats who rule their subjects by brutal methods.<ref name="Britannica"/> Scholar Paul Rahe has asserted that tyrannical rule "in one form or another" has "been the norm throughout human history", and added that "it is not apt to disappear."<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.the-american-interest.com/2019/05/06/the-new-face-of-tyranny/ | title=The New Face of Tyranny | date=6 May 2019 }}</ref>

==Greco-Roman culture==

[[List of ancient Greek tyrants|Ancient Greek]] and [[List of tyrants of Syracuse|Sicilian tyrants]] were influential opportunists that came to power by securing the support of different factions of a [[deme]]. The word ''tyrannos'', possibly pre-Greek, [[Pelasgian]] or eastern in origin,<ref>Forrest, George "Greece, the history of the Archaic period" in [[John Boardman (art historian)|Boardman, John]] ''et al''. (1986), ''The Oxford History of the Classical World'' (OUP)</ref> then carried no ethical censure; it simply referred to anyone, good or bad, who obtained executive power in a [[polis]] by unconventional means. Support for the tyrants could come from fellow oligarchs, from the growing middle class or from the peasants who had no land or were in debt to the wealthy landowners.

The Greek tyrants stayed in power by using mercenary soldiers from outside of their respective city-state. To mock tyranny, [[Thales]] wrote that the strangest thing to see is "an aged tyrant", meaning that tyrants do not have the public support to survive for long.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diogenes_Laertius/Lives_of_the_Eminent_Philosophers/1/Thales*.html | title=LacusCurtius • Diogenes Laërtius: Thales }}</ref>

===Archaic tyrants===
One of the earliest known uses of the word 'tyrant' (in Greek) was by the poet [[Archilochus]] in reference to king [[Gyges of Lydia]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |editor-last= Roberts |editor-first= J. W. |title= tyranny |encyclopedia= The Oxford dictionary of the classical world |publisher= Oxford University Press |location= Oxford |year= 2005 |isbn= 978-0-19-280146-3 }} Based on Herodotus, ''Histories'' 1.7–14</ref> Gyges obtained his power by killing King Candaules and marrying his queen.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gyges | title=Gyges &#124; Lydian Ruler, Tyrant & Conqueror &#124; Britannica }}</ref>

The heyday of the [[Archaic Greece|Archaic period]] tyrants came in the early 6th century BC, when [[Cleisthenes of Sicyon|Cleisthenes]] ruled [[Sicyon]] in the [[Peloponnesus]] and [[Polycrates]] ruled [[Samos Island|Samos]]. During this time, revolts overthrew many governments<ref>{{cite book |editor-last= Langer |editor-first= William L. |title= An Encyclopedia of World History |publisher= Houghton Mifflin |location= Boston |year= 1948 |page= 48}}</ref> in the [[Aegean Sea|Aegean]] world. [[Chilon]], the ambitious and capable [[ephor]] of [[Sparta]], built a strong alliance amongst neighboring states by making common cause with these groups seeking to oppose unpopular tyrannical rule.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yv-hDwAAQBAJ&dq=chilon%20spartan%20ephor%20alliance&pg=PA226 | title=Sparta's First Attic War | isbn=978-0-300-24261-4 | last1=Rahe | first1=Paul Anthony | date=6 August 2019 | publisher=Yale University Press }}</ref> By intervening against the tyrants of Sicyon, Corinth and Athens, Sparta thus came to assume Hellenic leadership prior to the Persian invasions. Simultaneously [[Persian Empire|Persia]] first started making inroads into Greece, and many tyrants sought Persian help against popular forces seeking to remove them.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XhNREAAAQBAJ&dq=tyrants%20seek%20persian%20support&pg=PA53 | title=The Greek Wars: The Failure of Persia | isbn=978-0-19-154124-7 | last1=Cawkwell | first1=George | date=31 March 2005 | publisher=Oxford University Press }}</ref>

====Corinth====
Corinth hosted one of the earliest of Greek tyrants.<ref>{{cite book |last= Freeman |first= Charles |title= The Greek achievement: the foundation of the Western world |publisher= Viking |location= New York |year= 1999 |isbn= 978-0670-885152 |pages= [https://archive.org/details/greekachievement0000free/page/72 72–73, 99–100] |url= https://archive.org/details/greekachievement0000free/page/72 }}</ref> In [[Ancient Corinth|Corinth]], growing wealth from colonial enterprises, and the wider horizons brought about by the export of wine and oil, together with the new experiences of the Eastern Mediterranean brought back by returning [[mercenaries|mercenary]] [[hoplites]] employed overseas created a new environment. Conditions were right for [[Cypselus]] to overthrow the [[aristocracy|aristocratic]] power of the dominant but unpopular clan of [[Bacchiadae]].<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NjeM0kcp8swC&dq=cypselus+hoplites&pg=PA111 | title=The Ancient Greeks: A Critical History | isbn=978-0-674-03314-6 | last1=Fine | first1=John Van Antwerp | date=1983 | publisher=Harvard University Press }}</ref> Clan members were killed, executed, driven out or exiled in 657 BC. Corinth prospered economically under his rule, and Cypselus managed to rule without a [[bodyguard]]. When he then bequeathed his position to his son, [[Periander]]. Periander was less popular than his father and was reputed to be more brutal.<ref name="Tyrants 1">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rbbNDwAAQBAJ&dq=Periander%20was%20a%20much%20less%20popular%20and%20more%20brutal%20ruler.%20Following%20his%20death%2C%20his%20successor%20Psammetichos%20was%20murdered%20by%20the%20aristocrats%2C%20with%20the%20help%20of%20Spartans%2C%20only%20three%20years%20later.%20Corinth%20then%20reverted%20to%20rule%20by%20a%20narrow%20...&pg=PT50 | title=The Tyrants of Syracuse Volume I: 480–367 BC | isbn=978-1-84884-934-1 | last1=Champion | first1=Jeff | date=23 February 2011 | publisher=Casemate Publishers }}</ref>

Nevertheless, under Cypselus and Periander, Corinth extended and tightened her control over her colonial enterprises, and exports of Corinthian pottery flourished. However, tyrants seldom succeeded in establishing an untroubled line of succession. Periander threw his pregnant wife downstairs (killing her), burnt his concubines alive, exiled his son, warred with his father-in-law and attempted to castrate 300 sons of his perceived enemies.<ref>{{cite book |last= Durant |first= Will |title= The Life of Greece |url= https://archive.org/details/lifeofgreece00dura |url-access= registration |publisher= [[Simon & Schuster]] |location= New York |year= 1939 |pages= [https://archive.org/details/lifeofgreece00dura/page/90 90–91]}}</ref> He retained his position. Periander's successor was less fortunate and was expelled. Afterward, Corinth was ruled by an oligarchy that would eventually be overthrown in a pro-democratic revolution in the 4th century.<ref name="Tyrants 1"/>

====Athens====
[[File:Tiranicidas 04.JPG|thumb|upright|A [[Harmodius and Aristogeiton (sculpture)|sculptural pairing]] of [[Harmodius and Aristogeiton]], who became known as the [[tyrannicides]] after they killed [[Hipparchus (son of Peisistratos)|Hipparchus]] and were the preeminent symbol of [[Athenian democracy]]]]
Athens hosted its tyrants late in the Archaic period.<ref>Langer, William L. (1948), pp. 50–52</ref> In [[Athens]], the inhabitants first gave the title of tyrant to [[Peisistratos]] (a relative of [[Solon]], the Athenian lawgiver) who succeeded in 546 BC, after two failed attempts, to install himself as tyrant. Supported by the prosperity of the peasantry and landowning interests of the plain, which was prospering from the rise of olive oil exports, as well as his clients from [[Marathon, Greece|Marathon]], he managed to achieve absolute power.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Solon*.html | title=Plutarch • Life of Solon }}</ref> Through an ambitious program of public works, which included fostering the state cult of [[Athena]]; encouraging the creation of festivals; supporting the [[Panathenaic Games]] in which prizes were jars of olive oil; and supporting the [[Dionysia]] (ultimately leading to the development of Athenian drama), Peisistratos managed to maintain his personal popularity.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qw4NAn5z1lwC&dq=pisistratus+athena+cult&pg=PA29 | title=Athletics in Ancient Athens | isbn=90-04-09759-7 | last1=Kyle | first1=Donald G. | date=January 1993 | publisher=BRILL }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0qAoqP4g1fEC&dq=pisistratus%20olive%20oil&pg=PA408 | title=The Cambridge Ancient History | isbn=978-0-521-23447-4 | last1=Boardman | first1=John | last2=Hammond | first2=N. G. L. | date=5 August 1982 | publisher=Cambridge University Press }}</ref>

He was followed by his sons, and with the subsequent growth of Athenian [[democracy]], the title "tyrant" took on its familiar negative connotations. The murder of Peisistratos' son, the tyrant [[Hipparchus (son of Peisistratos)|Hipparchus]] by [[Harmodius and Aristogeiton|Aristogeiton and Harmodios]] in Athens in 514 BC, and were referred to since as the "[[tyrannicide]]s" (i.e., of killers of tyrants).<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1byKQSdfYMwC&dq=thucydides%20peloponnesian%20war&pg=PT3 | title=History of the Peloponnesian War | isbn=978-0-14-190939-4 | author1=Thucydides | date=28 February 1974 | publisher=Penguin UK }}</ref> In 510 Hippias, the brother of Hipparchus, was expelled by a combination of intrigue, exile and Spartan arms.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yyrao0dadqAC&pg=PA157 | title=Encyclopedia of the Ancient Greek World | isbn=978-1-4381-1020-2 | last1=Sacks | first1=David | last2=Murray | first2=Oswyn | last3=Brody | first3=Lisa R. | date=14 May 2014 | publisher=Infobase }}</ref><ref>Thucydides 6.59.4</ref> The anti-tyrannical attitude became especially prevalent in Athens after 508 BC, when [[Cleisthenes]] reformed the political system so that it resembled {{lang|grc-Latn|[[demokratia]]}}. Hippias (Peisistratos' other son) offered to rule the Greeks on behalf of the Persians and provided military advice to the Persians against the Greeks.<ref>{{cite book |last= Durant |first= Will |title= The Life of Greece |url= https://archive.org/details/lifeofgreece00dura |url-access= registration |publisher= Simon & Schuster |location= New York |year= 1939 |page= [https://archive.org/details/lifeofgreece00dura/page/235 235]}}</ref>

===Sicilian tyrants===
The best known Sicilian tyrants appeared long after the Archaic period.<ref>Langer, William L. (1948), pp. 57, 66</ref> The tyrannies of Sicily came about due to similar causes, but here the threat of [[Ancient Carthage|Carthaginian]] attack prolonged tyranny, facilitating the rise of military leaders with the people united behind them.<ref name="Champion2">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rbbNDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA1 | title=The Tyrants of Syracuse Volume I: 480–367 BC | isbn=978-1-84884-934-1 | last1=Champion | first1=Jeff | date=23 February 2011 | publisher=Casemate Publishers }}</ref><ref name="Champion"/> Such examples of Sicilian tyrants are [[Gelo]], [[Hiero I]], [[Dionysius the Elder]], [[Dionysius the Younger]], and [[Agathocles of Syracuse]].<ref name="Champion">{{Cite book |last=Champion |first=Jeff |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X2PNDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA5 |title=The Tyrants of Syracuse Volume II: War in Ancient Sicily, 367–211 BC |date=2012-07-19 |publisher=Casemate Publishers |isbn=978-1-84468-296-6 |language=en}}</ref> The dangers threatening the lives of the Sicilian tyrants are highlighted in the moral tale of the [[Sword of Damocles]].<ref>For example, in Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, V. 61</ref>

===Later tyrants===
{{see also|List of ancient Greek tyrants}}
Under the [[Macedon]]ian [[hegemony]] in the 4th and 3rd century BC a new generation of tyrants rose in Greece, especially under the rule of king [[Antigonus II Gonatas]], who installed his puppets in many cities of the Peloponnese. Examples were [[Cleon of Sicyon]], [[Aristodemus the Good|Aristodemus of Megalopolis]], [[Aristomachos the Elder|Aristomachus I of Argos]], [[Abantidas|Abantidas of Sicyon]], [[Aristippus of Argos]], [[Lydiadas of Megalopolis]], [[Aristomachos of Argos|Aristomachus II of Argos]], and [[Xenon (tyrant)|Xenon of Hermione]].<ref name="Champion"/><ref name="Champion2"/>

Against these rulers, in 280 BC the democratic cities started to join forces in the [[Achaean League]] which was able to expand its influence even into [[Corinthia]], [[Megaris]], [[Argolis]] and [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]]. From 251 BC under the leadership of [[Aratus of Sicyon]], the Achaeans liberated many cities, in several cases by convincing the tyrants to step down, and when Aratus died in 213 BC, Hellas had been free of tyrants for more than 15 years.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Aratus*.html | title=Plutarch • Life of Aratus }}</ref> The last tyrant on the Greek mainland, [[Nabis of Sparta]], was assassinated in 192 BC.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0165%3Abook%3D35%3Achapter%3D35 | title=Titus Livius (Livy), the History of Rome, Book 35, chapter 35 }}</ref>

===Roman tyrants===
Roman historians like [[Suetonius]], [[Tacitus]], [[Plutarch]], and [[Josephus]] often spoke of "tyranny" in opposition to "liberty".<ref>{{cite book |last= Beard |first= Mary |author-link=Mary Beard (classicist) |title=SPQR – A History of Ancient Rome |publisher= Liveright |location= New York |year= 2015 |pages= 393, 421–428 |isbn= 978-0-87140-423-7}} Beard says that most accounts of the period were written from the senatorial perspective (described at length). Tacitus was mentioned by Beard in this context, perhaps because he was a senator (the others were aristocrats of a lower rank). The senate discussed a return to the liberty of the republic almost 70 years into the empire (based on Josephus, ''Antiquities of the Jews'', Book XIX, Chapter II). Adler cites Tacitus and Plutarch on liberty.</ref> Tyranny was associated with imperial rule and those rulers who usurped too much authority from the [[Roman Senate]]. Those who were advocates of "liberty" tended to be pro-Republic and pro-Senate. For instance, regarding [[Julius Caesar]] and his assassins, Suetonius wrote:

{{quote|Therefore the plots which had previously been formed separately, often by groups of two or three, were united in a general conspiracy, since even the populace no longer were pleased with present conditions, but both secretly and openly rebelled at his tyranny and cried out for defenders of their liberty.<ref>Suetonius, ''[[The Lives of Twelve Caesars]]'', "Life of Julius Caesar" 80</ref>}}

Citizens of the empire were circumspect in identifying tyrants. "[[Cicero]]'s head and hands [were] cut off and nailed to the rostrum of the Senate to remind everyone of the perils of speaking out against tyranny."<ref>{{cite book |last= Ryan |first= Alan |title= On politics: a history of political thought from Herodotus to the present |publisher= Liveright|location= New York |year= 2012 |isbn= 978-0-87140-465-7 |page=116}}</ref> 

Josephus identified tyrants in Biblical history (in Antiquities of the Jews) including [[Nimrod]], [[Moses]], the [[Maccabees]] and [[Herod the Great]].<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YmXKCQAAQBAJ&dq=josephus+nimrod+herod+moses+tyrants&pg=PA102 | title=A Companion to Josephus | isbn=978-1-4443-3533-0 | last1=Chapman | first1=Honora Howell | last2=Rodgers | first2=Zuleika | date=19 January 2016 | publisher=John Wiley & Sons }}</ref>

===Greek political thought===
The Greeks defined both usurpers and those inheriting rule from usurpers as tyrants.<ref name=Kagan>{{Cite book|last=Kagan|first=Donald|title=Pericles of Athens and the Birth of Democracy|publisher=Simon and Schuster|page=250|year=1998|language=en|isbn=9780684863955|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=viBOKgmt8LkC&q=usurper%20tyrannos%20pericles&pg=PA250|access-date=8 December 2020}}</ref> [[Polybius]] (c.&nbsp;150&nbsp;BC) indicated that eventually, any one-man rule (monarchy/executive) governing form would become corrupted into a tyranny.<ref>Polybius. ''The Rise of the Roman Empire'', Book 6. Translated by Ian Scott-Kilvert (1979). London: Penguin.</ref>

The Greek philosophers stressed the quality of rule rather than legitimacy or absolutism. "Both Plato and Aristotle speak of the king as a good monarch and the tyrant as a bad one. Both say that monarchy, or rule by a single man, is royal when it is for the welfare of the ruled and tyrannical when it serves only the interest of the ruler. Both make lawlessness – either a violation of existing laws or government by personal fiat without settled laws – a mark of tyranny."<ref name=Adler/>

==In the classics==
Tyranny is considered an important subject, one of the "Great Ideas" of Western thought. The classics contain many references to tyranny and its causes, effects, methods, practitioners, alternatives. They consider tyranny from historical, religious, ethical, political and fictional perspectives. "If any point in political theory is indisputable, it would seem to be that tyranny is the worst corruption of government – a vicious misuse of power and a violent abuse of human beings who are subject to it."<ref name=Adler>{{cite book |editor-last= Adler |editor-first= Mortimer J. |title= Great Books of the Western World |publisher= Encyclopedia Britannica |location= Chicago |volume= 3: The Great Ideas: II |chapter= 95: Tyranny |year= 1952}}</ref> While this may represent a consensus position among the classics, it is not unanimous – [[Thomas Hobbes]] dissented, claiming no objective distinction, such as being vicious or virtuous, existed among monarchs. "They that are discontented under monarchy, call it tyranny; and they that are displeased with aristocracy, call it oligarchy: so also, they which find themselves grieved under a democracy, call it anarchy..."<ref>Hobbes, ''Leviathan'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20030316085113/http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/hobbes/leviathan-d.html#CHAPTER%20XIX Chapter 19]</ref>

The [[Inferno (Dante)|first part]] of [[Dante Alighieri]]'s ''[[The Divine Comedy]]'' describes tyrants ("who laid hold on blood and plunder") in the seventh level of Hell, where they are submerged in boiling blood. These include [[Alexander the Great]] and [[Attila|Attila the Hun]], and share the level with highway robbers.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VEUXO8MdX2MC&dq=%22who+laid+hold+on+blood+and+plunder%22&pg=PA55 | title=The Divine Comedy: Inferno | isbn=978-1-4165-0023-0 | author1=Dante | date=May 2005 | publisher=Simon and Schuster }}</ref>

[[Niccolò Machiavelli]] described tyrannical rule in ''[[The Prince]]'', while never actually using the word "tyrant", instead referring to such individuals as "princes". This is regardless of the legitimacy of the ruler's position -- in his ''[[Discourses on Livy]]'' he even sometimes calls leaders of republics "princes".<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M3pxBAAAQBAJ&dq=interest%20.%20This%20means%20that%20one%20can%20see%20consistency%20%2C%20even%20predictability%20%2C%20in%20their%20very%20mutability%20or%20fickleness%20...%20Machiavelli%20proclaimed%20near%20the%20beginning%20%3A%20%E2%80%9C%20It%20is%20necessary%20to%20whoever%20disposes%20a%20republic%20and%20orders%20laws%20in%20...&pg=PA202 | title=The Key Texts of Political Philosophy | isbn=978-1-107-00607-2 | last1=Pangle | first1=Thomas L. | last2=Burns | first2=Timothy W. | date=2015 | publisher=Cambridge University Press }}</ref> He also does not share in the traditional view of tyranny, and in his Discourses he sometimes explicitly acts as an advisor to tyrants.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oi2GDwAAQBAJ&q=leo+strauss+machiavelli|title=Thoughts on Machiavelli|last=Strauss|first=Leo|date=2014-07-04|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=9780226230979|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q4EULB2IM50C&q=Mansfield+machiavelli|title=Machiavelli's Virtue|last=Mansfield|first=Harvey C.|date=1998-02-25|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=9780226503721|language=en}}</ref>

The [[Ancient Greece|Ancient Greeks]], as well as those who lived in and governed the [[Roman Republic]], became generally quite wary of many people seeking to implement a popular coup. [[Shakespeare]] portrays the struggle of one such anti-tyrannical Roman, [[Marcus Junius Brutus]], in his play ''[[Julius Caesar (play)|Julius Caesar]]''.

In Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume I, Chapter III, Augustus was shown to assume the power of a tyrant while sharing power with the reformed senate. "After a decent resistance, the crafty tyrant submitted to the orders of the senate; and consented to receive the government of the provinces, and the general command of the Roman armies..." Emperors "humbly professed themselves the accountable ministers of the senate, whose supreme decrees they dictated and obeyed." The Roman Empire "may be defined as an absolute monarchy disguised by the forms of a commonwealth."<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ua7d-4QTBmEC&dq=%22may%20be%20defined%20as%20an%20absolute%20monarchy%20disguised%20by%20the%20forms%20of%20a%20commonwealth.%22&pg=PA323 | title=From the triumvirate of Tiberius Gracchus to the fall of the Roman Empire | last1=Smith | first1=Philip | date=1868 }}</ref>

==Enlightenment==
[[File:Le peuple français demandant la destitution du tyran 10 août 1792-François Gérard-IMG 2351.JPG|thumb|[[François Gérard]], ''The French people demanding destitution of the Tyrant on [[10 August (French Revolution)|10 August 1792]]'']]

During the [[Age of Enlightenment]], Western thinkers applied the word tyranny to the system of governance that had developed around [[aristocracy]] and [[monarchy]]. The English philosopher [[John Locke]], as part of his argument against the "[[Divine Right of Kings]]" in his 1689 book ''[[Two Treatises of Government]]'', defined it as such: "Tyranny is the exercise of power beyond right, which nobody can have a right to; and this is making use of the power any one has in his hands, not for the good of those who are under it, but for his own private, separate advantage."<ref>[[Two Treatises of Government]] (199)</ref> Locke's concept of tyranny influenced the writers of subsequent generations who developed the concept of tyranny as counterpoint to ideas of [[human rights]] and [[democracy]]. American statesman [[Thomas Jefferson]] described the actions of King [[George III]] as "tyrannical" in the [[United States Declaration of Independence]].

Enlightenment philosophers seemed to define tyranny by its associated characteristics.
* "The sovereign is called a tyrant who knows no laws but his caprice." [[Voltaire]] in a ''Philosophical Dictionary''
* "Where Law ends Tyranny begins." Locke in ''Two Treatises of Government''
* "For those who misuse power will be called tyrants, not ''just'' men." Medrano in ''[[República Mista]]''

[[Edward Sexby|Edward Sexby's]] 1657 pamphlet, "Killing, No Murder" {{xref|([https://www.yorku.ca/comninel/courses/3025pdf/Killing_Noe_Murder.pdf PDF file])}} outlined 14 key traits of a tyrant, as the pamphlet was written to inspire the assassination of Oliver Cromwell, and show in what circumstances an assassination might be considered honorable. The full document mulls over and references points on the matter from early pre-Christian history, up into the 17th century when the pamphlet was writ. Of the most prevailing traits of tyranny outlined, "[[Killing No Murder|Killing, No Murder]]" emphasizes:

# Prior military leadership service – tyrants are often former captains or generals, which allows them to assume a degree of honor, loyalty, and reputability regarding matters of state
# Fraud over force – most tyrants are likely to manipulate their way into supreme power rather than force it militarily
# Defamation and/or disbanding of formerly respectable persons, intellectuals, or institutions, and the discouragement of refined thinking or public involvement in state affairs
# Absence or minimalization of collective input, bargaining, or debate (assemblies, conferences, etc.)
# Amplification of military activity for the purposes of public distraction, raising new levies, or opening future business pathways
# Tit-for-tat symbiosis in domestic relations: e.g. finding religious ideas permissible insofar as they are useful and flattering of the tyrant; finding aristocrats or the nobility laudable & honorable insofar as they are compliant with the will of the tyrant or in service of the tyrant, etc.
# Pretenses toward inspiration from God
#Pretenses toward a love of God and religion
#Grow or maintain public impoverishment as a way of removing the efficacy of the people's will

In Scotland, [[Samuel Rutherford|Samuel Rutherford's]] [[Lex Rex]] and [[Alexander Shields|Alexander Shields']] ''A Hind Let Loose'' were influential works of theology written in opposition to tyranny.

In his 1602 ''[[República Mista]]'', [[Tomás Fernández de Medrano]] defines tyranny as a natural extension of [[Aristocracy#Differentiation|oligarchy]], arising when monarchs believe they possess an [[Absolute monarchy|absolute]] right to rule as they please, without accountability or opposition. He argues that such rulers, particularly those who oppress or neglect their [[Citizenship|subjects]], seldom govern with [[wisdom]] or [[justice]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Medrano |first=Juan Fernandez de |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DJ7Uw6xczpEC&pg=PP5 |title=República Mista |date=1602 |publisher=Impr. Real |language=es}}</ref> For Medrano, "It is so deeply ingrained in the hearts of such men (and this is almost a general truth), to hate and detest tyrants as much as to love and revere ''just'' kings and princes."<ref name=":0" />

A modern tyrant might be defined by proven violation of international criminal law such as [[crimes against humanity]].<ref>{{cite journal
|last   = Robertson |first= Geoffrey
|year   = 2005
|title  = Ending Impunity: How International Criminal Law Can Put Tyrants on Trial
|url    = https://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/cilj/vol38/iss3/1
|journal= Cornell International Law Journal
|volume = 38 |issue= 3 |pages= 649–671
}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal
|last   = Liolos |first= John J.
|date   = 2012-05-01
|title  = Justice for Tyrants: International Criminal Court Warrants for Gaddafi Regime Crimes
|url    = http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/iclr/vol35/iss2/9
|journal= Boston College International and Comparative Law Review
|volume = 35 |issue= 2 |pages= 589–602
}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal
|last   = Thorp |first= Jodi
|title  = Welcome Ex-Dictators, Torturers and Tyrants: Comparative Approaches to Handling Ex-Dictators and Past Human Rights Abuses
| journal= Gonzaga Law Review
| volume = 37 |issue= 1 |pages= 167–199 |url= http://blogs.gonzaga.edu/gulawreview/files/2011/01/Thorp.pdf
}}</ref>

==Lists of tyrants==
{{See also|List of ancient Greek tyrants|List of tyrants of Syracuse}}
Various lists of tyrants include:
* 100 throughout history, including 40 from the 20th century<ref>{{cite book |last= Cawthorne |first= Nigel |title= Tyrants: history's 100 most evil despots & dictators |publisher= Arcturus |location= London |year= 2004 |isbn= 978-0572030254 }}</ref>
* 13 20th century tyrants<ref>{{cite book |last= Chirot |first= Daniel |title= Modern tyrants: the power and prevalence of evil in our age |publisher= Free Press Maxwell Macmillan |location= New York & Toronto |year= 1994 |isbn= 9780029054772 |url= https://archive.org/details/moderntyrantspow00chir }}</ref>
* 20 tyrants of the early 21st century<ref name="Wallechinsky 2006">{{cite book |last= Wallechinsky |first= David |title= Tyrants: the world's 20 worst living dictators |publisher= Regan |location= New York |year= 2006 |isbn= 978-0060590048 |url= https://archive.org/details/tyrantsworlds20w00wall }}</ref>

There are also numerous book titles which identify tyrants by name or circumstances.<ref>{{cite book |last= Harden |first= Blaine |title= The great leader and the fighter pilot: the true story of the tyrant who created North Korea and the young lieutenant who stole his way to freedom |publisher= Viking |location= New York |year= 2015 |isbn= 9780670016570 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Fuegner |first= Richard |title= Beneath the tyrant's yoke: Norwegian resistance to the German occupation of Norway, 1940–1945 |publisher= Beaver's Pond Press |location= Edina, MN |year= 2003 |isbn= 9781931646864 }}</ref>

Among English rulers, several have been identified as tyrants by book title: [[John, King of England]]<ref>{{cite book |last= Church |first= Stephen |title= King John: England, Magna Carta and the Making of a Tyrant |publisher= Pan Macmillan |location= London |year= 2015 |isbn= 9780230772458 }}</ref> (who signed the Magna Carta), [[Henry VIII of England]]<ref>{{cite book |last= Rex |first= Richard |title= Henry VIII: The Tudor Tyrant |publisher= Amberley Pub |location= Stroud, Gloucestershire |year= 2009 |isbn= 9781848680982 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Hutchinson |first= Robert |title= The last days of Henry VIII: conspiracies, treason, and heresy at the court of the dying tyrant |publisher= William Morrow |location= New York |year= 2005 |isbn= 9780060837334 }}</ref> and [[Oliver Cromwell]].<ref>"Killing No Murder, Originally Applied to Oliver Cromwell – A Discourse Proving it Lawful to Kill a Tyrant According to the Opinion of the Most Celebrated Ancient Authors." by Col. Titus, Alias William Allen</ref>

Wallechinsky stated that all leaders were once tyrants in their own ways.<ref name="Wallechinsky 2006" />{{rp|2}}  Daniel Chirot noted that "The very essence of politics in agrarian civilizations was, by our contemporary democratic standards, tyrannical".<ref>{{cite book | last = Chirot | first = Daniel | title = Modern tyrants : the power and prevalence of evil in our age | publisher = Free Press Maxwell Macmillan | location = New York & Toronto | year = 1994 | isbn = 9780029054772 | url = https://archive.org/details/moderntyrantspow00chir/page/6 }}</ref>{{rp|6}}

==Methods of obtaining and retaining power==
The path of a tyrant can appear easy and pleasant (for all but the aristocracy). In 1939, [[Will Durant]] wrote: <blockquote>Hence the road to power in Greece commercial cities was simple: to attack the aristocracy, defend the poor, and come to an understanding with the middle classes. Arrived at power, the dictator abolished debts, or confiscated large estates, taxed the rich to finance public works, or otherwise redistributed the over-concentrated wealth; and while attaching the masses to himself through such measures, he secured the support of the business community by promoting trade with state coinage and commercial treaties, and by raising the social prestige of the bourgeoisie. Forced to depend upon popularity instead of hereditary power, the dictatorships for the most part kept out of war, supported religion, maintained order, promoted morality, favored the higher status of women, encouraged the arts, and lavished revenues upon the beautification of their cities. And they did all these things, in many cases, while preserving the forms of popular government, so that even under despotism the people learned the ways of liberty. When the dictatorship [of the tyrant] had served to destroy the aristocracy the people destroyed the dictatorship; and only a few changes were needed to make democracy of freemen a reality as well as a form.<ref>{{cite book |last= Durant |first= Will |title= The Life of Greece |url= https://archive.org/details/lifeofgreece00dura |url-access= registration |publisher= Simon & Schuster |location= New York |year= 1939 |pages= [https://archive.org/details/lifeofgreece00dura/page/122 122–123]}}</ref></blockquote>
===Obtaining===
In the ''[[Republic (Plato)|Republic]]'', [[Plato]] stated: "The people have always some champion whom they set over them and nurse into greatness. [...] This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector".

Tyrants either inherit the position from a previous ruler, rise up the ranks in the military/party or seize power as new men.<ref name="Wallechinsky 2006" />{{rp|7}}

The political methods of obtaining power were occasionally supplemented by deceit or force. Peisistratus of Athens blamed self-inflicted wounds on enemies to justify a bodyguard which he used to seize power. He later appeared with a woman dressed as a goddess to suggest divine sanction of his rule.<ref>{{cite book |last= Lane |first= Melissa S. |title= The birth of politics: eight Greek and Roman political ideas and why they matter |publisher= Princeton University Press |location= Princeton, NJ |year= 2014 |isbn= 978-0-691-16647-6 |pages= 77–78 }} Based on Herodotus, The History 1.59–60</ref> The third time he used mercenaries to seize and retain power.<ref>Herodotus, The History 1.61–64</ref> Dionysius of Syracuse seized power in a similar fashion, claiming that he had been the object of a plot by enemies in order to obtain an armed force around his person.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rbbNDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22tried%20and%20tested%20method%20of%20falsely%22&pg=PT283 | title=The Tyrants of Syracuse Volume I: 480–367 BC | isbn=978-1-84884-934-1 | last1=Champion | first1=Jeff | date=23 February 2011 | publisher=Casemate Publishers }}</ref>

===Retaining===
Lengthy recommendations of methods were made to tyrants by Aristotle (in ''Politics'' for example) and [[Niccolò Machiavelli]] (in ''[[The Prince]]'').<ref name=Adler/> These are, in general, force and fraud. They include hiring bodyguards, stirring up wars to keep the people busy and dependent, [[Political purge|purges]], [[assassinations]], and unwarranted searches and seizures. Aristotle suggested an alternative means of retaining power – ruling justly.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/politics.5.five.html|title=Politics by Aristotle, Book Five|website=classics.mit.edu|access-date=2019-06-13}}</ref>

The methods of tyrants to retain power include placating world opinion by staging [[rigged election]]s, using or threatening to use violence, seeking popular support by appeals to [[patriotism]], and claiming that conditions have improved.<ref name="Wallechinsky 2006" />{{rp|2,7}}

==See also==
* [[Big lie]]
* [[Despotism]]
* [[Dictator]]
* [[Dictatorship]]
* [[Outposts of tyranny]]
* [[Political repression]]
* [[State terrorism]]
* [[Tyrannicide]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote|Tyranny}}
* [https://www.livius.org/articles/concept/tyrant/ Tyrant] by [[Jona Lendering]] at livius.org.
* [https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/1997/1997.07.18 Loretana de Libero, Die archaische Tyrannis] Bryn Mawr Classical Review
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=wnInAgAAQBAJ&dq=archinus+argos&pg=PT144 Victor Parker, ''A History of Greece, 1300 to 30 BC''] (chapter 7)

{{Political philosophy}}
{{Authoritarian types of rule}}{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Ancient Greek tyrants| ]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek titles]]
[[Category:Ancient Roman government]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek government]]
[[Category:Autocracy]]
[[Category:Dictatorship]]
[[Category:Political pejoratives for people]]
[[Category:Positions of authority]]
[[Category:Monarchy]]
[[Category:Political terminology]]