Tyrant

The word is of Anatolian origin ^{[3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]} and is probably etymologically related to the neo-Hittite title sarawanas / tarawanas ^[10] , from which the Philistine title also possibly derives seren ( סרן ). The first witnessed "tyrant" in the ancient tradition was Gig , the ruler of Lydia .

Most tyrants were those who destroyed and oppressed the aristocracy . Some of the tyrants, especially the early ones, became famous as patrons , fair rulers and sages: for example, the tyrant of Corinth Periander or the tyrant of Athens Pisistratus . But there are much more preserved stories about the cruelty, suspicion and tyranny of tyrants who invented sophisticated torture (the tyrant Akraganta Falaris was especially famous for burning people in a copper bull ). There was a popular joke (at first Frasibul Miletus was his hero, then he became attached to other people) about a tyrant who, when asked by a tyrant colleague (option: son) about the best way to stay in power, began to walk around the field and silently pluck all the spikelets that stood out above the general level, thereby showing that the tyrant should destroy anything extraordinary in the civic community.

Although tyranny could play a positive role at the stage of the formation of the Greek policy , putting an end to aristocratic arbitrariness, in the end they quickly became an obstacle to the stronger civilian collective. Therefore, not one of the tyrants created any lasting dynasties . In this sense, the oracle is indicative, as if received by Kipsel , who seized power in Corinth : "Kipsel is happy, and his children, but not the children of his children." Indeed, Kipsel and his son Periander safely ruled, but the successor (nephew) of Periander was quickly killed, after which all the tyrants' property was confiscated, their houses were torn down and their bones were thrown out of the graves.

The era of the 7th – 6th centuries BC e. known as the era of “elder tyranny” ; towards its end, tyrants in mainland Greece disappear (in Ionia they remained because of Persian support, in Sicily and Great Greece - because of the specific military situation).

In the era of developed democracy, in the V century. BC e. , the attitude towards tyranny was unambiguously negative, and it was then that the term approached its current meaning. Tyranny itself was perceived by a mature civic consciousness as a challenge to justice and the basis of the existence of a civic collective - universal equality before the law . About Diogenes , for example, it was said that when asked which animals were the most dangerous, he replied: "from domestic animals - a flatterer, from wild ones - a tyrant"; to the question, what is the best copper: “the one from which the statues of Garmody and Aristogiton are made ” (tyrannical murderers).

In the 4th century BC e. , in the conditions of an acute crisis of the polis , tyrants (the so-called "minor tyranny" ) reappear in Greek city-states - as a rule, from successful military leaders and commanders of mercenary units; but this time there are no tales of wise and just tyrants: tyrants were surrounded by universal hatred and, in turn, lived in an atmosphere of constant fear.

In a similar Greek sense, the word "tyrant" was used in the Middle Ages ( XIII - XVI centuries ) to the rulers of the city-states of Northern and Central Italy .

• Tyranny
• List of tyrants Syracuse

• Abamelek-Lazarev S. Fereyskie tyrants. SPb., 1880.
• Zhebelev S. A. "Younger tyranny" in Greece and Asia Minor. In the book: Ancient Greece. Ed. V.V. Struve and D.P. Kallistova. M., 1956.
• Solovyova S. S. Early Greek tyranny. (On the problem of the emergence of the state in Greece). M., 1964.
• Frolov E. D. Xenophon and Late Tyranny // Bulletin of Ancient History, 1969. No. 1. P. 108–124.
• Frolov E.D. Greek tyrants (IV century BC) L., 1972.
• Berve H. Die Tyrannis bei den Griechen, Bd.I-II. München, 1967.
• Mossé Claude, La Tyrannie dans la Grèce antique (1969), PUF, coll. "Quadrige", Paris, 2004.
• Tyranny and tyrants in ancient Greece // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Tyranny in Italy // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.