As a result of reforms promulgated by the tyrants, the economic and political privileges of the clan aristocracy were abolished. From the eighth century to the sixth the unique form of ancient Greek socioeconomic and political organization took shape—the city-state (polis), a group of free ...
From 650 BC onwards, the aristocracies were overthrown and replaced by populist leaders called tyrants (tyrranoi), a word which did not necessarily have the modern meaning of oppressive dictators. By the 6th century several cities had emerged as dominant in Greek affairs: Athens, Sparta, Corinth...
He sided with his class against the upstart "tyrants" who set themselves up in Mytilene as the voice of the people. He was in consequence obliged to spend a considerable time in exile. He is said to have become reconciled to Pittacus, the ruler set up by the populist party, and to hav...
After the war ended, the 'Thirty Tyrants' ruled Athens for a short period of time. Democracy was reinitiated in 403 BC. Spartan victory in the Peloponnesian War was somewhat diluted because of their defeat in Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC. Later on when Philip II of Macedon conquered all ...
they lost their popularity with the citizens who saw them as illegitimately commandeering political power. Many tyrants attempted, and some succeeded to make their tyranny hereditary, and gave themselves the power of a monarch. Due to the instability of this system though, tyrants would only rule...
A tyrant, on the other hand, came to power through secular political means, often by force, and they maintained their position by force, popularity, or both. Thus, "tyrant" did not originally mean a criminal; but the behavior of tyrants rapidly began to give the word the meaning it ...
Talos: intelligent machines in the hands of tyrants Unlike the Golden Maiden, Talos was created to cause harm (as was Pandora, but more on that later). Talos was a bronze giant robot, again made by Hephaestus. He was gifted by Zeus to his son Minos, the mythical king of Crete, to gu...
vice-stained tyrants that ever polluted the earth on which they trod, vilifying and degrading the fairest part of the creation’. He quoted with approbation Lord Bacon’s opinion that whereas no nations are wholly alien one to another, there are some races whom it is a human duty to ’supp...
His father’s name was Ariston, and his mother’s family, which claimed descent from Solon, included Critias, one of the thirty tyrants, and other Athenian notables. That throughout his early manhood he was the devoted friend of Socrates, that in middle life he taught those who resorted ...
They may take up the causes of common people against tyrants and bullies or may be blessed with remarkable good fortune. Such heroes often become known through popular songs or folk tales, but they may also appear in various forms of literature. Born Under a Hero's Star Unusual ...