Tyranny in the City-States
Opposition to oligarchic domination brought the first Greek
tyrants1 to power in numerous city-states, although
Sparta never experienced a tyranny. Greek tyranny represented a distinctive type of rule
for several reasons. For one, although tyrants were by definition rulers who usurped
power by force rather than inheriting it like legitimate kings, they then established
family dynasties to maintain their tyranny, with sons inheriting their fathers' position
as the head of state. Also, the men who became tyrants were usually aristocrats, or at
least near-aristocrats, who nevertheless rallied support from non-aristocrats for their
coups. In places where propertyless men may have lacked citizenship or at least felt
substantially disenfranchised in the political life of the city-state, tyrants perhaps
won adherents by extending citizenship and other privileges to these groups. Tyrants
moreover sometimes
preserved the existing laws and political
institutions2 of their city-states as part of their rule, thus
promoting social stability.
