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TYRANT (Gr. r6pavvos, master, ruler)
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See also:TYRANT (Gr. r6pavvos, See also:master, ruler) , a See also:term applied in See also:modern times to a ruler of a cruel and oppressive See also:character. This use is, however, based on a See also:complete misapprehension of the application of the See also:Greek word, which implied nothing more than unconditional See also:sovereignty. Such rulers are not, as is often supposed, confined to a single See also:period, the 7th and 6th centuries B.C. (the so-called " See also:Age of the Tyrants ") of Greek See also:history, but appear sporadically at all times, and are frequent in the later See also:city-states of the Greek See also:world. The use of the term " tyrant " in the See also:bad sense is due largely to the ultra-constitutionalists of the 4th See also:century in See also:Athens, to whom the See also:democracy of See also:Pericles was the ideal of See also:government. Thus the government which See also:Lysander set up in Athens at the See also:close of the Peloponnesian See also:War is called that of the " See also:Thirty Tyrants " (see See also:CRITIAS). The same term is applied to those See also:Roman generals (really 18) who usurped authority locally under See also:Gallienus. End of Article: TYRANT (Gr. r6pavvos, master, ruler)Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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