This essay will be explaining the ways in which tyranny was a good thing for Greek states across the Mediterranean during the 6th, 5th, and 4th centuries BC. In the first instance, What tyranny is and how some of the Greek States were, in general, before tyranny will be explained. Additionally, examples of two tyrants from two different locations will be discussed. Finally, why and how tyranny came to be seen as a bad thing will be discussed.
Tyranny
A tyrant, in Ancient Greece, was a man who forcefully took control of and governed over a city state illegally. It was impossible for a man to take that much power without the help and support of many followers and none of the tyrants was ever able to stay longer than the majority of the people
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After all, there is a reason why tyranny now has a very negative connotation. Firstly, due to the fact that tyrants always takes the power of the powerful aristocrats, they are obviously not big fans of them so they create propaganda against the tyrants and do what they can to drag their name through the mud and get them kicked out. Secondly, the second generation was never the same as the first. The second generation of tyrants was mainly considered to be spoilt and unsuitable to govern, as they tended to be less experienced, knowledgeable, rash and harsh. The second generation of citizens tended to be against tyranny as it was considered to jeopardise all of their freedom. Thirdly, tyrants were people who took control without the permission of the city states people and often a tyrant was someone or a group of people that was set up by an outside populous that is trying to control them and how much power they have. Subsequently, Persia was considered to be a tyrant over all the Greek city-states that had been colonised into the Persian Empire, in the early 5th century, as they treated the Greeks like slaves and the Greeks believed in “freedom for all”. Also, the placement of the thirty tyrants, who were more than happy to at least 1500 men, in Athens by Sparta was proven to be a very repressive ruling, specifically designed to keep Athens