Tyranny In Ancient Greece

Approximately 2500 years ago a series of changes and reformations in political thought led to the creation of the ancient Athenian democracy. Through the changes implemented by Solon and Cleisthenes during the Golden Age of Greece, democracy was born in Athens. Although it was somewhat impractical, exclusionist, and only open to a very small percentage of the total Athenian population, its impact is still felt today. Athenian democracy is widely recognized as the model from which all other forms of democratic rule has evolved from. Through the principles handed down from that Athenian democracy, ancient Greek culture remains a prominent presence in contemporary life, particularly in regard to its democratic policies.

A tyrant is a ruler who exercises power in a harsh, cruel manner, who puts his own interests over the best interests of the general population which he governs or controls and whose authority lacks sanction of law or custom.

Today, much of the world’s governments have converted to democracies. In the Ancient World, there was only one truly notable example of a democratic society: The City-State of Athens. This is actually the birthplace of democracy, where instead of the rich or powerful ruling, it was the citizens of the city-state that held the power. This advanced way of government was so effective and well structured, it even laid the foundations for the development of our own democracy, right here in the United States, over 2,000 years in the future. Prior to Athens’s collapse during the Peloponnesian War, it truly had an efficient and very organized system of government.

During the times of Ancient Greece, two major forms of government existed, democracy and oligarchy. The city-states of Athens and Sparta are the best representatives of democracy and oligarchy, respectively. The focus of the times was directed towards military capabilities, while the Athenians were more interested in comfort and culture. It was the oligarchy in Sparta that put a war-like attitude as its first priority and best met the needs of Ancient Greece. These factors empowered Sparta and led to the development of an authoritative and potent state. Other contrasting issues included women’s rights, social classes, and value of human life.

Tyranny was the primary form of power that was in place prior the democracy of the classical period. In Herotodus’ History 1.59-63, Herotodus goes in depth on the tyrant Peisistratos, who assumed power as tyrant three times over the course of 360-340 B.C. (Herotodus 2). On his third attempt, he rallied support from partisans of the capital of Marathon and other country districts “who loved tyranny better than freedom” (Herotodus 1.62). Eventually, the tyranny began to become harsh on the Athenians through Pisistratus’ son Hippias (5.62), the tyranny was in turn overthrow , after a 36-year dynasty of the Pisistratid family ruling over the

Was King George lll a tyrant? Who was King George lll? What is a tyrant? King George lll was the ruler of the England and used to own the 13 colonies. A tyrant is one or more person who gets too much power and acts as a cruel ruler. The colonists described him as a tyrant because he had too much power over the colonies. Now, our constitution guards against tyranny by federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, and sharing power between small and large states.

democracy ended in Athens, it did continue on in Rhodes and the legacy of Athenian democracy

In Greece, monarchies were found when the Mycenaeans ruled Greece during the period 2000 to 1100 BC. Monarchy is defined as a system of government where a single ruler has supreme power. The word “monarchy” comes from the Greek words “monos” meaning “single” and “archo” meaning “rule”. This single ruler, known as a king, ruled for life and passed the rule on to his heir when he died. The most famous monarchy was that of King Alexandra of Macedonia who ruled all of Greece from 336 BC.

When evaluating the government of ancient Athens, some might say that it was a democracy, however, it can be better described as an oligarchy: a form of government in which a small group of people has the power and control (Doc. D by Mogens Herman Hansen). A democracy takes all the citizens’ opinions and thoughts into account, unlike an oligarchy that only takes the male citizens’ opinions and thoughts into account. Thus, Athens is more similar to an oligarchy than a democracy. The people of Athens also decide as a whole what the best government for their city-state was, as opposed to a democracy where the people elect representatives to make decisions for them and their city-state. Athens could be seen as not a true democracy because of the lack of basic democratic rules and methods such as what they define democracy as, who is able to vote, and how they vote.

Works Cited Stevenson, Molly. “Stanford Reading Like a Historian Athenian Democracy Handout World History Honors Ⅰ.” The Oakwood School, Greenville. October 13, 2017. Handout Ancient Athens is undemocratic empire, one example is the definition of democracy.

Tyranny isn’t just one king taking all the power, it’s them and the nation becoming cruel and not listening to what other people have to say. There were a lot of people who were tyrant back then and it was cruel. Tyranny is a rule by leader were the leader who is ruling ceases too much power. Now we have guarded against that in many ways.

It was usually a tyranny, a form of monarchy or a select group of people. The Greek states could either be ruled by a single individual, such as monarchs and tyrants, or a select group of people, an oligarchy, or every male citizen, which was a democracy. Also the idea of a democracy was regarded as the Greeks' greatest contribution to civilizations of today. But actually monarchies were rare and often not distinguished from a tyranny unless the hereditary ruler was really kind and ruled in the interest of his people rather than himself. But tyrants were not necessarily considered evil, rather they were considered rulers that were just looking out for themselves.“The most famous monarchies were the states of Macedonia and Epiros, where the ruler shared power with an assembly of people” (Cartwright). The Ancient Greek government went through a lot of changes, but, unlike the government, the military stayed

Athens was ruled by archons, who were elected annually, severed originally for life, then they served for ten years and eventually only served for just one year. Upon leaving office, they became members of the council of the Areopgaus. Thus, because both parts of Athens ' government had leaders who were elected, Athens is said to have been the origin of democracy, whereas Sparta was a military oligarchy.

Let’s see what is Monarchy? It is a king or queen who gets all the powers of authority from inheritance and power stays in the same family, usually the bloodline from father to son. In Ancient Greeks, there weren’t too many monarchies, but there was some present and even Athens went under the monarchy at the end of the classical period which ended with the death of Alexander the Great. His father Phillip II of Macedon who became king after the deaths of his two brothers conquered Athens after the Peloponnesian war and ended democracy in the great city of Athens. (Wasson, 2014)

Greek democracy was best developed in the city-state of Athens from where the very word “democracy”, meaning “the rule of the people” stems. People ‘ruled’ by electing officials through lot and making important decisions by majority rule. Democracy was direct, meaning that the Athenians “allowed the whole citizenry to assemble in the central eklisia, or the equivalent today of the main city hall, to vote on important issues” (Makedon 1995). In this sense, Athenian democracy differed from representative democracy that is currently prevalent in most states, in which officials are elected through democratic vote and then given authority to make decisions for the people. In Athens, elected officials were paid, but the pay was very low so that it compared with the wages of the poorest citizens and only covered the compensation of their time and effort.