Tyranny

I

750-650

L

650-510

|

510-480

Decline of kingship Cypselids rule over Corinth Peisistratids rule over Athens Pittacus rules over Mytilene Polycrates rules over Samos

8th and 7th centuries mostly 657-584 or circa 630-550 560s and circa 560-557 and 547-511 mid-6th century 530s - circa 522

The Decline of Kingship in Greece and its Replacement by Aristocracy

In chapter 4, the rule of kings was briefly discussed along with the general decline of that form of rule. That decline mostly took place in the eighth and seventh centuries BC, concurrent with colonization (see chap. 5), rapid population growth, rapid improvement in material culture, and intensification of contacts with the Near East in the form of trade (see chap. 4). In brief, the

A History of Greece: 1300 to 30 BC, First Edition. Victor Parker.

© 2014 Victor Parker. Published 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Kings of the Greek cities faced far-reaching historical developments beyond their control - developments which often placed them before severe challenges.

In particular, economic development meant that many aristocrats grew wealthy enough to challenge a weak king’s authority. For example, in the Odyssey - reflecting, roughly, the early seventh century BC -, the aristocratic suitors push the ineffectual Telemachus aside even if, in his father’s absence, he ought to become the lawful king of Ithaca. Moreover, the rapidly growing population placed intense demands on the king to make new land available. One king of Argos, Meltas, - granted in the sixth century -, was deposed and replaced with a new king after failing to distribute to the Argives land which he had won in a war against the Lacedaemonians. Meltas gave the land to Arcadian refugees instead (Paus. II 19 with Diod., VII, fr. 13,2). While the precise details are irrecoverable, clearly Meltas had badly misjudged the situation as well as overestimating his people’s willingness to defer to his authority. In any case, the Argives, like most other communities in Greece, needed extra land. Unlike most other communities, the Argives retained the monarchy - this time -, but the institution probably fared worse in other cities in similar situations as kings failed to see to their people’s needs in changed circumstances or otherwise misread situations.

Replacing the kings in most cases were aristocrats who for their part gained a reputation for oppressiveness, greed, and resentment-inducing displays of wealth. The sixth-century Megarian poet Theognis bewailed the arrogance of those who ruled over Megara in his day and feared that it would all lead to a tyrant in the end:

. . . this city is pregnant, and I fear lest she bear a man who will straighten out our evil outrages. . .

. . . the (city’s) leaders

Have turned to fall into much evil.

Good men. . . never yet ruined a city,

But when it pleases evil men to work outrages

And they destroy the nation and render unjust judgments

For the sake of profits and power. . .

From these things come civil wars and internecine murders and a “monarch” (sc., tyrant) . . .

Instead of

(Lines 39-52; in line 52, read against West “monarch” “monarchs.”)

To turn to Megara’s neighbor, Corinth, when Cypselus was seeking to become “tyrant” of that city in 657 on the traditional or “high” chronology (based on the fourth-century AD chronographer Eusebius) or circa 630 BC on the “low” chronology (based on Herodotus), he brought into circulation oracles, allegedly uttered by Delphic Apollo, to denounce the ruling aristocrats of Corinth, the Bacchiads, who themselves were supposed to have slain that city’s last king (Diod. VII, Fr. 9,6; cf. Paus. II 4):

Eetion (i. e., Cypselus’ father), no one honors you who are worthy of many honors;

Labda (i. e., Cypselus’ mother) is with child and will bear a millstone which will fall

Upon the “monarchical” men and bring justice to Corinth.

(Hdt. V 92b)

(The positive presentation of the tyrant shows that the oracle was composed before the fall of the tyranny after which nothing positive was said anymore about the Corinthian tyrants - for how they were perceived after their deposition, see the remainder of Hdt. V 92.) Here the would-be tyrant appears as someone who will punish the current rulers and thus bring “justice” to Corinth. This overlaps substantially with the lines from Theognis.

A few more examples may serve to characterize the aristocratic regimes which often replaced kingship. The Penthilidae who ruled in Mytilene on Lesbos went about the town hitting people with clubs until a revolt ensued (Arist. Pol. 1311b). In Megara wealthy aristocrats were forcing small landholders off the land in order to let their sheep graze there. The man who eventually became tyrant of Megara, Theagenes, gained popularity by slaughtering the aristocrats’ flocks (Arist. Pol. 1305a).

Luxury goods were inextricably linked with the aristocratic culture of the era. Sappho of Mytilene (mid-sixth century) sang of “golden bracelets, purple robes, intricate bangles, countless silver goblets, and ivory” (Sappho, Fr. 44 Lobel-Page). She appreciated imports from Lydia (Sappho, Fr. 39 Lobel-Page) and lamented it when she could not acquire such finery (Sappho, Fr. 98 Lobel-Page). Yet elaborate displays of wealth such as those by the Geomori, the aristocrats on Samos who allegedly had deposed that island’s last king (Plut. Greek Questions, 57), may well have caused much resentment:

When they had combed their locks, they used to go

Into Hera’s sacred precinct; wrapped in fair robes,

They covered the ground of the broad earth with their snow-white clothes

On which were golden clasps in the shape of cicadae.

Their hair, in golden fillets, waved in the wind

While they wore wondrously wrought bracelets on their arms.

(Asius of Samos, fr. 13 Bernabe; against Bernabe, do not invert lines 4

And 5.)

This sort of conspicuous consumption also appears with the aristocrats who in Erythrae allegedly killed the last king, Cnopus, and thereafter governed the city:

They were wrapped in purple coats and tunics with purple borders. They wore sandals with many laces during the summer, but during the winter they went about in women’s footwear. They wore their hair long and braided it. As to their heads, they were conspicuous through golden and purple fillets. Additionally, they wore jewelry of solid gold, like women. They compelled some of the citizens to carry litters, others to be rod-bearers, and yet others to clean the streets. They had the sons of some brought to their common meetings and ordered others to bring their own wives and daughters. . .

(Hippias of Erythrae, BNJ 421, Fr. 1)

In the light of all this, one begins to understand why Theognis could view a “tyrant” as someone who would “straighten out” a city and its aristocratic rulers.