TYRANT. The words tyrant and tyranny come respectively froth the Greek tyrannos, tyrannis (7Gpavvos, Typavrts), through the Latin. The earliest instance of the word tyrannus is perhaps in the Homeric hymn to Ares (Mars). It is used by the earliest extant Greek historians, Herodotns and Thucydides, to signify a person who possessed sovereign power and owed it to usurpation, or who derived it from a person who had obtained such power by usurpation, and who maintained it by force. A familiar example of a tyrant Is Plaistratus, who usurped the supreme power at Athens sac. 560, and was succeeded in it by his eldest son ,Hippias. A Greek tyrant who obtained sovereign power was a monarch In the proper sense of that term. [MoNAncii.] If lie acquired a power which was somewhat less than sovereign, ho was not a monarch ; but in either case he would perhaps be called tyrannus ; and accordingly the word does not express with accuracy the degree of political power which an individual acquired, but it rather expresses the mode of acquisition, or refers to its originally illegal origin. Still the term tyrant, as used among the Greeks, always indicates that the person so called was at the head of the state, and possessed at least more power than any other individual or any number of individuals in it. The word, as used by the older Greek writers, did not carry with it any notion of blame : it simply denoted a person possessed of such political power as above mentioned, whether he used it well or ill. Many so-called tyrants were popular with the mass of the community, and were men of letters, and patrons of literature and art. They might appropriately be called kings or princes in the modern acceptation of those terms, except perhaps that the uncertainty of their tenure of power and the want of a recognised hereditary succession in the tyranny, or a regular mode of succeeding to it, would render the application of any modem name inappropriate.
In some passages in Herodotus (hi. 80, &c. ; vi 23, &c.; vii. 165) the words monarch and tyrant are used as synonymes to express an individual who possesses sovereign power; and in one instance at least (vi. 23, 24) he calls the same person king (I4conAf6s) and monarch (Sio6vapxor). Aristotle (` Polit.', iii. 7), after stating that a polity or government must either be in the hands of one or of a few, or of the many, adds that we are accustomed to call a monarchy which has regard to the interests of all members of tho state a kingship (Ocuraffa); and that a monarchy which has regard only to the interests of the monarch is a tyranny. In the case of Miltiades, who became tyrant of
the Thracian Chersonesus, Nepos Miltiad.') remarks that "all persons are considered and called tyranni who enjoy lasting power in a state which has once been free." This definition seems to express pretty clearly the old Greek notion of a tyrant, but it leaves out of con sideration the mode in which the power was acquired. Nepos remarks that Militiades was called " Tyrannus sed justus," "tyrant, but tyrant in constitutional form" (not just), for be had been elected by the people. Accordingly, ho says in another place, he had the dignity or rank of king without the name. This is consistent with Herodotus (vi. 36), who says that the people made Miltiades tyrant (r6pappov KOTETTIITRYTO).
Among the Roman writers tyrannus is often used as simply equiva lent to king, especially by the poets. Cicero couples dominus and tyrannus, thereby intending to use tyrannus in a bad sense, which was perhaps the more common acceptation of the word among the Romans in his time and subsequently. Seneca seems to refer to the original sense of tyrannus when he says, " A tyrant is to be distinguished from a king (rex) by his conduct, and not by the name : for Dionysius the elder (who was called a tyrant) was a better man than many kings ; and Lucius Sulla may be appropriately called a tyrant, for he only ceased from slaughter when he had no more enemies to kill." (Facciol., Lex—Tyrannusi According to this, a man might be called tyrant without being a cruel governor, for there were instances of persons so called who had used their power with moderation ; and yet a man who had not the title of tyrant might be called tyrant on account of his cruelty. It seems as if Seneca was trying to distinguish the popular use of tyrant in his time from its earlier historical signification. Tribellius Pollio has written the History of the Thirty Tyrants' who sprung up in the Roman empire in the time of Gallienus and Valerian. These so-called tyrants were not more tyrannical, in the modern sense of the term, than many Roman emperors.