The tyrannical man is enslaved because the best part of him (reason) is enslaved, and likewise, the tyrannical state is enslaved, because it too lacks reason and order. Plato deemed tyranny the “fourth and worst disorder of a state.” Tyrants lack “the very faculty that is the instrument of judgment”-reason. However, Greek philosopher Plato saw tyrannos as a negative word, and on account of the decisive influence of philosophy on politics, The original Greek term meant an absolute sovereign who came to power without constitutional right, yet the word had a neutral connotation during the Archaic and early Classical periods. Often portrayed as cruel, tyrants may defend their positions by resorting to repressive means. Wikipedia Rate this definition: 0.0 / 0 votesĪ tyrant (from Ancient Greek τύραννος (túrannos) 'absolute ruler'), in the modern English usage of the word, is an absolute ruler who is unrestrained by law, or one who has usurped a legitimate ruler's sovereignty. The tyranny o’ the open night’s too rough Subjects him from without to violent lords Suspicions dispose kings to tyranny, and husbands to jealousy. Th’untimely emptying of the happy throne, The cities fell often under tyrannies, which spring naturally out of popular governments. Sole reigning holds the tyranny of heav’n. Who now triumphs, and, in th’ excess of joy, Absolute monarchy imperiously administered. Learn by doing: watch the Godfather movie.Samuel Johnson's Dictionary Rate this definition: 0.0 / 0 votesĮtymology: tyrannis, Latin τυραννὶς tyrannie, Fr. In Rome, the Senate killed Tiberius Gracchus because they thought he might become a tyrant. Another tyrant was Dionysos of Syracuse, whom Plato went to teach. His sons, Hippias and Hipparchus, became tyrants after him, and the other rich men murdered one of them. One of the most famous tyrants was Pisistratus in Athens. In English today, tyrant means a bad king, but that is because the rich men hated tyrants, and in ancient Greece only the rich men could write. You can see that tyrants are usually really good for the poor people, and only bad for the other rich men. Usually the tyrant promises one or two (or all three) of these things:

In order to stay in power, the tyrant has to promise the poor people that he will do good things for them, so they will support him. Naturally the other rich men hated tyrants, and tried to stop them and go back to an oligarchy again. Tyrants are something like Mafia bosses like the Godfather. So a tyrant is like a king, but a king who does not have the law or religion behind him, and only rules because the poor people support him. But the other rich men keep them from doing it.īut if one of the rich men thinks of asking for help from the poor people, he can get ahead that way, and may make himself tyrant. This is how tyrannies usually grew out of oligarchies: in an oligarchy, each of the rich men is always trying to get more power than the others. “Tyrant” is probably a Lydian word, from West Asia.

In Greece and West Asia, mainly in what is now Turkey, there was a period of time around 650-400 BC when tyrants ruled many city-states. Kritios Boy statue from the time of the tyranny in Athens

Tyranny definition