The two most important trends of the early archaic period were the spread of Greek culture and the new governmental model of tyranny. Both had profound effects upon Greek history

1. ANCIENT GREECE
iii-Colonization & Tyranny

2. ANCIENT GREECE
iii-Colonization & Tyranny

3. τρεις τρία γ
Τό Τρίτον Μάθηµα

4. PRINCIPAL TOPICS
I. Why Colonize?
II. The Nature of Colonies
III. A Tour
IV.Effects of Colonization
V.Tyranny
VI. Rise of Greek Tyrannies
VII. Accomplishments

5. I. WHY COLONIZE?

6. I. WHY COLONIZE?

7. Late sixth century BC krater decorated in
black figure by the Athenian artist Exekias
and exported to Vulci in Etruria, where it was
discovered in a tomb. The bowl, used as a
shallow wine cup, illustrates the story of the
capture of the wine god Dionysos by Etruscan
pirates, and the transformation of the pirates
into dolphins.
Abulafia, The Great Sea, illustration # 18

8. CHORUS Of so many marvelous things, nothing
is more wonderful than man; he crosses the foamy sea
In the south wind, navigating its depths and crests
Sophocles, Antigone, lines 332-334

9. BUT, FIRST,
they aren’t colonies (colonii, Lat., military settlements)
late Middle English (denoting a settlement formed mainly of retired soldiers, acting as a
garrison in newly conquered territory in the Roman Empire): from Latin colonia
‘settlement, farm,’ from colonus ‘settler, farmer,’ from colere ‘cultivate.’
they’re apoikia (ap•oy•KEY•uh-ἀπ0ικία, Gk., literally, “away home,” from
ἀπο + οἶκος)
the above are etymologies (late Middle English: from Old French ethimologie, via Latin
from Greek etumologia, from etumologos ‘student of etymology,’ from etumon, neuter singular of
etumos ‘true.’)

10. SECONDLY, WHY DOES IT NEED TO
BE EXPLAINED?
until the 20th century, the vast majority of humankind never travelled more
than a day’s journey or so from their homes, from birth to death!
the Greeks were especially devoted to their ancestors, proper burial rites.
Leaving their polis meant leaving those graves
most colonies required a sea journey, and Greeks were quite properly afraid
to do this!
Ἴσον ἐστὶν ὀργῃ καὶ θάλασσα καὶ γυωή--Μένανδρος, Μον. 264
colonizing meant leaving everything familiar and facing many unknowns

11. THIRDLY,SO WHY DID THEY
COLONIZE?
we don’t know, no Greek primary sources address this
but we can hypothesize
hypothesize |hīˈpäTH"ˌsīz| verb [ with obj. ] put (something) forward as a hypothesis: it was
reasonable to hypothesize a viral causality | [ with clause ] : they hypothesize that the naturally high insulin levels
result from a “thrifty gene.”
from late 16th cent.: via late Latin from Greek hupothesis ‘foundation,’
from hupo ‘under’ + thesis ‘placing.’

12. THIRDLY,SO WHY DID THEY
COLONIZE?
we don’t know, no Greek primary sources address this
but we can hypothesize
hypothesize |hīˈpäTH"ˌsīz| verb [ with obj. ] put (something) forward as a hypothesis: it was
reasonable to hypothesize a viral causality | [ with clause ] : they hypothesize that the naturally high insulin levels
result from a “thrifty gene.”
from late 16th cent.: via late Latin from Greek hupothesis ‘foundation,’
from hupo ‘under’ + thesis ‘placing.’
because a great deal is known about about modern colonists’ motivation

13. ACCORDING TO PROF. KAGAN
1. land hunger at the end of the “Dark Ages”
2. for a trading entrepôt (Abulafia puts this first)
3. political motives
1. the group which has lost in a civil war or revolution
2. wartime refugees
3. individuals who are exiled, (ostracized)
4. finally, (a small group) for the sheer adventure of it, “fortune seekers”

15. “Sappho Hears a Favorite Poet,” Lawrence Alma-Tadema

16. Solon of Athens heard his nephew sing a song of Sappho's
over the wine and, since he liked the song so much, he
asked the boy to teach it to him. When someone asked him
why, he said, "So that I may learn it, then die."
Stobaeus, Florilegium, (3.29.58)

17. II. THE NATURE OF
COLONIES

18. II. THE NATURE OF
COLONIES

19. Of these [Dark Ages refugees], the most famous, perhaps the most important,
was Miletus, an Ionian city located on the west coast of Asia Minor, which sent
many a colony into different parts of the world, particularly up towards the
straits and the Bosporus and the Sea of Marmara. The way the Greeks did their
immigration into Asia Minor actually had a pattern. From north to south, there
is a consistent pattern.
The northernmost settlements spoke Greek with an Aeolian dialect; the Aeolian
dialect is the one that you see on the mainland in Boeotia, for instance Thebes.
South of the Aeolian section was the region of Asia Minor inhabited chiefly by
Ionians. The people on the mainland who are the main Ionians are the
Athenians.
Finally, on the most southern part of the west coast of Asia Minor, were the
Dorian-speaking Greeks. The whole Peloponnesus, was fundamentally a Dorian
speaking place.
That's the way the world looks when the polis is invented and when major
colonization begins. Kagan

20. Of these [Dark Ages refugees], the most famous, perhaps the most important,
was Miletus, an Ionian city located on the west coast of Asia Minor, which sent
many a colony into different parts of the world, particularly up towards the
straits and the Bosporus and the Sea of Marmara. The way the Greeks did their
immigration into Asia Minor actually had a pattern. From north to south, there
is a consistent pattern.
The northernmost settlements spoke Greek with an Aeolian dialect; the Aeolian
dialect is the one that you see on the mainland in Boeotia, for instance Thebes.
South of the Aeolian section was the region of Asia Minor inhabited chiefly by
Ionians. The people on the mainland who are the main Ionians are the
Athenians.
Finally, on the most southern part of the west coast of Asia Minor, were the
Dorian-speaking Greeks. The whole Peloponnesus, was fundamentally a Dorian
speaking place.
That's the way the world looks when the polis is invented and when major
colonization begins. Kagan

21. PITHECUSAE- 775 BC
TRADITIONALLY, THE FIRST APOIKIA
first Greek colony set up at Pithecusae (Ischia),
a small island off Naples, by colonists from
Chalcis and Eretria in Euboea and from Cyme
in Aeolis in search of precious metals–
especially copper and iron–from the Etruscans.
ΠΙΘΕΚΥΣΑΙ Kagan handout

22. STEPS FOR ESTABLISHING A
COLONY
1. an individual of some eminence, the οικιστες (oikistes), decides he wishes to found a
colony
2. he then seeks approval from the town council, that polis which will become the
µητηρπολις (mētērpolis-metropolis). His proposal must be specific
3. next, the approval of the oracle at Delphi is sought
4. now, a concrete written proposal:governmental structure, how land will be allotted
5. finally, recruitment; a critical stage. Enough men for defense, people with key skills

23. The best time [to recruit] would be at some great festival. There are festivals held in
each city just for its own citizens. When you felt that you could recruit a full colony
from your fellow citizens, in Corinth, let us say, that's what you did. But it would
often happen that there were not enough Corinthians who were ready to go with you
on your expedition.
So, you would try to take your message to one of the Pan-Hellenic festivals which
were getting organized about this time. As you know, the Olympic Games are alleged
to have started in 776. So, that would be a place where Greeks from all over might
come and you could then try to recruit settlers for your new colony there. Then, we
don't know precisely when, there were Pan-Hellenic Games near Corinth, the
Isthmian Games. There were Pan-Hellenic Games at Delphi and there were Pan-
Hellenic Games in the northeastern Peloponnesus at a town called Nemea.So, there
would always be some opportunity for you to go out and make your pitch.
So now you have everything in place, you've recruited your settlement, you get on
your ships and sail, in this case out to the west central Mediterranean, you find your
way to Sicily, work your way into the harbor at Syracuse and things work out, and
now we have this apoikia called Syracuse.
Kagan

24. You're out there in Sicily and you discover, of course, that you don't have all of the
things that you used to have available to you, that used to be made let us say in
Corinth. As a matter of fact, in the early days, Corinth was a great center of painted
pottery and was the leading producer and exporter of that. So, maybe you wanted a
really fine pot of the kind you used to be able to walk to the corner and pick up at a
pottery shop, but you can't get now, so you would want to buy what the Corinthians
sell.
Guess what? You've got great grain fields out there in Syracuse. Hard to believe
today, but Sicily was one of the major granaries of the Mediterranean world at that
time, tremendously fruitful, able to grow the best possible crops, very good wheat
and so on. Corinth always needs that kind of stuff, so we sell you our wheat, you sell
us your pottery, you sell good wine that we can't grow yet and maybe never will be
able to grow in our neighborhood, so on and so forth. So you can see why it would be
very natural for all sorts of ties to unite this colony and mother city.
Kagan

25. 734/33 BC- oicist Archias brings settlers from Corinth
he names it Sirako, referring to a nearby salt marsh. The nucleus of the
polis is the small island of Ortygia
the lands were fertile and the native tribes well-disposed
the city grew and prospered, and for some time stood as the most powerful
Greek city anywhere in the Mediterranean

26. 734/33 BC- oicist Archias brings settlers from Corinth
he names it Sirako, referring to a nearby salt marsh. The nucleus of the
polis is the small island of Ortygia
the lands were fertile and the native tribes well-disposed
the city grew and prospered, and for some time stood as the most powerful
Greek city anywhere in the Mediterranean

27. 734/33 BC- oicist Archias brings settlers from Corinth
he names it Sirako, referring to a nearby salt marsh. The nucleus of the
polis is the small island of Ortygia
the lands were fertile and the native tribes well-disposed
the city grew and prospered, and for some time stood as the most powerful
Greek city anywhere in the Mediterranean
664-598 BC-Syracuse, in turn, became the metropolis of new apoikiai in
Sicily

28. III. A TOUR

29. III. A TOUR

30. Before this period of the polis (and the period of colonization which is connected
with the rise of the polis), centuries before that, the Greeks had already spread out
from their original settlements. Right after the collapse of the Mycenaean world
there was a period of tremendous confusion and panic and fear, we know that people
fleeing from whoever destroyed the Mycenaean world fled typically eastward into the
islands of the Aegean Sea and continuing on to the coast of Asia Minor beyond them.
By the tenth century BC, we see Greek cities lining the coast of Asia Minor on the
west, and even around to the south and to some degree northward.
So there is an expansion of the Greek world already by the tenth century. These
Greeks are now settled down, so that some of these cities are among the most
important cities sending out colonies of their own.
Of these, the most famous, perhaps the most important, was Miletus, an Ionian city
located on the west coast of Asia Minor, which sent many colonies into different
parts of the world, particularly north towards the Dardanelles, the Bosporus and the
Sea of Marmara. That's the way the world looks when the polis is invented and
when colonization proper begins..
Kagan

31. Before this period of the polis (and the period of colonization which is connected
with the rise of the polis), centuries before that, the Greeks had already spread out
from their original settlements. Right after the collapse of the Mycenaean world
there was a period of tremendous confusion and panic and fear, we know that people
fleeing from whoever destroyed the Mycenaean world fled typically eastward into the
islands of the Aegean Sea and continuing on to the coast of Asia Minor beyond them.
By the tenth century BC, we see Greek cities lining the coast of Asia Minor on the
west, and even around to the south and to some degree northward.
So there is an expansion of the Greek world already by the tenth century. These
Greeks are now settled down, so that some of these cities are among the most
important cities sending out colonies of their own.
Of these, the most famous, perhaps the most important, was Miletus, an Ionian city
located on the west coast of Asia Minor, which sent many colonies into different
parts of the world, particularly north towards the Dardanelles, the Bosporus and the
Sea of Marmara. That's the way the world looks when the polis is invented and
when colonization proper begins..
Kagan

32. Before this period of the polis (and the period of colonization which is connected
with the rise of the polis), centuries before that, the Greeks had already spread out
from their original settlements. Right after the collapse of the Mycenaean world
there was a period of tremendous confusion and panic and fear, we know that people
fleeing from whoever destroyed the Mycenaean world fled typically eastward into the
islands of the Aegean Sea and continuing on to the coast of Asia Minor beyond them.
By the tenth century BC, we see Greek cities lining the coast of Asia Minor on the
west, and even around to the south and to some degree northward.
So there is an expansion of the Greek world already by the tenth century. These
Greeks are now settled down, so that some of these cities are among the most
important cities sending out colonies of their own.
Of these, the most famous, perhaps the most important, was Miletus, an Ionian city
located on the west coast of Asia Minor, which sent many colonies into different
parts of the world, particularly north towards the Dardanelles, the Bosporus and the
Sea of Marmara. That's the way the world looks when the polis is invented and
when colonization proper begins..
Kagan

33. Before this period of the polis (and the period of colonization which is connected
with the rise of the polis), centuries before that, the Greeks had already spread out
from their original settlements. Right after the collapse of the Mycenaean world
there was a period of tremendous confusion and panic and fear, we know that people
fleeing from whoever destroyed the Mycenaean world fled typically eastward into the
islands of the Aegean Sea and continuing on to the coast of Asia Minor beyond them.
By the tenth century BC, we see Greek cities lining the coast of Asia Minor on the
west, and even around to the south and to some degree northward.
So there is an expansion of the Greek world already by the tenth century. These
Greeks are now settled down, so that some of these cities are among the most
important cities sending out colonies of their own.
Of these, the most famous, perhaps the most important, was Miletus, an Ionian city
located on the west coast of Asia Minor, which sent many colonies into different
parts of the world, particularly north towards the Dardanelles, the Bosporus and the
Sea of Marmara. That's the way the world looks when the polis is invented and
when colonization proper begins..
Kagan

36. Priene is one of the oldest cities of
Ionia, possibly 2nd millennium
6th c. was the most prosperous era
Bias, one of the “Seven Sages” put
the laws of the city “in order”
545 BC-Mazares, commander of
the Persian “Great King” attacked
the city, burned it, and enslaved
its people

37. the Hittite documents speak of a
kingdom of Ahhiyava (Achaea?) and a
city of Millavanda (Miletus?)
10th c-Strabo says Cretans, Homer says
Carians; others, Ionians founded it
archaeology in the ‘50s point to a
Mycenaen settlement, ca 1400 BC!
the earliest settlement was on #9
670 BC-although much fertile land was
available, Miletus began her own
colonizing northwards

38. Now, let's take a look at the world of the Mediterranean and see how Greek
expansion worked. Let's start with the Aegean Sea. Almost all the islands are
inhabited by Greeks, mostly by the Greeks that came in that first wave of immigrants
earlier on, not colonized during the eighth century and afterwards. But if you go to
the north shore of the Aegean Sea, into the region that the Greeks called Thrace —
sorry, before I even get to Thrace, maybe even a little bit of Thessaly which is off
mostly west of the Aegean Sea, a little bit but not Thrace chiefly, which is the
northern shore of the Aegean Sea, lots of Greek colonies there; it's fundamentally
part of Greece. This is not a bad time for me to remind you that in one of Plato's
dialogues, Socrates says the Greeks sit like frogs around a pond and that pond is the
Aegean Sea. It's a helpful little image to remember, because we tend to think of
Greece as that peninsula of which there is a sub-peninsula at the bottom, the
Peloponnesus. That was not the Greece of antiquity. If you had to pick a central focus
of where the Greeks were, it would be in the Aegean Sea so that's useful to
remember.
Kagan

39. Now, let's take a look at the world of the Mediterranean and see how Greek
expansion worked. Let's start with the Aegean Sea. Almost all the islands are
Thrace
inhabited by Greeks, mostly by the Greeks that came in that first wave of immigrants
earlier on, not colonized during the eighth century and afterwards. But if you go to
the north shore of the Aegean Sea, into the region that the Greeks called Thrace —
sorry, before I even get to Thrace, maybe even a little bit of Thessaly which is off
mostly west of the Aegean Sea, a little bit but not Thrace chiefly, which is the
northern shore of the Aegean Sea, lots of Greek colonies there; it's fundamentally
part of Greece. This is not a bad time for me to remind you that in one of Plato's
dialogues, Socrates says the Greeks sit like frogs around a pond and that pond is the
Aegean Sea. It's a helpful little image to remember, because we tend to think of
Greece as that peninsula of which there is a sub-peninsula at the bottom, the
Peloponnesus. That was not the Greece of antiquity. If you had to pick a central focus
of where the Greeks were, it would be in the Aegean Sea so that's useful to
remember.
Kagan

40. Now, let's take a look at the world of the Mediterranean and see how Greek
expansion worked. Let's start with the Aegean Sea. Almost all the islands are
inhabited by Greeks, mostly by the Greeks that came in that first wave of immigrants
earlier on, not colonized during the eighth century and afterwards. But if you go to
the north shore of the Aegean Sea, into the region that the Greeks called Thrace —
sorry, before I even get to Thrace, maybe even a little bit of Thessaly which is off
mostly west of the Aegean Sea, a little bit but not Thrace chiefly, which is the
Thessaly
northern shore of the Aegean Sea, lots of Greek colonies there; it's fundamentally
part of Greece. This is not a bad time for me to remind you that in one of Plato's
dialogues, Socrates says the Greeks sit like frogs around a pond and that pond is the
Aegean Sea. It's a helpful little image to remember, because we tend to think of
Greece as that peninsula of which there is a sub-peninsula at the bottom, the
Peloponnesus. That was not the Greece of antiquity. If you had to pick a central focus
of where the Greeks were, it would be in the Aegean Sea so that's useful to
remember.
Kagan

41. Now, let's take a look at the world of the Mediterranean and see how Greek
expansion worked. Let's start with the Aegean Sea. Almost all the islands are
inhabited by Greeks, mostly by the Greeks that came in that first wave of immigrants
earlier on, not colonized during the eighth century and afterwards. But if you go to
the north shore of the Aegean Sea, into the region that the Greeks called Thrace —
sorry, before I even get to Thrace, maybe even a little bit of Thessaly which is off
mostly west of the Aegean Sea, a little bit but not Thrace chiefly, which is the
northern shore of the Aegean Sea, lots of Greek colonies there; it's fundamentally
part of Greece. This is not a bad time for me to remind you that in one of Plato's
dialogues, Socrates says the Greeks sit like frogs around a pond and that pond is the
Aegean Sea. It's a helpful little image to remember, because we tend to think of
Greece as that peninsula of which there is a sub-peninsula at the bottom, the
Peloponnesus. That was not the Greece of antiquity. If you had to pick a central focus
of where the Greeks were, it would be in the Aegean Sea so that's useful to
remember.
Kagan

42. emporium 7th c BC
polis 350 BC
650 BC ca 600 BC
ca 600 BC
ca 543 BC
657 BC
6th c BC
Now, we sail back ca-550 BC
out of the Black
ca-650 BC
Sea
c 625 BC ca-700 BC
6th c BC
667 BC
756 BC Megara
756 BC
Klazomene
760-750 BC
675 BC
600 BC Lesbos
Klazomene
Euboea
Miletus
Corinth
810 BC
ca-700 BC
Rhodes

43. emporium 7th c BC
polis 350 BC
650 BC ca 600 BC
ca 600 BC
ca 543 BC
657 BC
6th c BC
Now, we sail back ca-550 BC
out of the Black
ca-650 BC
Sea
c 625 BC ca-700 BC
6th c BC
667 BC
756 BC Megara
756 BC
Klazomene
760-750 BC
675 BC
600 BC Lesbos
Klazomene
Euboea Phokaia
Miletus
Corinth
810 BC
ca-700 BC
Rhodes

46. • probably Minoan, certainly
Mycenaean trade with Egypt, no
settlements
• 7th c. Ionian pirates forced to land,
given two στραπεδοπεδα (parcels) by
Pharaoh Psammetichus
• 570 BC-Pharaoh Amasis grants the
entrepot of Naucratis to Greek traders
(and possibly Phoenicians)

47. Thera
Phoenician!
630 BC

48. When you go west, however, Greek settlement stops on the coast of North Africa —
the reason being the rest of North Africa is dominated by Carthage. Carthage is a
colony of Phoenician cities. Phoenicia was located where Lebanon is now, and it goes
back to maybe the tenth century, maybe the ninth [high point 1200-800 BC-Wikipedia],
and it was powerful. The Tyrians [Tyre was the principal port] tried to control not
only North Africa, but the waters of the Western Mediterranean entirely. The
Carthaginians, in fact, have a powerful pied à terre [foothold] in the western part of
Sicily and the Greeks will have to fight the Carthaginians over the years for control of
the island of Sicily. So, that's how far east they get and in time the Carthaginians also
cross over into Spain and they control some portion of the Spanish coast closest to
Africa. So, there are no Greeks there. They're shut out there for the same reasons.
However, once you get beyond the Carthaginian foothold in Spain, there are now
Greek cities on the northeast coast of Spain and there continue to be Greek cities, not
everywhere, but into France of which the most important and famous is the one that
the Romans called Masillia, Marseille, a Greek town.
Kagan

49. Carthage

50. Phokaia
600 BC
Carthage

51. Phokaia
600 BC
Phokaia
566 BC
Carthage

52. From the people of Massalia, therefore, the Gauls learned a more
civilized way of life, their former barbarity being laid aside or softened;
and by them they were taught to cultivate their lands and to enclose
their towns with walls. Then too, they grew accustomed to live
according to laws, and not by violence; then they learned to prune the
vine and plant the olive; and such a radiance was shed over both men
and things, that it was not Greece which seemed to have immigrated to
Gaul, but Gaul that seemed to have been transplanted into Greece.
Abulafia, quoting Justin, The Great Sea, p. 125

54. So Nice is a Greek town. Nice was Nikea, (victory town) and there are several others. But what
about the Italian Riviera? That's pretty nifty. Were the Greek colonies near Portofino where you
could put in? No!. And the reason was in the northern part of Italy, there were Etruscans,
another powerful ancient people who control their own area and were not about to have
anybody colonizing their territory. However, when you keep going south in Italy, past Rome,
Roman tradition says the city was founded in 753. So, in the period we're talking about there
are no powerful Romans that you have to worry about. So, south of Rome there is a tremendous
colonizing of southern Italy. Greek cities are all over the place. So Greek was that area that
when the Romans do come to dominate most of Italy and move up against the southern region
they refer to the whole southern portion of that peninsula as Magna Graecia, great Greece
because they're all Greeks down there. Finally, down we go to Sicily, the east coast.Two-thirds
of the coast of Sicily is filled with Greek towns. The third to the west is under Carthaginian
control. The inland, the Greeks don't move in there. The natives Sicilians inhabit that territory
and the Greeks are not interested. You will find very rare of the case of a Greek city, which is
founded away from the sea; they always wanted to be close to the sea for varieties of reasons.
So, now I hope you have in your mind a picture of the way the Greek world had expanded by the
time this wave of colonization was complete — pretty complete, sometime in the seventh
century B.C.
Kagan

55. Which Poleis colonized?
A word about the leading colonizing poleis.Why did some cities send out lots of colonies, some
cities send out only a few, and others none at all for quite a while? Well, if you see who does
then you may have a clue. Here is a list of the early extensive colonizers. Miletus, from Asia
Minor; Corinth on the isthmus; Megara right next door to Corinth, also on the isthmus. The
island of Euboea, that long island that's right next to the east coast of Attica, Euboea. There
were two important cities on that island. Calkis ands Eretria. We hear about them relatively
early in the eighth century, already being very important, very strong and fighting each other in
a famous [Lelantine] war. But these cities were very active in colonizing in a variety of
directions. Lots of these towns sent colonists up north into the Dardanelles and beyond and
both sent out colonies to Sicily, so that for the real colonizing states there was no limit to where
they would send people who wanted to go to those areas.
Kagan

56. IV. EFFECTS OF
COLONIZATION

57. IV. EFFECTS OF
COLONIZATION

58. CULTURAL--A GREEK RENAISSANCE
to the east and south of Asia Minor, the Levant and Egypt, Greeks had
extensive contact with societies which had much to teach them
“the Greeks are absorbing tremendously useful information, talent, and
skills, that help explain future developments”-Kagan
this took the form of ideas, but also artisans and imported goods
“Anybody who looks at Greek mythology and Greek poetry...sees there is a
powerful influence coming into Greek thought, mainly from Mesopotamia”

59. MILETUS-GATEWAY TO THE EAST
“Philosophy is going to be invented in Miletus, probably in the 6th century
“Miletus was on the main route to all the places where advanced knowledge
could be found, Mesopotamia, Egypt…”
Kagan

60. CULTURAL--GREEKS AS TEACHERS
“their impact was greater in the west and the north than it was in the east and the
south” --Kagan
the Black Sea coast was populated by the barbaroi, proto-Huns and Mongols
in the future France, traders seeking tin and silver pushed up the Rhone spreading
Greek civilization among the Gauls
Southern Italy was so densely settled that when Rome finally moved against them,
they called the region Magna Graecia (Great Greece)--hence our word for Hellas
Sicily was the richest and most densely settled region of colonial settlement; hence,
the most influenced

61. The opening of contact between the Greeks of the Aegean (specifically
Euboia) and the lands facing the Tyrrhenian Sea [French Riviera and
Southern Italy] has enthusiastically been described as a moment ‘of
greater lasting significance for western civilization than almost any
other single advance achieved in antiquity’.
Abulafia, quoting D. Ridgeway, The Great Sea, p. 89

62. ECONOMIC IMPACT
commerce and trade (imports and exports) expanded tremendously after
the economic isolation of the Dark Ages
as industry [handicraft] in the mētērpoleis grew, colonists pushed farther
inland in search of silver, tin, copper, dyes and selling Greek products:
scented olive oil
wine
ceramics
the non-farm sector of the labor force [never approaching a majority] grew,
both abroad and at home

63. Some scholars early in the 20th century, influenced by
Marxist theories, suggested that you had a capitalist class
growing up, there's just no evidence of that; it's just wrong.
The earliest traders of any significance were noblemen who
also had land and estates back home, but who had the
opportunity, the know-how, the connections to make it
possible to make money in trade. Even so, while you don't
have a class of separate people who are just in the business
of making things and making money, you do have people
who are engaged in those activities and who have some
interests that are different from those of the rest of their
people who are only hoplite farmers.
Kagan

64. A COMPLEX OF CHANGES WITH
IMPORTANT POLITICAL
CONSEQUENCES
the hoplite revolution means more and more of the rural populace is not
content to remain politically impotent
the new wealthy class, not just the landed aristocrats of earlier times, those
who had become prosperous from commerce and industry, also want a
greater voice
first there are factional struggles within the aristocracy, then “outsiders”
join in--the hoplites, sometimes on several sides!
this strife back home, sometimes approaching civil war, is a negative stage
in the development of political change

65. KAGAN’S ANALOGY OF THE
AMERICAN FRONTIER THESIS
those who were on the losing side of these upheavals didn’t have to stay and
fight it out
the overseas colonies were a place where the “outs” could start over among
their fellow Greeks
just as in America the frontier had been a “safety valve” beginning in
colonial times and up until the 1890s

66. V. TYRANNY

67. V. TYRANNY

68. Tyranny emerges in the seventh century B.C. — for many of the same
reasons and in response to some of the same developments that
[contributed to] the great burst of colonization that began in the eighth
century. All of those tumultuous, troubling, changing forces were at work in
bringing about this new kind of regime, which lasted from one to three
generations among the Greeks before it faded away. It was a transitional
phase in Greek society, rather than one that lasted for a long time, but it was
not trivial, in some cases it went for three generations.
Kagan

69. LET’S BEGIN WITH
THE WORD
The word tyranneia is tyranny, the word tyrannos is tyrant, and etymologically
the word is not a Greek word. It was a borrowed word [which the Greeks] applied
to certain elements that emerged in their society. It [probably was] borrowed
from Lydia, that kingdom in Asia Minor that was inland from the Greek
settlements on the coast. The first Lydian king, of whom we hear that could fit as
the first tyrant from the Greek perspective was a man called Gyges, who ruled in
Lydia from approximately 685 to 657.
Kagan

70. object of much mythologizing
the ring of Gyges
the seduction of Queen Tudo and the murder of
King Candaules [see below]
served as the model for the earliest
Greek use of the word “tyranny”
Gyges
"I don't care for the wealth of golden Gyges, nor
have I ever envied him. I am not jealous of the
Γύγης
works of the gods and I have no desire for lofty King of Lydia
tyranny."-- the Ionian poet Archilochus
f. early 7th century

71. CHARACTERISTICS
a single ruler
not legitimately acquired
not responsible to any other authority, i.e., despotic
the power is abused with violence, often sexual in nature

72. LET’S GO BACK TO
ARCHILOCHUS’ FEW WORDS
which are so rich in telling us so much about it. He says, "I am not
jealous of the works of the gods." The Greek view of tyranny was that
tyrants see themselves as rivaling the gods. And because they have the
power and the wealth, because they have no responsibility to anybody,
presumably they can, and this is one of the things that makes them
terrible. It's this act of behaving as though they were gods that Greeks
called hubris, this arrogant, this violent exercise of power. That is the
way things looked in the Classical Period. But even in the Classical
Period there was a remnant of what was the special characteristic of the
idea in its earlier day — not so much how evil tyranny was, because in the
early days it's not clear that they thought it was, but the fact that it was
not legitimately acquired.
Kagan

73. The contemporaries of Gyges and the tyrants that came after him in Greece
probably didn't use the term yet. It probably sprang up at a later time. For the
Greeks it originally meant something much more neutral, without this great
moral baggage. It simply meant more than anything else, two things.
• One man rule, well that would always raise an eyebrow, but you could
imagine it being okay, and
• that it was unconstitutional. It did not come about in a way that followed
tradition, which was what Greek constitutions were, traditional sets of laws or
customs.
[edited & emphasis & bullets added] Kagan

74. VI. RISE OF GREEK
TYRANNIES

75. VI. RISE OF GREEK
TYRANNIES

76. Okay, that's the general picture; let's take a look at tyranny as it emerges in
Greece, and we don't know very much about it. Here's another one of these
cases where we are dependent on later sources, we have...nothing really
contemporary at all that speaks about any tyrant. So that's a problem, but
we have to deal with that.
There are very limited tales that are told about them, so that we have to
piece together a lot of information and ask ourselves what it all means.
In any case, the first tyrant named in the Greek tradition is a man called
Pheidon of Argos, who is mentioned by Aristotle in his Politics, and he says
some interesting things. I'll come back [to Aristotle’s account] in a moment,
but here are some of the facts or alleged facts that surround Pheidon in the
Greek tradition. He is the King of Argos, and Argos you know in the
Homeric tradition is a very big, powerful, important place; Argos includes
Mycenae and all of that. So, this would be a king of a large and important
area.
Kagan

77. PHEIDON’S PATH TO POWER
a Basileus (aristocrat, not king)
668 BC-soundly defeats the Spartans,
gets himself elected president of the
Olympic Games
establishes a system of weights and
measures for the whole Peloponnesus
was the first to strike coins on the island of
Aegina (huge controversy)
possible image of Pheidon

78. WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BECOME A
TYRANT?
military force, in the 7th century this meant
the backing of some or most of the hoplite
farmers
widespread public dissatisfaction with the
existing aristocratic élites
wide support of the new wealthy commercial
and industrial class which is being kept out of
power by the eupatridai (well-born aristocrats)
detail, Protocorinthian olpē
by the Chigi painter, 7th c.
found in an Etruscan tomb

79. Argos, in addition to being a fine agricultural area, also had commercial
activity from an early time. So, that fits. Then on top of that, the next three
towns [whose tyrants will be examined were] very active in colonization —
Corinth, the neighboring town Sicyon also has an early tyrannical family and
Megara. Sicyon is south and to the west of Corinth, and Megara is north and
to the east or Corinth. All three are right on and around the Isthmus of
Corinth. These are states that are very, very active in the colonial movement.
Miletus has a tyrant at a fairly early time, just as you would expect, because
it fits into the whole.
You don't have tyrannies very early, if at all, in places like Athens. They will
have a famous tyrant, but that will come later. Thebes will not have a tyrant
in spite of the mythology surrounding Oedipus. Sparta, of course, never has
a tyrant so all of this is sort of reasonable support for the interpretation
which most scholars take. So, you have all of these factors:
• the pressure of a growing population
• new groups challenging the aristocracy, hoplites among them.
Kagan

80. CYPSELUS-CORINTHIAN TYRANT-
OUTSIDER
he was a polemarch, the war archon
by tradition he was the son of a “mixed marriage”
between an aristocrat and a commoner
Periander
[son]of Cypselus
Corinthian

81. CYPSELUS-CORINTHIAN TYRANT-
OUTSIDER
he was a polemarch, the war archon
by tradition he was the son of a “mixed marriage”
between an aristocrat and a commoner
Kagan compares him to the marginal Napoleon, an
outsider on the margin, determined to win respect

82. CYPSELUS-CORINTHIAN TYRANT-
OUTSIDER
he was a polemarch, the war archon
by tradition he was the son of a “mixed marriage”
between an aristocrat and a commoner
Kagan compares him to the marginal Napoleon, an
outsider on the margin, determined to win respect
the aristocracy of Corinth, which Kypselus was
determined to overthrow was unusually narrow, a
single clan, the Βακχιάδαι (Bakkhiadai)
that meant that there were many powerful people in
Corinth who were not part of the establishment

83. CYPSELUS-SUCCESSFUL
TYRANT
657 BC-during an unpopular war with Argos and
Corcyra he used his military position to drive out the
Bacciadai
he expelled other opponents to his rule but allowed
them to set up colonies in northwestern Greece

84. CYPSELUS-SUCCESSFUL
TYRANT
657 BC-during an unpopular war with Argos and
Corcyra he used his military position to drive out the
Bacciadai
he expelled other opponents to his rule but allowed
them to set up colonies in northwestern Greece

85. CYPSELUS-SUCCESSFUL
TYRANT
657 BC-during an unpopular war with Argos and
Corcyra he used his military position to drive out the
Bacciadai
he expelled other opponents to his rule but allowed
them to set up colonies in northwestern Greece
commerce and colonization expanded during his 30
year rule

86. CYPSELUS-SUCCESSFUL
TYRANT
657 BC-during an unpopular war with Argos and
Corcyra he used his military position to drive out the
Bacciadai
he expelled other opponents to his rule but allowed
them to set up colonies in northwestern Greece
commerce and colonization expanded during his 30
year rule
527 BC-he was able to pass the power on to his son,
Periander

87. So Corinth is colonizing quite vigorously in the time of the Cypselid tyranny, mostly, out in the
west, that sort of empty territory from a Greek point of view, and so you will see Corinthian
colonies stretching out along the north shore of the Gulf of Corinth. It is less Greek, more
barbaric, than the south shore which is the Peloponnesus. Then if you sail west out of the Gulf
of Corinth and bear north and head up into the Ionian Sea and beyond that the Adriatic...
Corinthian colonies are right along in there and they suggest, and I think they're supported by
other archaeological evidence, that commerce was one of the things that was very important for
Cypselus. Corinth is booming during the years of the Cypselid tyrants. None of that is
surprising, all of this is very characteristic of this phase of Greek tyranny. In addition to that, we
know that Cypselus like just about all the tyrants used his power to do something that the Greek
governments normally did not do, that is, collect taxes from their people. You have to
understand that the idea of taxation being normal would have gotten a Greek foaming at the
mouth. When there is no tyranny, there's no taxes, no direct tax I should say. The normal form
of taxation that existed in the Greek world, when it was in its independent polis phase, is simply
customs duties on trade. But the hoplite farmer wasn't going to be taxed. Paying taxes is what
barbarian kings did to their people.
No surprise that Cypselus and his descendants, just like the other tyrants, were very wealthy.
Undoubtedly they seized wealth when they took power, then there was the wealth from the
tremendous income that would come from the taxation on the booming commerce. Immense
wealth is another image that goes with tyranny.
Kagan

88. So Corinth is colonizing quite vigorously in the time of the Cypselid tyranny, mostly, out in the
west, that sort of empty territory from a Greek point of view, and so you will see Corinthian
colonies stretching out along the north shore of the Gulf of Corinth. It is less Greek, more
barbaric, than the south shore which is the Peloponnesus. Then if you sail west out of the Gulf
of Corinth and bear north and head up into the Ionian Sea and beyond that the Adriatic...
Corinthian colonies are right along in there and they suggest, and I think they're supported by
other archaeological evidence, that commerce was one of the things that was very important for
Cypselus. Corinth is booming during the years of the Cypselid tyrants. None of that is
surprising, all of this is very characteristic of this phase of Greek tyranny. In addition to that, we
know that Cypselus like just about all the tyrants used his power to do something that the Greek
governments normally did not do, that is, collect taxes from their people. You have to
understand that the idea of taxation being normal would have gotten a Greek foaming at the
mouth. When there is no tyranny, there's no taxes, no direct tax I should say. The normal form
of taxation that existed in the Greek world, when it was in its independent polis phase, is simply
customs duties on trade. But the hoplite farmer wasn't going to be taxed. Paying taxes is what
barbarian kings did to their people.
No surprise that Cypselus and his descendants, just like the other tyrants, were very wealthy.
Undoubtedly they seized wealth when they took power, then there was the wealth from the
tremendous income that would come from the taxation on the booming commerce. Immense
wealth is another image that goes with tyranny.
Kagan

89. So Corinth is colonizing quite vigorously in the time of the Cypselid tyranny, mostly, out in the
west, that sort of empty territory from a Greek point of view, and so you will see Corinthian
colonies stretching out along the north shore of the Gulf of Corinth. It is less Greek, more
barbaric, than the south shore which is the Peloponnesus. Then if you sail west out of the Gulf
of Corinth and bear north and head up into the Ionian Sea and beyond that the Adriatic...
Corinthian colonies are right along in there and they suggest, and I think they're supported by
other archaeological evidence, that commerce was one of the things that was very important for
Cypselus. Corinth is booming during the years of the Cypselid tyrants. None of that is
surprising, all of this is very characteristic of this phase of Greek tyranny. In addition to that, we
know that Cypselus like just about all the tyrants used his power to do something that the Greek
governments normally did not do, that is, collect taxes from their people. You have to
understand that the idea of taxation being normal would have gotten a Greek foaming at the
mouth. When there is no tyranny, there's no taxes, no direct tax I should say. The normal form
of taxation that existed in the Greek world, when it was in its independent polis phase, is simply
customs duties on trade. But the hoplite farmer wasn't going to be taxed. Paying taxes is what
barbarian kings did to their people.
No surprise that Cypselus and his descendants, just like the other tyrants, were very wealthy.
Undoubtedly they seized wealth when they took power, then there was the wealth from the
tremendous income that would come from the taxation on the booming commerce. Immense
wealth is another image that goes with tyranny.
Kagan

90. Chapter 4. Herodotus's Story of Orthagoras at Sicyon [00:40:18]
If you go to Sicyon, another element comes into the picture. There, the founder of the
tyranny was a man called Orthagoras, and again, he was peripolarchos, leader of the
peripoloi (border police). His son, Cleisthenes of Sicyon will succeed him. [Just
remember this is Cleisthenes of Sicyon as opposed to Cleisthenes, the Athenian]
Orthagoras, a man of great ability, came to power by appealing to the racial
sentiments of the people, as soon as he was appointed General. He convinced them,
that they were of Achaean origin and had been governed unfairly by Dorians. The
result was the revolution that made him tyrant.
But once you're past this ethnic peculiarity, you find that these tyrants are pretty
much like all the other tyrants. They have great wealth. They are patrons of the arts.
They engage in conspicuous display, which is what tyrants do, and they are filled
with a tremendous ego and a terrific sense of their own importance, the kind of thing
that made Archilochus say, "I'm not going to try to vie with the gods the way these
tyrants do."
Kagan

91. Herodotus tells a tale about Orthagoras’ successor, Cleisthenes. He was an athlete. He won the Olympic
four-horse chariot race, a contest for the wealthiest Greek aristocrats. He invites all the best
aristocratic, richest, handsomest, most athletic men in all of Greece to come to Sicyon and spend a year,
at his expense, and treated royally all that time to compete for the hand of his daughter.
Herodotus reads off the names of all of these amazing young men who come to the competition, in the
style of Homer's catalog of the ships in book ii of the Iliad and they come. Well, after this year of trials,
two finalists are emerging. One is Hippocleides and the other is Megacles of Athens. [About whom,
much more later]
It seems Hippocleides has the edge. But he too much wine at the party celebrating the final stages, and
next he jumps on a table and he begins dancing wildly. I mean like beyond what is seen to be seemingly
dancing, we expect a young nobleman to be a good dancer, but this guy is doing stuff that nobody ever
heard of and this is making Cleisthenes a little nervous. I mean who is this guy? What's happening
here? Then he begins to dance on his hands, with his feet flipping around in the air, at which point
Herodotus tells us Cleisthenes speaks up and says, ‘Son of Tysander, you have danced your bride
away!”He lost and Megacles got to marry Agariste.
Well, what are we to make of that tale? I don't know, but this much I think is clear. Such a legend does
not come from nothing. The picture is first of all of a man who is fabulously wealthy. Think of the kind
of entertaining he is said to have done. Also, fabulously full of himself, just imagine saying ‘my daughter
will only marry the very best young man there is, and you will all have to go out there and compete for
her hand and I'll tell you who she's going to marry.’
Hubris.
Kagan, severely edited

92. Herodotus tells a tale about Orthagoras’ successor, Cleisthenes. He was an athlete. He won the Olympic
four-horse chariot race, a contest for the wealthiest Greek aristocrats. He invites all the best
aristocratic, richest, handsomest, most athletic men in all of Greece to come to Sicyon and spend a year,
at his expense, and treated royally all that time to compete for the hand of his daughter.
Herodotus reads off the names of all of these amazing young men who come to the competition, in the
style of Homer's catalog of the ships in book ii of the Iliad and they come. Well, after this year of trials,
two finalists are emerging. One is Hippocleides and the other is Megacles of Athens. [About whom,
much more later]
It seems Hippocleides has the edge. But he too much wine at the party celebrating the final stages, and
next he jumps on a table and he begins dancing wildly. I mean like beyond what is seen to be seemingly
dancing, we expect a young nobleman to be a good dancer, but this guy is doing stuff that nobody ever
heard of and this is making Cleisthenes a little nervous. I mean who is this guy? What's happening
here? Then he begins to dance on his hands, with his feet flipping around in the air, at which point
Herodotus tells us Cleisthenes speaks up and says, ‘Son of Tysander, you have danced your bride
away!”He lost and Megacles got to marry Agariste.
Well, what are we to make of that tale? I don't know, but this much I think is clear. Such a legend does
not come from nothing. The picture is first of all of a man who is fabulously wealthy. Think of the kind
of entertaining he is said to have done. Also, fabulously full of himself, just imagine saying ‘my daughter
will only marry the very best young man there is, and you will all have to go out there and compete for
her hand and I'll tell you who she's going to marry.’
Hubris.
Kagan, severely edited

93. Herodotus tells a tale about Orthagoras’ successor, Cleisthenes. He was an athlete. He won the Olympic
four-horse chariot race, a contest for the wealthiest Greek aristocrats. He invites all the best
aristocratic, richest, handsomest, most athletic men in all of Greece to come to Sicyon and spend a year,
at his expense, and treated royally all that time to compete for the hand of his daughter.
Herodotus reads off the names of all of these amazing young men who come to the competition, in the
style of Homer's catalog of the ships in book ii of the Iliad and they come. Well, after this year of trials,
two finalists are emerging. One is Hippocleides and the other is Megacles of Athens. [About whom,
much more later]
It seems Hippocleides has the edge. But he too much wine at the party celebrating the final stages, and
next he jumps on a table and he begins dancing wildly. I mean like beyond what is seen to be seemingly
dancing, we expect a young nobleman to be a good dancer, but this guy is doing stuff that nobody ever
heard of and this is making Cleisthenes a little nervous. I mean who is this guy? What's happening
here? Then he begins to dance on his hands, with his feet flipping around in the air, at which point
Herodotus tells us Cleisthenes speaks up and says, ‘Son of Tysander, you have danced your bride
away!”He lost and Megacles got to marry Agariste.
Well, what are we to make of that tale? I don't know, but this much I think is clear. Such a legend does
not come from nothing. The picture is first of all of a man who is fabulously wealthy. Think of the kind
of entertaining he is said to have done. Also, fabulously full of himself, just imagine saying ‘my daughter
will only marry the very best young man there is, and you will all have to go out there and compete for
her hand and I'll tell you who she's going to marry.’
Hubris.
Kagan, severely edited

94. Chapter 5. The Story of Gyges and Unconventional Power [00:50:25]
Summing up some points about tyrants: untraditional route to power is important.
Perhaps you remember the story of Gyges. Gyges was sort of the prime minister of
the King of Lydia. The king had this incredibly beautiful wife. He was terribly proud
of her, and so he said to Gyges, “You can't believe how gorgeous my wife is.”
Gyges says, of course she's wonderfully beautiful.
“You can't tell with her clothes on for God's sake,” the king says, “come on, come
with me.”
Gyges says, no, no, no please your majesty!”
“Come with me!”
So, there's Gyges hidden behind a curtain and here's the queen disrobing and indeed
she was as advertised. The king goes out, and Gyges tried to slip away, but the queen
spots him and, of course, she's totally disgraced. She's deeply embarrassed just to put
it very, very mildly, and so she says to him, unless you do what I tell you I will tell my
husband that you sneaked in and did this and he will kill you. But what I want you to
do is to kill him and marry me. That's how you can make it up. What could Gyges do?
So he did; that's how he became king. This is not your normal constitutional
procedure even in Lydia. So that's Gyges…
Kagan, in his best comic mode

95. Pheidon I've talked to you about already. Theagenes of Megara I haven't mentioned,
but he comes to power by force, with the use of the soldiers and same thing is true of
Cypselas…. They typically...introduce something new, mercenary soldiers.
It's one thing to seize the power with the help of the hoplites, but to hold onto it
you're going to need something more solid than that. First of all, hoplites don't stick
around in uniform; they go back and work their fields. So, they're not around to
suppress anything. Beyond that tyrants grow unpopular. This is one of the great
rules of politics in any system. The one question that's in the minds of all people…;
that is “What have you done for me lately?” Any benefit that people might have
achieved from the establishment of the tyranny gets to be taken for granted after
awhile. Then they ask why is this guy taking taxes from me? Why is he such a big
shot and I'm not? That's just going to be inevitable, and so if you're going to keep
your power and keep people down, you can't just rely on the citizen body and so
tyrants typically hire foreigners to serve as mercenaries for them.

96. "Candaules, King of Lydia, Shews his Wife by Stealth to Gyges, One of his Ministers, As She Goes to Bed" (1820), by William Etty

97. PLATO’S CYCLICAL
THEORY OF GOVERNMENT
Hesiod’s
Five Ages
GOLDEN
best aristocracy
worst

98. PLATO’S CYCLICAL
THEORY OF GOVERNMENT
Hesiod’s
Five Ages
GOLDEN
best aristocracy
SILVER
timocracy
worst

99. PLATO’S CYCLICAL
THEORY OF GOVERNMENT
Hesiod’s
Five Ages
GOLDEN
best
SILVER
timocracy
BRONZE
oligarchy
HEROIC
worst

100. PLATO’S CYCLICAL
THEORY OF GOVERNMENT
Hesiod’s
Five Ages
GOLDEN
best
SILVER
BRONZE
oligarchy
HEROIC
IRON
democracy
worst

101. PLATO’S CYCLICAL
THEORY OF GOVERNMENT
Hesiod’s
Five Ages
GOLDEN
best
SILVER
BRONZE
HEROIC
IRON
worst tyranny

102. PLATO’S CYCLICAL
THEORY OF GOVERNMENT
Hesiod’s
Five Ages
GOLDEN
best aristocracy
SILVER
BRONZE
HEROIC
IRON
worst

103. VII
ACCOMPLISHMENTS

104. VII
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
“Water nymphs...May your lovely feet tread on this watery house...while you fill it with a pure draught”--Greek
Anthology Painting by H.M. Herget

105. the diolkos built by Periander, tyrant of Corinth , (627-585 BC)

109. the diolkos built by Periander, tyrant of Corinth , (627-585 BC)

110. economic prosperity and diverse economies, because they support trade
and industry, sometimes even agriculture [Peisistratus in Athens]
many of the tyrants foster colonization
civic improvements in the principal city of the polis
aqueducts, water houses, fountains and sewers
development of the agora-a political, religious & commercial center

111. economic prosperity and diverse economies, because they support trade
and industry, sometimes even agriculture [Peisistratus in Athens]
many of the tyrants foster colonization
civic improvements in the principal city of the polis
aqueducts, water houses, fountains and sewers
development of the agora-a political, religious & commercial center

112. URBANIZATION-- OF A SORT
the tyrants, like modern strongmen, established courts, sought artists,
sculptors and architects to build great monuments, especially temples, all to
increase the prestige of their capital cities

113. URBANIZATION-- OF A SORT
the tyrants, like modern strongmen, established courts, sought artists,
sculptors and architects to build great monuments, especially temples, all to
increase the prestige of their capital cities

114. URBANIZATION-- OF A SORT
the tyrants, like modern strongmen, established courts, sought artists,
sculptors and architects to build great monuments, especially temples, all to
increase the prestige of their capital cities
just as now, this work and economic opportunity attracted new residents

115. URBANIZATION-- OF A SORT
the tyrants, like modern strongmen, established courts, sought artists,
sculptors and architects to build great monuments, especially temples, all to
increase the prestige of their capital cities
just as now, this work and economic opportunity attracted new residents
as the population of the central city of the polis increased, sanitation
required water and sewage works

116. Here we see the Athenian agora, a century after the tyrant Peisistratus
(pie•SIS•truh•tus) greatly expanded it. In the distance, looming over it, the
Parthenon, brightest jewel in the crown of Athens’ Golden Age. It was built
by the direction of Pericles (pair•UH•kleez-”surrounded with glory), who
was called a tyrant by his political enemies. But that’s two other stories...