Tyranny

And the easiest way of all to understand this matter will be to turn to the most consummate form of injustice which makes the man who has done the wrong most happy and those who are wronged and who would not themselves willingly do wrong most miserable.

and then the noble tyranny surpassing them all, the fourth and final malady of a state.

Must we not, then, next after this, survey the inferior types, the man who is contentious and covetous of honor, corresponding to the Laconian constitution, and the oligarchical man in turn, and the democratic and the tyrant, in order that, after observing the most unjust of all, we may oppose him to the most just, and complete our inquiry as to the relation of pure justice and pure injustice in r …

Of these the one was called the royal peak, sacred to Zeus the King, and the other the tyrannic, named after Typhon.

And so, wherever he saw tyranny and a tyrant, he chastised and made away with them, among Greeks and barbarians alike;

but the royal summit so far overtops the other that it stands above the clouds, in the very pure and clear air, while the other is far below, just about the gathering of the clouds, dark and shrouded in mist.

If you had such experience of that thing as we have, you would be more prudent advisers concerning it than you are now.

Evidence for this is the fact that while they were under tyrannical rulers, the Athenians were no better in war than any of their neighbors, yet once they got rid of their tyrants, they were by far the best of all.

“In truth heaven will be beneath the earth and the earth aloft above the heaven, and men will dwell in the sea and fishes where men dwelt before, now that you, Lacedaemonians, are destroying the rule of equals and making ready to bring back tyranny into the cities, tyranny, a thing more unrighteous and bloodthirsty than anything else on this earth.

Now when Greece was becoming more powerful, and acquiring possession of money still more than before, tyrannies, generally speaking, were established in the cities, from the revenues becoming greater;

But after the tyrants of the Athenians and those in the rest of Greece, (which even at an earlier period was for a long time subject to tyrants,) the most and last, excepting those in Sicily, had been deposed by the Lacedaemonians;

As for the tyrants, such as there were in the Grecian cities, since they provided only for what concerned themselves, with a view to the safety of their own persons, and the aggrandizement of their own family, they governed their cities with caution, as far as they possibly could;

Furthermore, he treacherously put to death some of his fellow-officials and banished others, so that he brought everything under his control and was manifestly a tyrant.

Once again, was he not beyond question a tyrant, when he made slaves not only free men but even citizens, and put to death and banished and robbed of property, not the people who were guilty of wrong-doing, but those whom it suited him to treat thus?

but when he provided himself with money instead, and came with the purpose of corrupting you by means of this money and persuading you to make him lord of the city again, how can I justly be put to death by you for inflicting upon the man his due punishment?

There are, as you know, fellow-citizens, three forms of government in the world tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy.

Those were dark days for Athens when the tyrants ruled her and the democrats were in exile.

And all the Athenians shall take oath by tribes and by demes over a sacrifice without blemish to slay such an one.

And all oaths sworn at Athens or in the army or elsewhere for the overthrow of the Athenian democracy I annul and abolish.

there is little or no friendship between ruler and subjects in a tyranny.

Hence even in tyrannies there is but little scope for friendship and justice between ruler and subjects;

When a change of constitution takes place, Kingship passes into Tyranny, because Tyranny is the bad form of monarchy, so that a bad king becomes a tyrant.

Who can defend himself from calumny, armed with that impenetrable shield of tyranny, secrecy?

The uncertainty of crimes hath sacrificed more victims to secret tyranny, than have ever suffered by public and solemn cruelty.

But what a strange constitution is that, where the government, which hath in its favour not only power but opinion, still more efficacious, yet fears its own subjects?

And so from this greatest liberty a tyrant is begotten, and that most unjust and harshest servitude.

so that needs must in such a commonwealth all things be full of liberty—that every private house too is empty of any mastery, and this evil reaches even to the beasts;

'When,' he says, 'the insatiable throat of the people has grown parched with the thirst of liberty, and, using ill ministers, has drunk in its thirst a liberty not moderately tempered but too unmixed, then it pursues the magistrates and leaders, unless they be very mild and lax and supply liberty to it abundantly;

For not the receipt of a flatterer’s pay with its taint of shame, but to be honored, where speech is free, as one who is deemed worthy—that is true glory;

Therefore his contemporaries not only granted him immunity, but also set up his statue in bronze—the first man so honored since Harmodius and Aristogiton.

For in the material value to the recipients of the rewards bestowed, a tyranny or an oligarchy has an immense advantage in that they can make anyone they choose instantaneously rich;

So if we carry out the agreement, we shall treat the restorer of the tyrants as an enemy.

But these champions of tyranny might urge that the sons of Philiades were tyrants of Messene before the compact was made, and that that was why Alexander restored them.

Therefore when Alexander, contrary to the oaths and the compacts as set forth in the general peace, restored those tyrants, the sons of Philiades, to Messene, had he any regard for justice?

For truly such close communications with tyranny corrupt good constitutions.

Then do you not see that Philip’s very titles are utterly irreconcilable with that?

But there is one common bulwark which the instinct of sensible men possesses within itself, a good and safe one for all, but invaluable for democracies against tyrants.

Does he not send mercenaries, some to Porthmus to expel the Eretrian democracy, others to Oreus to set up the tyranny of Philistides?

and the noble Euphraeus slew himself, giving thus a practical proof of the honesty and disinterested patriotism of his opposition to Philip.

For of course Philip, whom they fancied their ally, sent Hipponicus with a thousand mercenaries, razed the walls of Porthmus, and set up three tyrants, Hipparchus, Automedon, and Clitarchus.

for the city, whence I come, is ruled by one man only, not by the mob;

Again, where the people are absolute rulers of the land, they rejoice in having a reserve of youthful citizens, while a king counts this a hostile element, and strives to slay the leading men, all such as he deems discreet, for he feareth for his power.

and yet convey no idea of tyranny, a word which in its original signification, implied nothing of arbitrary power or injustice, but only the governments or authority of a Prince.

Why, you are well aware that he has chosen to be the slave of tyrants and is ready on the other hand to give the people orders.

in a free city furthering the interests of tyrants towards slavery was responsible for actions which did credit to the city and to Greece.

You have concluded that one person will be immortal, yet you sentenced to death a city as old as ours, never realizing the simple fact that no tyrant has yet risen from the dead, while many cities, though utterly destroyed, have come again to power.

and, after I have shown that it is to the advantage of Athens to end the war, I decry our dominion over the Hellenes and our sea-power, showing that it is no whit different, either in its conduct or in its results, from tyranny.

and restraints imposed, not for the end of this social protection, constitute tyranny.

and having stated that they appertained to the states, he suggests the tyrannical effect of high duties, in making one state tributary to another.

The natural rights of labour, in subjecting themselves to contributions for the support of civil government, never meant to acknowledge themselves to be the slaves of a despotick power.

The will, or the pretended will, of the majority, is the last lurking place of tyranny at the present day.

Unjust power,—or rather power that is grossly unjust, and that is known to be so by the minority,—can be sustained only at the expense of standing armies, and all the other machinery of force;

Monarchy, then, when bound by good written rules, which we call laws, is the best of all the six;

People nowadays are likely to take into consideration enforced subjection and voluntary obedience, poverty and wealth, law and lawlessness as they occur in governments, and so they divide two of the forms we mentioned, giving to the two aspects of monarchy the two names tyranny and royalty.

But when a single ruler acts in accordance with neither laws nor customs, but claims, in imitation of the scientific ruler, that whatever is best must be done, even though it be contrary to the written laws, and this imitation is inspired by desire and ignorance, is not such a ruler to be called in every instance a tyrant?

whereupon the proceedings and judgment of this Court were prayed against him, as a tyrant, traitor, and murderer, and public enemy to the Commonwealth, as by the said charge more fully appeareth.

For all which treasons and crimes this Court doth adjudge that he, the said Charles Stuart, as a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public enemy to the good people of this nation, shall be put to death by the severing of his head from his body.

yet, nevertheless, out of a wicked design to erect and uphold in himself an unlimited and tyrannical power to rule according to his will, and to overthrow the rights and liberties of the people, yea, to take away and make void the foundations thereof, and of all redress and remedy of misgovernment, which by the fundamental constitutions of this kingdom were reserved on the people’s behalf in the r …

Haemon:

That is no city, which belongs to one man.

Does not the city by tradition belong to the man in power?

But your father, at least, said Cyrus, is more shrewd at teaching people to have less than to have more, mother.

Mind, therefore, that you be not flogged within an inch of your life, when you come home, if you return with a knowledge acquired from your grandfather here of the principles not of kingship but of tyranny, one principle of which is that it is right for one to have more than all.