Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

-TYRANNUS. TY RANNUS. 1181
6. A wooden cudgel for beating malefactors, and rence attached to old name and long prescription,
also a beating post to which they were tied when was hailed by the lower orders of people as a good
flogged; hence the Greek verbs TruuzravigElv and exchange, after suffering under the domination of
&awn7or'Travi'iElv are formed. (Schol. ad Aristoph. the oligarchy. All tyrannies, however, were not
Plut. 476; St. Paul, E.p. to Hebrews, xi. 35; Pol- so acceptable to the majority; and sometimes we
lux, viii. 70.) [W. R.] find the nobles concurring in the elevation of a
TYPUS (Trhros), which properly means a blow, despot, to further their own interests. Thus the
and hence the effect of a blow, and specifically a Syracusan Gamooi, who had been expelled by the
mark or impress made by a blow, is applied in the populace, on receiving the protection of Gelon,
arts to any die or mould, and to any figure formed sovereign of Gela and Camarina, enabled him to
by striking from a die, or by casting in a mould, take possession of Syracuse, and establish his kingor even by cutting, as a cameo or intaglio, and, dom there. (Herod. vii. 154, 155.) Sometimes
more generally, to any figuire whatever, as being the conflicting parties in the state, by mutual conthe type orfacsimile of the thing represented by it. sent, chose some eminent man, in whom they had
(See the Lexicons.) By the typi which Cicero confidence, to reconcile their dissensions; investing
(ad Att. i. 10) commissions Atticus to obtain for him with a sort of dictatorial power for that purhim to work into the plastering of his atrimZni, he pose, either for a limited period or otherwise.
probably means reliefs of any sort. The different Such a person they called aiovuxt7'rTs. [AESYMspecific meanings included in the word are more NET ES.]
exactly expressed by certain compounmds, such as A similar authority was conferred upon Solon,
a&rirTv7ros, the copy or imjpress of a rV7ros, a die or when Athens was torn by the contending factions
nzould; Ei'Trvos and E'vrTrowea, a sunken pattern or of the AidiKpLo, nes&a7oi, and IdapaXoi, and he
intaglio; Etc'rvros, a relief of any kind, especially a was requested to act as mediator between them.
cameo, and, more specifically, a 7iglh-reliief, as op- Solon was descended from Codrus, and some of
posed to 7rpo'rv7ros, a low-relief.) Comp. FICTILE, his friends wished him to assume the sovereignty;
p. 532, a; FORMA. [P. S.] this he refused to do, but, taking the constituTYRANNUS (vTrpavvos). In the heroic age tional title of Archon, framed his celebrated form
all the governments in Greece were monarchical, of polity and code of laws. (Herod. i. 29; Plut.
the king uniting in himself the functions of the Solon. c. 13, &c.; Schbmann, Antiq. Jeur. p2ul. GCr.
priest, the judge, and military chief. These were p. 173.) The legislative powers conferred upon
the?raTrpLcal 6aoslesat of Thucydides. (i. 13.) In Draco, Zaleucus, and Charondas, were of a similar
the first two or three centuries following the Trojan kind, investing them'with a temporary dictatorwar various causes were at work, which led to the ship.
abolition, or at least to the limitation, of the kingly The T'rpaiveos must be distinguished, on the one
power. Emigrations, extinctions of families, disas- hand, from the aievov'ltrq s, inasmuch as he was
ters in war, civil dissensions, may be reckoned not electedby general consent, but commonly owed
among these causes. Hereditary monarchies be- his elevation to some coup d'etat, some violent
came elective; the different functions of the king movement or stratagem, such as the creation of a
were distributed; he was called 6pxwv, ticyduos, body-guard for him by the people, or the seizure
or 7rpvTavis, instead of BariXe's, and his character of the citadel (Herod. i. 59; Thucyd. i. 126)
was changed no less than his name. Noble and and on the other hand, from the ancient king,
wealthy families began to be considered on a foot- whose right depended, not on usurpation, but on
ing of equality with royalty; and thus in process inheritance and traditionary acknowledgment. The
of time sprang up oligarchies or aristocracies, which power of a king might be more absolute than that
most of the governments that succeeded the ancient of a tyrant; as Pheidon of Argos is said to have
monarchies were in point of fact, though not as made the royal prerogative greater than it was
yet called by such names. These oligarchies did under his predecessors; yet lie was still regarded
not possess the elements of social happiness or sta- as a king; for the difference between the two
bility. The principal families contended with each names depended on title and origin, and not on
other for the greatest sharle of power, and were the manner in which the power was exercised.
only unanimous in disregarding the rights of those (Aristot. Polit. v. 8.) The name of tyrant was
whose station was beneath their own. The people, originally so far from denoting a person who abused
oppressed by the privileged classes, began to regret his power, or treated his subjects with cruelty,
the loss of their old paternal form of government; that Peisistratus is praised by Thucydides (vi. 54)
and were ready to assist any one who would at- for the moderation of his government; and Hetempt to restore it. Thus were opportunities af- rodotus says, he governed oUre'-T7CqS Tas sconas
forded to ambitious and designing men to raise ovm'rap8das, oise eio-UlIa ieTraXAdtas, E7rL Tre Tro
themselves, by starting up as the champions:of tca'EU'reCero ES'exe'srV rdA7iv icosluev icaxAs Tre
popular right. Discontented nobles were soon Kal es. (i. 59.) Therefore we find the words
found to prosecute schemes of this sort, and they aoiXaevs and'rSpavvos used promiscuously by the
had a greater chance of success, if descended from Attic tragediails passizi (see the Argument of the.the ancient royal family. Peisistratus is an ex- Oedipus Tyramnnus); and even by prose authors.
ample; he was the more acceptable to the people Thus Herodotus calls the Lydian Candaules TS-o.of Athens, as being a descendant of the family of pavvos (i. 7), the kingdom of Macedonia rvpavvip
Codrus. (Herod. v. 65.) Thus in many cities (viii. 137), and Periander of Corinth a~o-Aesr.
arose that species of monarchy which the Greeks (iii. 52; compare v. 27, 92.) - Afterwards, when
called rvupavvis, which meant only a despotisms, or tlyrants themselves had become odious, the name
irresponsible dominion of one manll; and which also grew to be a word of reproach, just as rex
frequently was nothing more than a revival of the did among the Romans. (Wachsmuth, Hellen. Alt.
ancient government, and, though unaccompanied vol. i. pt. i. pp. 279-288, I1st ed.; Thirlwall, iest.
with any recognized hereditary title, or the reve- of Greece, vol. i. pp. 401, 404.)