Note 1470 — Chapter XI · Conclusion

The term has of course at different periods been applied to governments that differed widely from one another both in the character and in the basis of their power. There is no reason for classing Cypselus and Dionysius together as the same kind of ruler, as Holm (Gk. Hist. I. p. 266, n. 15), followed by Bury (Gk. Hist.2 p. 147; cp. Francotte, Mélanges, pp. 62 f.), has gone out of his way to do. Holm’s points have already been met: they are (1) For Phalaris, Peisistratus and Polycrates brute force was as indispensable as for later tyrants like Dionysius and Agathocles. (2) These latter owed their rise as much as earlier tyrants to the hatred that the lower classes bore the nobles. (3) Herodotus does not distinguish king from tyrant. Bury’s dogmatism on this point and his denial of the existence of an “age of tyrants” is responsible for the inception of this book.