The Chinese have mixed feelings about him. He built the Great Wall and was buried with the terra-cotta soldiers. He united seven separate kingdoms into a single nation. “Ch’in Shih-huang is the first emperor of China. Accounting for deaths in war is problematic – war can build empires or defend the populace – it also keeps winning tyrants in power. Comparative criteria may include checklists or body counts. Those who list or rank tyrants can provide definitions and criteria for comparison or acknowledge subjectivity. Authoritarian rule might be beneficial (like with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk of Turkey or of limited lasting harm to the country (like with Francisco Franco of Spain). “Where Law ends Tyranny begins.” Locke in Two Treatises of Governmentīad results are relative.

“The sovereign is called a tyrant who knows no laws but his caprice.” Voltaire in a Philosophical Dictionary.

Both make lawlessness – either a violation of existing laws or government by personal fiat without settled laws – a mark of tyranny.” Įnlightenment philosophers seemed to define tyranny by its associated characteristics. Both say that monarchy, or rule by a single man, is royal when it is for the welfare of the ruled and tyrannical when it serves only the interest of the ruler. “Both Plato and Aristotle speak of the king as a good monarch and the tyrant as a bad one. The Greek philosophers stressed the quality of rule rather than legitimacy or absolutism.

“By justice a king gives stability to the land, but one who makes heavy extractions ruins it.” Proverbs 29:4.

A ruler who lacks understanding is a cruel oppressor but one who hates unjust gain will enjoy a long life.” Proverbs 28:15–16

“Like a roaring lion or a charging bear is a wicked ruler over a poor people.

Biblical quotations do not use the word tyrant, but express opinions very similar to those of the Greek philosophers, citing the wickedness, cruelty and injustice of rulers. Old words are defined by their historical usage. The Greeks defined both usurpers and those inheriting rule from usurpers as tyrants. Oppression, injustice and cruelty do not have standardized measurements or thresholds. The term is usually applied to vicious autocrats who rule their subjects by brutal methods.

“The word ‘tyranny’ is used with many meanings, not only by the Greeks, but throughout the tradition of the great books.” The Oxford English Dictionary offers alternative definitions: a ruler, an illegitimate ruler (a usurper), an absolute ruler (despot) or an oppressive, unjust or cruel ruler. The final -t arises in Old French by association with the present participles in -ant. The word derives from Latin tyrannus, meaning “illegitimate ruler”, and this in turn from the Greek τύραννος tyrannos “monarch, ruler of a polis” tyrannos in its turn has a Pre-Greek origin, perhaps from Lydian. The English noun tyrant appears in Middle English use, via Old French, from the 1290s. Harmodius and Aristogeiton murdering Hipparchus, the brother of Hippias, tyrant of Athens. to government by a majority (in a democracy, tyranny of the majority).to government by a minority (in an oligarchy, tyranny of the minority).to government by one individual (in an autocracy).One can apply accusations of tyranny to a variety of types of government: In the late fifth and fourth centuries BC, a new kind of tyrant, one who had the support of the military, arose – specifically in Sicily. The Encyclopédie defined the term as a usurper of sovereign power who makes “his subjects the victims of his passions and unjust desires, which he substitutes for laws”. The philosophers Plato and Aristotle defined a tyrant as a person who rules without law, using extreme and cruel methods against both his own people and others. However, Greek philosopher Plato saw tyrannos as a negative word, and on account of the decisive influence of philosophy on politics, its negative connotations only increased, continuing into the Hellenistic period. 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 oppressive means. In the modern English-language’s usage of the word, a tyrant (derived from Ancient Greek τύραννος, tyrannos) is an absolute ruler who is unrestrained by law, or one who has usurped a legitimate ruler’s sovereignty. The classics contain many references to tyranny and its causes, effects, methods, practitioners, alternatives. Peisistratus, copper engraving, 1832 / Wikimedia Commons

Legacy racial tyranny