I. Corinth

The tyranny at Corinth ( or Korinth), located on top of the southern half of Greece just west of the isthmus, was one of the first tyrannies in ancient Greece. Corinth was ruled by an aristocratic family called the Bacchiadae (Bakiaday). A man named Cypselus ( or Kipselus) took power from the Bacchiadae around 650 BC and became the tyrant of Corinth.

According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Cypselus' mother Labda was actually part of the Bacchiad family. The Bacchiads only married inside their clan (large family group). Nobody in the family would marry Labda because she had a lame leg. So she married an outsider, named Aëton (Ah-ayton).

Labda and Aëton had a son. Certain oracles said that their son would have a lot of power. The Bacchiadae wanted to kill Labda's son because they were scared of what the oracle said. It is said that the baby was hidden from his relatives in a chest and so survived. The Greek word for chest is kypsele, which might explain why the baby was named Cypselus.

Cypselus grew up and took over Corinth around 658 BC. When he became tyrant, he took some people's land away, exiled others, and even killed some people. His rule was for the most part peaceful, however, and the people liked him. He ruled for about thirty years. His son Periander took over after he died, around 628 BC. Periander is the man who began to give tyrannies a bad name.

Periander started by being a more peaceful leader than his father, but he ended up by being very cruel. According to one story, he asked the tyrant Thrasybulus of Miletus what the best way to keep his power was. Thrasybulus cut off all the highest ears of grain in a field. Periander understood what he meant and killed or exiled all the citizens who might stand against him. He also killed his wife Melissa. His rule ended around 548 BC. An aristocratic council took over from there.

Aristotle wrote about Periander in the 320's BC, about a century after Herodotus wrote in the 450's BC. Aristotle showed Periander as being a terrible leader, maybe even worse than he actually was. This was probably because at the time Aristotle lived people were more likely to hate all tyrants. They couldn't believe that anyone who took power by force could be a good ruler. Do you think that is true?
Also, Aristotle was an aristocrat, and aristocrats didn't like tyrants because the tyrants took power away from them. Poor people may not have felt the same way.