Transcriber’s note:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (italics).
Superscripts are denoted by a caret before a single superscripted character or a series of superscripted characters enclosed in curly braces, e.g. M^r. or M^{ister}.
Footnotes have been re-indexed using numbers and collected together at the end of the last chapter.
THE ORIGIN OF TYRANNY
Cambridge University Press C. F. Clay, Manager London: Fetter Lane, E.C. 4
New York: The Macmillan Co.
Bombay } Calcutta } Macmillan and Co., Ltd. Madras }
Toronto: The Macmillan Co. of Canada, Ltd.
Tokyo: Maruzen-Kabushiki-Kaisha
All Rights Reserved
THE ORIGIN OF TYRANNY
by
P. N. URE, M.A. Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Professor of Classics, University College, Reading
Cambridge At the University Press 1922
Printed in Great Britain.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PREFACE
The views expressed in the following chapters were first published in the Journal of Hellenic Studies for 1906 in a short paper which gave a few pages each to Samos and Athens and a few sentences each to Lydia, Miletus, Ephesus, Argos, Corinth, and Megara. The chapters on Argos, Corinth, and Rome are based on papers read to the Oxford Philological Society in 1913 and to the Bristol branch of the Classical Association in 1914.
As regards the presentation of my material here, it has been my endeavour to make the argument intelligible to readers who are not classical scholars and archaeologists. The classics have ceased to be a water-tight compartment in the general scheme of study and research, and my subject forms a chapter in general economic history which might interest students of that subject who are not classical scholars. On the other hand classical studies have become so specialised and the literature in each department has multiplied so enormously that unless monographs can be made more or less complete in themselves and capable of being read without referring to a large number of large and inaccessible books, it will become impossible for classical scholars to follow the work that is being done even in their own subject beyond the limits of their own particular branch. For these reasons ancient authorities have been mainly given in literal English translations, and when, as happens in almost every chapter, information has to be sought from vases, coins, or inscriptions, I have tried to elucidate my point by means of explanatory descriptions and illustrations.
The work has involved me in numerous obligations which I gladly take this opportunity of acknowledging. In 1907 I received grants from the Worts travelling bachelors’ fund of Cambridge University and from Gonville and Caius College to visit Greece for the purpose of collecting archaeological evidence upon the history of the early tyranny. This purpose was partially diverted because shortly after reaching Greece I became associated with the late Dr R. M. Burrows in the excavation of the Greek cemetery at Rhitsona in Boeotia and in the study and publication of the pottery found there. This pottery dates mainly from the age of the tyrants, and the results of my work at it appear in several of the succeeding chapters. To Dr Burrows I owe also the encouragement that led me to start working on the early tyranny: my main idea on the subject first occurred to me when I was lecturing on Greek history as his assistant at University College, Cardiff.
I have also received much assistance at various times and in various ways from Professor G. A. T. Davies, another former colleague of mine at Cardiff, and from several of my Reading colleagues, particularly Professor W. G. de Burgh, Mr D. Atkinson, and my wife. Many other debts are recorded in the body of the book: but considering how many and various they have been, I can scarcely hope that none has been passed over without acknowledgement.
But of all my obligations the earliest and chiefest is to Sir William Ridgeway. It is to the unique quality of his teaching at Cambridge that I owe the stimulus that suggested to me the explanation here offered of the origin of tyranny.
P. N. URE.
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, READING. October 1920.
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE I INTRODUCTION 1
II ATHENS 33
III SAMOS 68
IV EGYPT 86
V LYDIA 127
VI ARGOS 154
VII CORINTH 184
VIII ROME 215
IX SICYON, MEGARA, MILETUS, EPHESUS, LEONTINI, AGRIGENTUM, CUMAE 257
X CAPITALIST DESPOTS OF THE AGE OF ARISTOTLE, THE MONEY POWER OF THE RULERS OF PERGAMUM, PROTOGENES OF OLBIA 280
XI CONCLUSION 290
APPENDICES 307
INDEX 339
ILLUSTRATIONS
FIG. PAGE 1 Lophos Loutrou from Daskalio station 42
2 On the road from Daskalio station to Plaka 42
3 Kamaresa 43
4 Kitsovouno from Kamaresa 43 (Figs. 1–4 from photographs by the author)
5 Corinthian terra cotta tablet depicting a miner at work 46 (Antike Denkmäler, I)
6 Coin of Athens with Athena and owl 53 (Macdonald, Evolution of Coinage)
7 Athenian coins: the wreath on the head of Athena 56 (Bulletin de Correspondance hellénique, XXX)
8 Persian “archer” 57
9 Samian coin with Samaina and Messanian coin with hare 75 (Hill, Historical Greek Coins)
10 Aiakes, father of Polycrates 82 (Athenische Mitteilungen, 1906)
11 Psamtek I 86 (Petrie, Hist. Egypt, III)
12 Vase with cartouche of Bocchoris found at Tarquinii 94 (Monumenti Antichi della R. Acc. dei Lincei, VIII)
13 Rhodian or (?) Milesian vase found at Naukratis 111 (Gardner, Naukratis II. By permission of the Egypt Exploration Fund)
14 Fikellura or (?) Samian vase found at Daphnae 113 (Petrie, Tanis II. By permission of the Egypt Exploration Fund)
15 Naukratite vase found at Rhitsona in Boeotia 115 (Journ. Hellenic Studies, 1909)
16 Perfume vase found at Naukratis 119 (Gardner, Naukratis II. By permission of the Egypt Exploration Fund)
17 Greek wine jar found at Naukratis 120 (Petrie, Naukratis I. By permission of the Egypt Exploration Fund)
18 Corinthian vase with cartouche of Apries 124 (Gazette Archéologique, 1880)
19 Coins of (a) Gyges (?), (b) Croesus 127 (Macdonald, Evolution of Coinage)
20 Early Aeginetan “tortoises” 154 (Babelon, Traité des Monnaies Gr. et Rom.)
21 Bundle of spits found in the Argive Heraeum 163
22 Corinthian vase found at Corinth 185 (From a photograph supplied by Miss Walker of the American School of Archaeology at Athens)
23 Corinthian terra cotta tablet depicting a potter at his wheel 186 (Gazette Archéologique, 1880)
24 Corinthian terra cotta tablet depicting the interior of a kiln 186 (Antike Denkmäler, I)
25 Coins of Corinth 188 (Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Corinth)
26 Coins of Cypsela 200 (Abhandl. Bayerische Akad. Phil. Class. 1890)
27, Attic vase paintings, perhaps depicting cypselae 28 202 (Saglio, Dict. d. Antiq. figs. 2964, 2965)
29 Attic vase painting, perhaps depicting a cypsele 203 (Saglio, Dict. d. Antiq. fig. 937)
30 Vase on stove found at Iasos 205 (Jahrb. d. arch. Inst. 1897)
31 Relief, perhaps depicting a small cypsele 206 (Revue Archéologique, 1869)
32 Aes signatum 220 (Haeberlin, Aes Grave)
33 Aes grave with wheel 232 (Hill, Historical Roman Coins)
34 Corinthian vase found at Tarquinii 241
35 Corinthian terra cotta tablet depicting the export of vases 242 (Antike Denkmäler, I)
36 Proto-Corinthian vase found in the Roman Forum 249 (Notiz. d. Scavi della R. Acc. dei Lincei, 1903)
37 Ionic terra cotta antefix found in Rome 250 (Monumenti Antichi della R. Acc. dei Lincei, XV)