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TYRANNUS.
6. A wooden cudgel for beating malefactors, and also a beating post to which they were tied when flogged ; hence the Greek verbs tv^tvclvi^iv and aiiVTVfjnravi&tv are formed. (Schol. ad Aristoph. Plut.476 ; St. Paul, Ep. to Hebrews, xi. 35 ; Pol lux, viii. 70.) [W. R.]
TYPUS (tvttos), which properly means a blow, and hence the effect of a blow, and specifically a mark or impress made by a blow, is applied in the arts to any die or mould, and to any figure formed by striking from a die, or by casting in a mould, or even by cutting, as a cameo or intaglio, and, more generally, to any figure whatever, as being the type or facsimile of the thing represented by it. (See the Lexicons.) By the typi which Cicero (ad Ait. i. 10) commissions Atticus to obtain for him to work into the plastering of his atrium, he probably means reliefs of any sort. The different specific meanings included in the word are more exactly expressed by certain compounds, such as avriTVTros, the copy or impress of a tvttos, a die or mould ; svtvttos and eyruTrwjua, a sunken pattern or intaglio ; zktvttos, a relief of any kind, especially a cameo, and, more specifically, a high-relief, as op posed to 7rp6crrviros, a low-relief.) Comp. fictile, p. 532, a ; forma. [P. S.]
TYRANNUS (rvpawos}. In the heroic age all the governments in Greece were monarchical, the king uniting in himself the functions of the priest, the judge, and military chief. These were the irarpiKal jSamAeTcu of Thucydides. (i. 13.) In the first two or three centuries following the Trojan war various causes were at work, which led to the abolition, or at least to the limitation, of the kingly power. Emigrations, extinctions of families, disasters in war, civil dissensions, may be reckoned among these causes. Hereditary monarchies became elective ; the different functions of the king-were distributed ; he was called &px&v, n6(T/n.os, or wpvravis, instead of fiaffiXevs, and his character was changed no less than his name. Noble and wealthy families began to be considered on a footing of equality with royalty ; and thus in process of time sprang up oligarchies or aristocracies, which most of the governments that succeeded the ancient monarchies were in point of fact, though not as yet called by such names. These oligarchies did not possess the elements of social happiness or stability. The principal families contended with each other for the greatest shave of power, and were only unanimous in disregarding the rights of those whose station was beneath their own. The people, oppressed by the privileged classes, began to regret the loss of their old paternal form of government; and were ready to assist any one who would attempt to restore it. Thus were opportunities afforded to ambitious and designing men to raise themselves, by starting up as the champions of popular right. Discontented nobles were soon found to prosecute schemes of this sort, and they had a greater chance of success, if descended from .the ancient royal family. Peisistratus is an example ; he was the more acceptable to the people of Athens, as being a descendant of the family of Codrus. (Herod, v. 65.) Thus in many cities arose that species of monarchy which the Greeks called rvpavvis^ which meant only a despotism,, or irresponsible dominion of one man ; and which .frequently was nothing more than a revival of the ancient government, and, though . unaccompanied with any recognized hereditary title, or the reve-
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rence attached to old name and long prescription, was hailed by the lower orders of people as a good exchange, after suffering under the domination of the oligarchy. All tyrannies, however, were not so acceptable to the majority ; and sometimes we find the nobles concurring in the elevation of a despot, to further their own interests. Thus the Syracusan Gamori, who had been expelled by the populace, on receiving the protection of Gelon, sovereign of Gela and Camarina, enabled him to take possession of Syracuse, and establish his kingdom there. (Herod, vii. 154, 155.) Sometimes the conflicting parties in the state, by mutual consent, chose some eminent man, in whom they had confidence, to reconcile their dissensions ; investing him with a sort of dictatorial power for that purpose, either for a limited period or otherwise. Such a person they called alffv^vrir^s. [aesym-netes.]
A similar authority was conferred upon Solon, when Athens was torn by the contending factions of the AiaKpioi, IleStaToi, and Hdpaoi9 and he was requested to act as mediator between them* Solon was descended from Codrus, and some of his friends wished him to assume the sovereignty ; this he refused to do, but, taking the constitutional title of Archon, framed his celebrated form of polity and code of laws. (Herod, i. 29 ; Plut. Solon. c. 13, &c.; Schomann, Antiq. Jur. pull. Gr. p. 173.) The legislative powers conferred upon Draco, Zaleucus, and Charondas, were of a similar kind, investing them with a temporary dictatorship.
The Tupavvos must be distinguished, on the one hand, from the alffv/j.^rrjs, inasmuch as he was not elected by general consent, but commonly owed his elevation to some coup dieted,, some violent movement or stratagem, such as the creation of a body-guard for him by the people, or the seizure of the citadel (Herod, i. 59 ; Thucyd. i. 126) ; and on the other hand, from the ancient king? whose right depended, not on usurpation, but on inheritance and traditionary acknowledgment. The power of a king might be more absolute than that of a tyrant; as Pheidon of Argos is said to have made the royal prerogative greater than it was under his predecessors ; yet he was still regarded as a king ; for the difference between the two names depended on title and origin, and not on the manner in which the power was exercised, (Aristot. Polit. v. 8.) The name of tyrant was originally so far from denoting a person who abused his power, or treated his subjects with cruelty, that Peisistratus is praised by Thucydides (vi. 54) for the moderation of his government; and Herodotus says, he governed ovtg rifjLas ras eovvas arvvrapd^as, otfre befffjua jUeraAAa^as, eVi re ro?cri icaT6ffT€a>cri eve/ne t^v ir6tv KOff^tav KaX&s re Kal eu. (i. 59.) Therefore we find the words pavtXevs and rvpavvos used promiscuously by the Attic tragedians passim (see the Argument of the Oedipus Tyrannus) ; and even by prose authors. Thus Herodotus calls the Lydian Candaules ri>-po.vvos (i. 7), the kingdom of Macedonia Tvpavvis (viii. 137), and Periander of Corinth /SacnAefo. (iii. 52 ; compare v. 27, 92.) Afterwards, when tyrants themselves had become odious, the name also grew to be a word of reproach, just as rex did among the Romans. (Wachsmuth, Hellen. Alt. vol. i. pt. i. pp. 279—288,1st ed. ; Thirl wall, Hist. of Greece, vol. i. pp. 401, 404.)
