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The Top Benevolent and Malevolent Dictators From History

Khalid Elhassan November 30, 2020 32 min

Augustus - Ancient Rome — 'The Emperor Augustus Rebukes Cornelius Cinna for His Treachery', by Etienne Jean Delecluze, 1814 - Augustus pardoned Cinna and gave him a government job. Van Go Yourself

22. A Good Tyrant Removed the Obstacle of Aristocratic Power From the Path of Democracy, and a Bad Tyrant Triggered a Democratic Revolution

One of the exiles chased out of Athens by Hippias was Cleisthenes (flourished late 6^th Century, BC). He began plotting with other exiles to overthrow the city’s tyrant. Invasion was considered, but Hippias had a well-equipped army, while the exiles did not, and lacked the funds for an army of their own. So they sought to enlist the help of Sparta, which had the Greek world’s best army, to liberate Athens.

To get help from the Spartans, who were known for their piety, the exiles bribed the priests of Delphi, the Greek world’s most important religious site and home of the Oracle of Delphi. For centuries, the Oracle had given petitioners cryptic answers that could be interpreted in a variety of ways. Soon as Cleisthenes bribed the priests, the Oracle suddenly began giving every Spartan petitioner who showed up the same straightforward and decidedly not cryptic answer: “Liberate Athens!“. So the Spartans marched into Attica in 508 BC, chased out Hippias and liberated Athens, then marched back home. The victors then began the messy process of creating democracy.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.