poleis in the period immediately following the Dark Age was in the hands of a local aristocracy
consisting of a small number of influential landowning families. The members of these families were
generally thought to be, and certainly thought of themselves as, “the best” people in their respective
poleis, and they were regularly referred to by the Greek word that means “the best,” ARISTOI. The
English word “aristocracy” comes from the Greek word that means “rule by the aristoi.”
ARISTOI Literally “the best (men),” used to refer to the members of the leading landowning
families of a polis and serving as the first element of the words “aristocrat” and “aristocracy.”The form that the polis had taken during the Archaic Period required a certain degree of cooperation
among the aristoi in order for the polis to function successfully. Still, there was, naturally, a great deal of
competition and friction among these individuals, and the social and economic changes of the seventh and
sixth centuries provided the tinder that, in a number of instances, was ignited by this friction. Specifically,
overseas trade, which was facilitated by the geographical expansion that was taking place during the
Archaic Period, and the general increase in material prosperity in the Greek world enabled some
individuals who did not belong to the traditional group of aristoi to amass considerable wealth. (We saw
earlier that Theognis complained bitterly about the effect these nouveaux riches had on the supposed
purity of the aristocratic stock.) At the same time, the development of the hoplite phalanx required the
aristoi and these nouveaux riches to stand literally side by side on the field of battle and to take equal
responsibility for the security of the polis. Equal responsibility, combined with equal danger but without
equal power, can lead to an inflammatory situation, and in a number of poleis in the seventh and sixth
centuries an ambitious member of the aristoi, with backing from some of the hoplites, took over control of
the government of the polis and ruled in his own name. The Greek word for a person who seizes power
for himself in this manner is tyrannos, the ancestor of the English word TYRANT (and of the name of the
dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex). Actually, the Greeks borrowed the word from the speakers of a non-Greek
language of Anatolia, but made it their own and applied the newly adopted foreign term to this new figure
who appeared on the scene beginning in the seventh century BC.
TYRANT One of a number of usurpers who, beginning in the middle of the seventh century BC,
seized autocratic power in a polis and established (or attempted to establish) a hereditary monarchy.Polycrates of Samos was only one of the many tyrants who seized power at some point during the Archaic
Period. According to Herodotus, Polycrates overthrew the government aided by his two brothers and
some 15 hoplites, and ruled the island until he himself was overthrown by the Persians in 522 BC.
Herodotus paints a rather brutal picture of Polycrates, telling us that he killed one of his brothers and
exiled the other so that he could enjoy unchallenged supremacy on the island. Once he had consolidated
his rule on Samos, he began attacking and plundering all the neighboring poleis indiscriminately because,
as Herodotus tells us, he claimed to be able to win friends and influence people by first seizing their
property and then giving it back to them. This is in fact typical of the stories that circulated about tyrants,
stories that often were fabricated by those who opposed the rule of the tyrant and sought to justify his
overthrow. Yet the rule of many of the Greek tyrants was beneficial, or at least was not oppressive, and
the Greek word tyrannos did not have the necessarily negative connotation that the word “tyrant” has in
English. Indeed, the “tyranny” of Polycrates is associated with a considerable improvement in the
standing of Samos, not only militarily but materially and culturally as well. For, like many of the Archaic
Greek tyrants, Polycrates sponsored a lavish program of public works. The reason for this promotion of
public works by the tyrants was primarily, of course, in order to claim personal credit for benefiting the