Position of Power. Tyranny was a nearly universal phenomenon in the more significant states of Greece during the Archaic Period (700-480 B.C.E.). The tyrants were sole rulers, autocrats or dictators, but the title did not carry the odious connotation of the modern usage. Tyrants were found in the Peloponnese, Athens, the Aegean islands, Ionia, and Sicily. The older view that the tyrants came to power as the champions of a new manufacturing and commercial class has lost its validity in the light of more-recent research. Another position, namely that as the gap between rich and poor widened the tyrants took the side of the discontented poor and promised to improve their condition, has also lost ground. The tyrants did come to power with the support of the commons, but for a different reason. They assumed power because the...