1. The subject of this chapter may be best expressed in the words of Thucydides:(683) “The tyrants of Athens, and of the rest of Greece, of which many states had been governed by tyrants before the Athenians, were, with the exception of those in Sicily, in most instances, and especially in later times, overthrown by the Lacedæmonians, whose state was never under a despotic government, and who, having become powerful through the early establishment of their own constitution, were enabled to arrange to their own liking the governments of other states.” It is a remarkable circumstance in the history of Greece, that at the same period of time tyrants everywhere obtained the supreme authority in Doric, Ionic, and Æolic cities; a proof that, although these nations were derived from different races, the same stage in the progress of social life was every where attended with the same phenomena. Those states alone in which the features of the Doric character were most strongly marked, viz., Sparta and Argos, resisted this influence; and we shall in general find that it was by a subversion of the Doric principles that the tyrants obtained their power. This will be made evident by a consideration of the absolute monarchies in the Doric states of Peloponnesus. 2. The inhabitants of SICYON appear in ancient times to have been distinguished from other Dorians by a lively and excitable temperament, and by a disposition which they had at an early period transferred to their mythical hero Adrastus, whose “tongue was softly persuasive.”(684) This very disposition, however, under the actual state of circumstances, opened the way to tyranny. In this instance of Sicyon, as in many others, the tyrant was the leader of the lower classes, who were opposed to the aristocracy. It was in this character that Orthagoras came forward, who, not being of an ancient family, was called by the nobles a cook.(685) But, notwithstanding its low origin, the family of this person maintained the supremacy for a longer period than any other, according to Aristotle(686) for a century, as they did not maltreat the citizens, and upon the whole respected the laws. Their succession is Orthagoras, Andreas, Myron, Aristonymus, and Cleisthenes,(687) of whom, however, the second and fourth never ascended the throne, or only reigned for a short time. Myron was conqueror at Olympia in the chariot-race in the 33d Olympiad (648 B. C), and afterwards built a treasury, in which two apartments were inlaid with Tartessian brass, and adorned with Doric and Ionic columns.(688) Both the architectural orders employed in this building, and the Tartessian brass, which the Phocæans had then brought to Greece in large quantities from the hospitable king Arganthonius,(689) attest the intercourse of Myron with the Asiatics; we shall presently see that this same correspondence was of considerable importance for the measures of other tyrants. Cleisthenes