Thrasyboulos of Miletus

Thrasyboulos of Miletus ( Θρασύβουλος ο Μιλήσιος ) was at the beginning of the 6th century BC. Ruler ( tyrant ) of the city of Miletus , on the west coast of Asia Minor , in today's Turkey .

He is mentioned by Herodotus ( Hdt. 5.92f ), Aristotle ( Aristot. Pol. 3, 1284a & Aristot. Pol. 5, 1311a ) and Dionysius of Halicarnassus , among others . The Machiavellian doctrine is ascribed to him that anyone who wants to assert himself as the sole ruler must first murder all serious competitors. Throughout ancient times, the anecdote was known of how he demonstrated this power-political principle to his friend Periander , the tyrant of Corinth , by pointing to the ears of wheat protruding from the mass in a grain field and tearing them up. In some traditions, the story is also told the other way around, the cynical demonstration is attributed to Periander, who in ancient times was considered the real inventor and main representative of tyranny.

Thrasyboulos is considered a contemporary of the Lydian ruler Alyattes II , against Miletus during his reign from 605 BC. BC to 561 BC For several years at war.

literature

• Charles Peter Mason : Thrasybulus, 1st Tyrant of Miletus . In: William Smith (Ed.): Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology . tape 3 : Oarses-Zygia and Zygius . Little, Brown and Company, Boston 1870, p. 1106–1108 (English, Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).

Web links

• Anecdote about the encounter between Periander and Thrasyboulos at Herodotus on post.queensu.ca (English)
• Herodotus on the war between Miletus and Lydia, online at perseus.tufts.edu (English)