How to become a tyrant in 5 steps
The playbook on authoritarianism remains pretty much the same after nearly 3,000 years
*Originally published on Sept. 9, 2024.
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Back in the 5th century BCE, Herodotus was the first to break from Greek literary tradition as he captured history as accurately as possible from a wide range of sources.
Within the kaleidoscope of stories he recounted in his groundbreaking tome — simply called The History — he shared vivid descriptions of autocratic and tyrannical rulers.
"One of the shocks you get when you read Herodotus is how modern these stories seem," said Kathryn Morgan, professor of classics at UCLA.
"You can imagine this kind of thing going on in any number of power centres across the globe.
"Herodotus is crafting his narrative to make a moral point about domination and power. And what happens when you have a ruler who's not subject to any constraints."
The stories Herodotus shares read like a virtual playbook for would-be tyrants.
Step 1: Cultivate your passion for power
Herodotus tells the story of Deioces who was the founder of the Median empire in the 7th century BCE. And Deioces's obsession with power was a key motivator.
"Herodotus tells us at the start that Deioces has an erotic passion for autocratic power. And this is the goal behind everything that he does," said Morgan, adding that Deioces was able to combine his passion with a clear plan.
"It's not just a question of being irrationally overwhelmed by passion, but of making your intellect complicit in your desire."
Step 2: Foster dependence
Deioces quietly developed and executed his strategy. First, he became a judge.
"It was a time of great lawlessness through Medea, and Deioces did what he did because he knew that injustice is the great enemy of justice. The Medes of his village chose him to be a judge among them," wrote Herodotus.
So over the course of a number of years he developed a reputation for fairness and maintaining the rule of law. He made himself indispensable.
And then he quit.
"Robbery and anarchy grew even more in the villages than before" wrote Herodotus. "So the people decided they needed a king to rule them, and determined Deioces would be their king."
"The reasoning they cite is really interesting," said Lindsay Mahon Rathnam, assistant professor of political theory at Duke Kunshan University in China.
"Without stability you can't have a good life. Without the rule of law you can't have your expectations met. You can't have predictability. So there's something really attractive about that, which I think we need to see when we're looking at modern-day authoritarianism and why it's so attractive to people.
"We tend to think everybody hates [authoritarianism], everybody wants to escape from it. But it's better than starvation. It's better than dying."
Step 3: Develop your cult of personality
After establishing a level of dependence, a successful tyrant will then build a cult of personality.
"Deioces then establishes a kind of pre-modern prototype of a totalitarian state. There's no other way to describe it," said Clifford Orwin, professor of political science at the University of Toronto. "He recognizes the need of cloaking himself in a cult of personality to set himself apart from and above his subjects."
Once declared king, Deioces ordered his underlings to build him a fortress circled by walls, each wall higher than the next. And he would live in the innermost circle.
"When all was built, Deioces decreed that no one could come to talk to the king directly and all communication must happen through messengers. And when the king came out, no one was to look directly at him, and anyone who laughed or spit in his presence would incur disgrace. His spies and eavesdroppers were everywhere throughout the land," wrote Herodotus.
"It's a question of creating a kind of exceptional role for himself," said Morgan. "He isolates himself to make it seem as though he's not like other people. He's somebody special. The normal rules don't apply."
Step 4: Foster fear
The Persian King Xerxes (518 - 465 BCE) kept everyone around him on their toes.
"Xerxes is not under any illusion as to why his non-Persian subjects obey him. They obey him only because they fear him. So that fear has to be maintained. And one way in which fear must be maintained is by exemplary punishments," said Orwin.
For example, when Xerxes was heading out with his massive army to conquer Greece, a wealthy man who donated generously to the military campaign asked for a favour to keep one of his sons at home. Xerxes responded by having that son cut in half and have the army march through the two halves of the corpse.
"The punishment has to fit the crime in the sense of being more than the crime," said Orwin.
Morgan points to the mysterious circumstances surrounding the deaths of those in Russia who Vladimir Putin deems to be his enemies.
"You say something that displeases him. And the next thing you know, somebody is throwing you out of a window or poisoning you."
Step 5: Take full control of the judicial system
Herodotus tells of King Cambyses (ruler from 530-522 BCE) who also made sure he was above the law.
"The perfectly despotic law is the law that the despot can do whatever he wishes," said Orwin, pointing to another story Cambyses fell in love with one of his sisters, and knowing marriage to a sibling was illegal, he summoned the judges to ask for their opinion on whether he could marry her.
According to Herodotus: "They gave him an answer that was both just and safe. They said they could find no law that sanctioned brothers marrying their sisters; but they had found another law, which said that he who was king of Persia could do anything he wished."
And at that point the judges have made themselves superfluous," said Mahon Rathnam. "Why have judgments or the faculty of judgment or the institution of judgment if everything the despot wants to do is legal?"
Lessons for today
The blueprint for tyranny is pretty much unchanged over the millennia. And the patterns Herodotus reveals should serve as a warning to us in the 21st century, said Morgan.
"There's a sense in which human nature always stays the same," said Morgan. "We need to be careful what we choose. I think that Herodotus wants us to look to the end.
"It might seem tempting if you have a particular set of political goals to enable an autocrat in order to accomplish those goals. But because autocracy has its own internal dynamic, you can't control the person you put into despotic power.
"The tyrant will end up doing things that you would never have expected and you won't be able to stop them."
Guests in this episode:
Lindsay Mahon Rathnam is an assistant professor of political theory at Duke Kunshan University in China.
Kathryn Morgan is a professor of classics at UCLA.
Clifford Orwin is a professor of political science at the University of Toronto.
Joel A Schlosser is an associate professor and chair of political science at Bryn Mawr College
Readings from Herodotus by Michael Ondaatje.
*This episode was produced by Nicola Luksic.
