Death to Tyrants! by David Teegarden Page B

citizens of new democracies, however, would not have such a reservoir of trust. They thus would readily doubt that their fellow citizens have maintained their commitment to defend the regime. In such an epistemic environment, it would be foolish for an individual to keep a low revolutionary threshold: he could not really be sure that, if he acted in defense of the democracy, a sufficient number of his fellow citizens would follow him. One would thus expect the citizens of new democracies to expend a considerable amount of energy to maintain common knowledge of widespread credible commitment to defend the democracy.
    It is thus quite interesting to note that Alexander promoted anti-tyranny ideology during his conquest of—and attempt to democratize—the cities of western Asia Minor. This chapter analyzed one particular example, of course: it was Alexander himself who sent “the tyrants to the cities from which they came, to be treated as the citizens pleased” (Arr. Anab. 3.2.7). Those men almostcertainly were sent back to their home poleis with some sort of written document that authorized and justified their execution specifically because they were “tyrants.” Alexander was thus sending a very clear message that “tyrants” are bad for the community and thus must be killed. And by brutally punishing them, the citizens of the various poleis would have internalized and normalized that anti-tyranny ideology.
    Alexander also promoted anti-tyranny ideology in a proclamation he made after his victory in the battle of Gaugamela (331). According to Plutarch ( Alex . 34), Alexander sought to increase his prestige among the Greeks. He thus “wrote to the states saying that all tyrannies are now abolished and that henceforth they might live under their own laws” ( ἔγραψε τὰς τυραννίδας πάσας καταλυθῆναι καὶ πολιτεύειν αὐτονόμους ). This proclamation certainly was read aloud in the assemblies of the newly democratic poleis. And it is quite reasonable to suppose that the pro-democrats in those cities inscribed the proclamation—or, perhaps more likely, a decree or law pursuant to the proclamation—on a prominently placed stone stele: thus the anti-tyranny proclamation would have become a concrete, permanent fixture of the newly democratic public space. A possible analogy here would be Philip Arrhidaios’s exile decree (Diod. Sic. 18.56.1–8): it specifically ordered the citizens of the various poleis to pass a decree not to engage in war with each other and not to act in opposition to the king’s rule.
    A final (potential) example of Alexander’s promotion of Athenian-style anti-tyranny ideology concerns the returning to Athens of the original statues of Harmodios and Aristogeiton. The matter is confused. Arrian wrote that Alexander returned the statues to the Athenians but gave two different dates: 331, during Alexander’s first stay in Babylon ( Anab. 3.16.7–8), and 325/4, during his second stay at Babylon ( Anab. 7.19.2). Pausanias, however, wrote (1.8.5) that Antiochos I returned the statues. And Valerius Maximus (ii 10, ext . 1) attributed the deed to Seleukos. In an attempt to reconcile the conflicting accounts, Bosworth (following the original suggestion of C. Seltman) concluded that the statues were returned to Athens during the joint reign of Seleukos and Antiochos I (292–281) and that Alexander “merely promised” to do so. 33 That is certainly a reasonable position. But it should be noted that Pliny ( NH 34.70) agrees with Arrian in attributing the deed to Alexander. In any case, if Alexander did not do it, he certainly was thought to have done it and thus (most likely) publicized widely his “promise” throughout the Greek world. (And it would be fine