History of Greece, Volume 03 (of 12)

The author traces political and maritime developments among Corinth, Sicyon, and Megara in the Archaic and early Classical periods, detailing Corinthian seafaring, colonial foundations, and the introduction of the trireme, the rule of oligarchic Bacchiads, and the emergence of despots such as Kypselus, Orthagoras, and Theagenes. He situates these local changes within a wider pattern of governmental transformation across Greek cities, contrasting earlier heroic and Lykurgean kingship with growing oligarchic, popular, and despotic regimes, and examines institutional forms—the senate, public assembly, and monarchical authority—to explain the causes, timing, and consequences of shifts from collective aristocratic rule to single-person dominance.