Abstract

A fairly common practice characteristic of the activities of Greek tyrants during the antiquity epoch was the use of a religious factor as a resource of power at the stage of its seizure and during the period of government, allowing to give the government a legitimate character, to weaken the growth of social discontent with the ongoing transformations in the polis, to strengthen their own charisma and look in the eyes of their citizens as a patron and defender of their religious feelings.
The most active religious activity of tyrants manifested in those areas of the policy arrangement, where simultaneously the issues of social life support could be touched upon and resolved, at least partially. The most advantageous option for the tyrants to use the religious factor in order to consolidate power was their measures in the field of construction activities that allowed them to simultaneously solve the problems of employment and material prosperity. The pronounced sacral nature of the construction activity could be considered as the result of the attention to religious factors. Such measures of Greek tyrants’ activity contributed to increasing the authority of the ruler himself.
The Sicilian tyranny of Phalaris and Theron in Acragas was no exception in this respect.