Thirty Tyrants

The so-called Thirty Tyrants were the ohgarchs installed in Athens by Sparta at the end of the Peloponnesian War. 

The most stupid thing of all, moreover, is to consider all things just which have been ratified by a people s institutions or laws. What about the laws of tyrants If the famous thirty tyrants at Athens had wanted to impose laws, or if all the Athenians were pleased with tyrannical laws, is that a reason for calling those laws just No more than the one carried by our interrex, that the dictator could put to death with impunity whatever citizens he wished, even without a trial, s There is only one justice, which constitutes the bond among humans, and which was established by the one law, which is right reason in commands and prohibitions. The person who does not know it is unjust, whether the law has been written anywhere or not. And if justice is obedience to the written laws and institutions of a people, and if (as these same people say)s everything is to be measured by utility, then whoever thinks that it will... 

CYPSELUS (seventh century). Tyrant of Corinth in Greece for some thirty years beginning about 650. 

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